Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-n9wrp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-22T22:53:15.181Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Frank Knight and the Productivity of Capital: Another Piece of the Puzzle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

Nimai Mehta
Nimai Mehta
Affiliation:
Center for Study of Public Choice, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, 22030, USA; and the School of Economics, University of the Philippines, Philippines.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Through the 1930s, Frank H. Knight engaged the economic profession in a prodigious exchange over the nature and productivity of capital. Knight's efforts here were driven by three significant objectives: first, that capital theory had to be able to explain the broad fact of capital accumulation and growth as actually experienced by progressive societies; second, that existing doctrines had to be purged of the flawed vestiges of the classical-Ricardian theory of production if any progress was to be had in achieving the first objective; third, and last, that an alternative theory of capital needed to provide an explanation of the productivity of capital consistent with the fulfillment of the first two tasks. Knight failed in the third task or, at best, left the task incomplete.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , December 2003 , pp. 487 - 503
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Buchanan, James M. 1994. Ethics and Economic Progress. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buechner, Northrup M. 1976. “Frank Knight on Capital as the Only Factor of Production.” Journal of Economic Issues 10 (3): 598–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Böhm-Bawerk, E. von. 1884–1912. Capital and Interest, Vols.I-III, translated by Huncke, G. D. and Senholz, H. F.. South Holland, IL: Libertarian Press, 1959.Google Scholar
Cohen, Avi J. 1996. “Frank Knight's Position on Capital and Interest: Foundation of the Knight/Hayek/Kaldor Debate.” In Rutherford, Malcolm, ed., The Economic Mind in America: Essays in the History of American Economics. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cohen, Avi J. 2003. “The Hayek/Knight Capital Controversy: The Irrelevance of Roundaboutness, or Purging Processes in Time?” History of Political Economy 35 (3): forthcoming.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Defoe, Daniel. 1719. Robinson Crusoe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Dorfman, Robert. 2001. “Modernizing Bohm-Bawerk's Theory of Interest.” Journal of the History of Economic Thought 23 (1): 37–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emmett, Ross B. 1997. “‘What is Truth’ in Capital Theory: Five Stories Relevant to the Evaluation of Frank H. Knight's Contributions to the Capital Controversy.” History of Political Economy 29 (supplement): 231–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, Irving. 1930. The Theory of Interest. New York: A.M. Kelley, 1961.Google Scholar
Hayek, F. A. 1934. “On the Relationship Between Investment and Output.” Economic Journal 44 (06): 207–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayek, F. A. 1936. “The Mythology of Capital.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 50 (2): 199–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayek, F. A. 1941. The Pure Theory of Capital. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Jevons, W. Stanley. 1871. The Theory of Political Economy. Baltimore: Penguin, 1970.Google Scholar
Knight, Frank H. 1933. “Capitalistic production, time and the rate of return.” In Economic Essays in Honour of Gustav Cassel. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Knight, Frank H. 1934. “Capital, Time, and The Interest Rate.” Economica (08): 257–86.Google Scholar
Knight, Frank H. 1935a. “The Ricardian Theory of Production and Distribution.” The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 1 (02): 3–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, Frank H. 1935b. “Professor Hayek and the Theory of Investment.” The Economic Journal 45 (177): 77–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, Frank H. 1935c. “The Ricardian Theory of Production and Distribution.” The Canadian Journal of Economics andPolitical Science 1 (05): 171–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, Frank H. 1935d. “Professor Knight and the ‘Period of Production’: Comment.” The Journal of Political Economy 43 (5): 625–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, Frank H. 1935e. “The Theory of Investment Once More: Mr. Boulding and the Austrians.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 50 (1): 36–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, Frank H. 1935f. “The Period of Production: A Final Word.” The Journal of Political Economy 43 (6): 808.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, Frank H. 1936a. “Some Issues in the Economics of Stationary States.” American Economic Review 26 (3): 393–411.Google Scholar
Knight, Frank H. 1936b. “The Quantity of Capital and the Rate of Interest: I.” The Journal of Political Economy 44 (4): 433–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, Frank H. 1936c. “The Quantity of Capital and the Rate of Interest: II.” The Journal of Political Economy 44 (5): 612–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, Frank H. 1937. “Note on Dr. Lange's Interest Theory.” The Review of Economic Studies 4 (3): 223–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, Frank H. 1938. “On the Theory of Capital: In Reply to Mr. Kaldor.” Econometrica 6 (1): 63–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, Frank H. 1941. “Professor Mises and the Theory of Capital.” Economica 8 (11): 409–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, Frank H. 1944. “Diminishing Returns from Investment.” The Journal of Political Economy 52 (1): 26–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricardo, David. 1817. The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. London: Everyman's Library, 1987.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Nathan. 1968. “Adam Smith, Consumer Tastes, and Economic Growth.” The Journal of Political Economy 76 (3): 361–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Adam. 1776. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Wicksell, Knut. 1901. Lectures on Political Economy, Vol. 1, translated by Classen, E.. London: George Routledge & Sons, 1935.Google Scholar