Abstract
The so-called golden rule (of capital accumulation) is a proposition about the consequences for national welfare possibilities of alternative paths of national wealth, and hence of national saving, in a closed economy. It states that the steady-growth state that gives the maximum path of consumption is the one along which national consumption equals the national wage bill and thus national saving equals ‘profits’. The basic significance of the golden rule is as a warning against national policies of over-saving or counterproductive austerity.
Keywords
- Capital accumulation
- Capital-output ratio
- Golden rule
- Maximin
- National consumption function
- Natural rate of growth
- Phelps, E. S.
- Reciprocity
- Robinson, J. V.
- Saving-output ratio
- Schumpeter, J. A.
- Social optimum
- Social rate of return
- Solow, R. M.
- Steady-growth state
- Swan, T. W.
- Technological progress
- Utilitarianism
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Phelps, E.S. (2018). Golden Rule. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1051
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1051
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