What Remains of the Growth Controversy?

This essay contrasts the production function approach to Kaldor’s model of increasing returns which are demand-determined. In particular, the essay analyzes Kaldor’s three major empirical "laws", which were adopted by later economists, and the criticisms of these three "laws" by economists who used the Cobb-Douglas production function as a basis of analysis. In conclusion, the essay finds that econometrics has provided an inadequate basis upon which to choose between this aggregate production function and Kaldor’s model of growth.