Volume 12, No. 2 (2009)
Engelhardt’s analysis implicitly assumes away the presence of diminishing returns. Diminishing returns have long been at the heart of growth theory — from Thomas Malthus’s ([1803] 2003) prediction of starvation as the result of population growth to Robert Solow’s (1956) conclusion that technological change is a necessary condition for secular growth. An account of secular growth in the presence of diminishing returns is featured prominently in both my critique of Roger Garrison’s (2001) theory of growth through capital accumulation and my alternative theory based on intangible, nonrivalrous capital.
