The normative significance of economic growth

Translation of my Bachelor thesis at the Chair for Political Philosophy of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Supervisor: Dr Matthias Brinkmann, Grade: 1,0 (perfect score / excellent, US Equivalent: 4.0). German Original: https://leveret-pale.de/der-wert-des-wirtschaftswachstums-bachelorarbeit

1. Introduction

If economic growth is discussed at all in practical philosophy, it is usually from a position of scepticism or rejection of its possible normative value. John Rawls, for example, whose A Theory of Justice is the most frequently cited work in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (see Schwitzgebel 2020), and who is considered one of the most influential political philosophers, pays little attention to economic growth in his theories. There are only a few sentences on the subject in his entire work, and they can be summarised by the fact that he subscribes to the growth scepticism popularised by John Mill as early as 1848.  According to Rawls, a just society would not need economic growth and the idea that “economic growth [is] to go on indefinitely, upwards and onwards” should be rejected (cf. Rawls 2000, p. 107). In recent years, particularly in light of the climate crisis, this scepticism towards economic growth has become even more popular in academic discourse (see Rose 2020, p.2).

This sentiment of widespread disinterest in the nature of growth and the associated negation of a possible normative value has been a prevalent but rarely explicitly discussed paradigm of the stationary state in political philosophy and political economy for two centuries.

The aim of this paper is to show that this paradigm is wrong and that economic growth should be given greater attention in normative considerations than has been the case in practical philosophy to date. Furthermore, the aim is to work out why economic growth is essential in order to achieve and maintain certain normatively desirable states. In other words, it will be shown that, from a consequentialist perspective, the existence of growth in a society is generally something desirable for normative reasons.

To this end, Section 2 begins by analysing what economic growth actually is and what processes it is made up of, based on current theories from the economic sciences. Section 3 elaborates on the stationary state paradigm, which is influential in political philosophy. Section 4 deals briefly with the topic of the limits to growth. Section 5 then develops the arguments in favour of the normative value of growth. Section 6 is devoted to a discussion of possible limitations and implications of the conclusions drawn from these arguments.

2. What growth is

Growth is an empirical phenomenon. It is therefore necessary to clarify what growth actually is before engaging in a normative discussion. Many popular prejudices and misconceptions about growth, which also underlie the stationary state paradigm, have their origins in outdated theories about what growth is and how it works. Neoclassical growth theories in particular, which dominated macroeconomics until the 1980s and continue to shape philosophical thinking to this day, have a predisposition to converge to static states in their forecasts. One of the reasons for this is that they are unable to adequately integrate changes in parameters, e.g. those brought about by innovation (cf. Muzhani 2014, p.476). In response to the empirical and theoretical deficits of the neoclassical model, so-called endogenous growth theories emerged from the 1980s onwards, which are now the dominant growth theories in economics. Endogenous growth theories conceptualise growth as a process within an economic system that is primarily based on the accumulation of research and knowledge at the level of industries and companies (see Muzhani 2014, p.325). In contrast to the neoclassical model – which identifies the accumulation of capital with decreasing marginal productivity as the main driver of growth – these models do not generally converge towards static states (cf. Muzhani 2014, p. 326).

In order to better explain phenomena such as the empirically established decoupling of growth from emissions in industrialised nations (cf. Ritchie 2021), the so-called second generation of endogenous growth theories has established itself in the mainstream of growth research since the 1990s (cf. Muzhani 2014, p. 463). This includes neo-Schumpeterian theories that integrate the concept of creative destruction by the economist Joseph Schumpeter into endogenous growth theory (cf. Muzhani 2014, p. 463). These current neo-Schumpeterian growth theories, particularly in their elaboration by Philipe Aghion, serve as a paradigmatic basis for understanding growth in this thesis. Based on this, a general introduction to growth theory is first provided below so that it can be referred to for premises in the subsequent sections.

2.1 Growth as an increase in GDP

Broadly speaking, economic growth is defined as a general increase in economic activity that is accompanied by a sustained increase in the value of goods and services produced and consumed (cf. Muzhani 2014, p.3).

Whenever growth is discussed in economics, political debates or in the daily news, these discussions mainly centre on one measure and its change: gross domestic product (GDP). GDP is used in particular by political institutions and in the financial world to gain an impression of developments in the economy as a whole. It is therefore calculated regularly by most countries – in Germany, for example, every three months by the Federal Statistical Office (see Mankiw 2021, p.670).

GDP is usually defined as “the market value of all goods and services intended for final consumption that are produced in a country in a given period of time” (cf. Mankiw 2021, p.667). It is usually calculated by adding consumption, investment, net exports and government spending less transfers (cf. Mankiw 2021, p.672). In order to capture actual economic growth more accurately, real (i.e. inflation-adjusted) GDP per capita is calculated from this in order to measure real economic growth unaffected by demographic or monetary distortions.

Global real GDP per capita is a useful tool for empirically and quantitatively analysing the economic growth of mankind. As a rule, growth is simply defined as an increase in real GDP or real GDP per capita. This work follows this definition of growth in empirical discussions – but not without restrictions, as GDP as an aggregated value is merely an approximation. Focussing solely on GDP is therefore insufficient for a detailed normative discussion or political objective.

The aim of this work is ultimately to analyse and elaborate on the normative value of economic growth in general. Ergo, in the end it should be shown that the existence of economic growth in a society is in principle something desirable – similar to how the existence of the rule of law or democracy is often regarded as something desirable in a society in principle. However, the existence of growth – similar to the existence of democracy or the rule of law – is a complex state. Growth may occur in various forms and by different means, which is why the mere determination of the existence of growth is insufficient for a normative judgement, as the concrete form is also important. For this reason, this work will also have to resort to more differentiated analyses later in discussion section 6, which go beyond a mere consideration of GDP.

One reason for this is that GDP does not capture the quality of growth. It is therefore unable to differentiate the way in which growth has come about or how it is distributed in society – for example, an increase in GDP due to the excessive use of natural resources, increases in working hours or war production must be assessed differently in qualitative and normative terms than growth achieved by the expansion of renewable energies. Similarly, GDP per capita as an average value of an aggregate does not allow any statements to be made about how economic productivity and its output are distributed in society, nor does it capture unpaid labour – although these aspects in particular can be essential for normative discussions.

Furthermore, GDP or its change does not represent the complete phenomenon of growth per se, but merely the quantitatively measurable increase in the value of overall economic output that goes hand in hand with growth. In order to understand the significance of growth in principle for society as a whole – and thus also for theorising in political philosophy – it is therefore not enough to understand growth merely as an increase in a number, nor as a mere increase in the quantity of economic value produced. This simple idea that growth simply means an increase in services and goods is as misleading as it is unfortunately popular, and probably one of the reasons why relatively little attention is paid to growth in philosophy and why endless growth is often regarded as absurd. To understand growth and its normative meaning, it must be understood as a multi-part process of overall societal transformation – which, while ultimately leading to the measured increase in productivity and thus the value of economic output, encompasses much more than that.

2.2 The inputs of growth[1]

Economic growth as output measured by GDP is equivalent to an increase in economic productive power, which in turn results from several inputs that thus act as the variables of growth. Since neoclassical theory, these inputs have been described by the production function (see Mankiw 2021, p.710):

Economic output: Y=A ×F(L,K,H,N)

The variables correspond in this function as following (cf. Mankiw 2021, p.710):

F=Function for calculating the inputs
A=available production technology
L=production factor labour
K=production factor real capital
H=production factor human capital
N=production factor natural resources

An increase in economic output takes place on an abstract level of analysis by increasing these factors, with the available production technology A acting as a multiplier. This has the effect that continuous economic growth is also partly accompanied by a decrease in factors, as A replaces their intensity. It can be observed that, particularly in industrialised nations, the continuous improvement of production technologies A and the steady accumulation of real capital K, as well as an increase in human capital H through improved education, leads to a decrease in the amount of work performed L and, in some cases, the amount of natural resources N as well. For example, the average working week in Germany in the 1860s was around 78 hours (see Meinert 2013), whereas today it is less than half that at 34.7 hours (Federal Statistical Office 2022). At the same time, real GDP per capita in Germany rose from around $2,600 to around $47,000 (Maddison Project Database 2020) .

Another relevant factor for economic output, which is not itself a direct input, is the aspect of market value, as the size of economic output is measured by its market value. Ergo, a product – possibly of higher quality – with a correspondingly higher market value contributes more to growth than several cheaper products of the same category. An economy that begins to produce and consume products of higher quality, for example because they are more sustainable or more robust, has a higher economic output than a society that produces and consumes the same quantity of products with a lower value. For example, the People’s Republic of China is now quantitatively the largest exporter of automobiles in the world – but is only in 12th place in a global comparison of countries in terms of sales and thus the economic value of its automotive exports, as these largely consist of low-cost vehicle models for developing countries (cf. Schasfoort 2023). Furthermore, productivity increases in the manufacturing sector due to competitive pressure also lead to an increase in the monetary value of labour in the service sector, meaning that it contributes more to economic output even without an increase in efficiency (cf. Aghion et al. 2023, p.160).

2.3 The neo-Schumpeterian paradigm of growth

The way in which the individual components of production interact to shape the process of economic growth is essential in order to understand economic growth as a transformation of society as a whole with strong normative implications. The great extension of endogenous growth theories compared to the neoclassical model is that they do not understand technology and knowledge in the form of human capital as external, unexplained factors, but rather endogenise these factors: The diffusion of technology and knowledge is something that arises from within the economic system itself. It is the pursuit of economic expansion in the form of profit and growth that incentivises individual actors to invest in research, development and education. The resulting growth in turn gives people even more opportunities to research, learn and develop. Growth and the accumulation of knowledge are mutually reinforcing. This interaction in a social and institutional context constitutes the three core ideas of the neo-Schumpeterian paradigm developed by Philippe Aghion:

1. innovation and diffusion of knowledge are the main drivers of economic growth. Long-term economic growth is the result of accumulating innovations that build on each other and are made possible by knowledge being codified and disseminated in a society (cf. Aghion 2023, p.4). One of the main reasons for the exponential economic growth of the last two centuries is the general accessibility of knowledge that has been established since the Enlightenment. Until the early modern period, institutions such as guilds kept technical knowledge secret and access to theoretical knowledge was mainly reserved for small circles of the clergy and nobility. The abolition of such barriers in the course of the Enlightenment from the end of the 18th century made it possible for more and more people to build up their human capital and develop innovations based on the knowledge of others. Instead of researching fundamentals anew each time, entrepreneurs and scientists can build on the knowledge of their predecessors, allowing innovations to accumulate exponentially (cf. Aghion 2023, p.34).
2. innovation depends on incentives and is therefore a social process that is made possible by institutional framework conditions (cf. ibid. p.4). These include, above all, property rights, e.g. in the form of patents, which create incentives for inventions and promote their dissemination (cf. ibid. p.36) – but also inclusive political institutions and educational facilities, which promote freedom of research and social mobility and enable individuals to participate in education, research and development in the first place (cf. ibid. p.206). Democracies, through their inclusive institutions, therefore also empirically offer the best conditions for innovation and growth (cf. ibid. 292).
3. creative destruction. Creative destruction is the process in which new innovations make existing technologies obsolete; new companies, new industries and new business models push existing ones out of the market, and existing jobs are destroyed and replaced by new activities and jobs. Creative destruction is the driving force of capitalism, ensuring its constant reproduction and renewal, and generating growth in the process (cf. ibid. p. 1). However, it also generates conflicts at the heart of the growth process – both between the existing companies, which try to defend their position against competition from the new (cf. ibid. p.5), and social conflicts, as creative destruction always goes hand in hand with the release of labour and capital, i.e. also with the destruction of jobs, which are not always completely replaced by new ones for those affected (cf. ibid. p.15).

[1] A similar explanation can already be found in my seminar paper “Climate crisis, degrowth and the limits to growth: Why we need more growth, not less” (2022)

Continue reading Part 3: On the Value of Economic Growth #3 – The Stationary State Paradigm behind Degrowth-Thinking

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