A RE-ASSESSMENT OF THE RELATION BETWEEN SAVING AND ECONOMIC GROWTH FROM THE MARGINALIST THINKERS TO THE DEBATE OF THE 1950S

This paper proposes a historical overview of the most significant theories on saving and its relationship with economic growth from marginalist thinkers of the early 20th century to the contributions of the 1950s. In particular, the paper analyses and discusses the differences and the links of the neoclassical and Keynesian traditions on this topic, by illustrating and comparing the contributions of Fisher and Keynes, Harrod-Domar and Solow-Swan, arriving to Modigliani-Friedman. The paper argues that this debate was characterized by paradoxes and surprises, as the results of one school were partly refused and partly recovered by the other and vice versa. The figure of Frank Ramsey will be discussed, too. He was mostly overlooked by the economic literature until the 1960s, but his interaction and (possibly reciprocal) influence with Keynes, his mentor in Cambridge, on the topic of saving and development are paradigmatic of what is addressed in this work