James N. Devine (married name: James G. Devine)

“Over-Investment and Cyclical Economic Crises”

1980 Ph.D. dissertation, University of California-Berkeley, Economics Department.

Title Page, Preface, etc.

chapter 1 -- Introduction

Chapter 2: A Critical Survey of Crisis Theories.

(criticizing each major theory, to help create a synthesis)

part 1 of 4: Introduction & the Tendency for the Rate of Profit to Fall.

part 2 of 4: Underconsumption Theory.

part 3 of 4: the Full Employment Profit Squeeze.

part 4 of 4: Raw Material Price Squeeze, Conclusion, & Appendix.

chapter 3: the Nature of Capitalism (a sketch).

Chapter 4: The Tendency Toward Over-Investment

(the over-accumulation of fixed capital).

part 1 of 4: Introduction & Literature Survey.

part 2 of 4: Over-Investment, Basic Causes.

part 3 of 4: Reinforcing Factors and Graphical Analysis.

part 4 of 4: Stagnation & a Neo-Kaldorian Model.

Since my dissertation, I’ve amended my ideas. See, for example, this article. (see below.)

Chapter 5: A Marxist Model of Capitalist Growth

(growth as a disequilibrium process).

part 1 of 5: Survey and Introduction.

part 2 of 5: Short & Medium Terms.

part 3 of 5: Details.

part 4 of 5: Disequilibrium Dynamics.

part 5 of 5: Long Term & Conclusion.

Chapter 6: Inflation and the State.

(Inflation is always and everywhere a political phenomenon.)

part 1 of 3: Profitability and Inflation (start)

part 2 of 3: Profitability and Inflation (end)

part 3 of 3: the Political Economy of Inflation

Ch. 7: Conclusion.

Notes and Bibliography.

Notes (chapters 1 – 3)

Notes (chapters 4 – 6)

References.

After the dissertation:

A very short version of my dissertation appeared here, complete with new data.

After my dissertation, I added the idea of “over-accumulation relative to consumption” (as in the 1920s, I believe), which is seen here and here.

My more recent paper on “neo-Kaldorian dynamics” (for the diagrams, see here) also follows my dissertation. A short version is available here.