Kaleckian Effective Demand and Sraffian Normal Prices: Towards a reconciliation

Sraffians and Kaleckians alike reject the belief that higher rates of accumulation need be associated with lower real wage rates or higher propensities to save. The rejection of this proposition is mainly based on the endogeneity of the rate of capacity utilization, both in the short and the long run. This endogeneity often relies on a discrepancy between the realized and the normal rates of profit, or between the realized and the target rate of capacity utilization, a discrepancy which some authors believe is unwarranted in long run analysis. Various models that eliminate this divergence are outlined. In all these models, the normal rate of profit itself is taken as an endogenous variable. In the first two models, the normal rate of profit depends either on the realized profit rate or the rate of interest. Supply-led results may then reappear in long run analysis. In the last model, one introduces the possibility of a divergence between the rate of return as assessed and targeted by firms, and the rate of return that is actually incorporated into prices. This divergence arises because of the bargaining power of workers and their real wage resistance. Under these conditions, the demand-led results of the Kaleckian tradition are recovered in a model with definite solutions.