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Economic Growth in a Transfer Society: The United States Experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Terry L. Anderson  and
P. J. Hill
Terry L. Anderson
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717
P. J. Hill
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717
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Extract

Economic growth occurs when individuals of a society engage in productive, positive-sum games. Conventional measures of growth, however, include measures of positive- and negative-sum games. This paper establishes a framework for distinguishing between productive (positive-sum) and transfer (negative-sum) activity. The role of the Constitution in promoting productive activity is discussed.

Type
Papers Presented at the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , March 1981 , pp. 113 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1981

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References

1 We define positive-sum games strictly in terms of increased total output or movements of resources from lower- to higher-valued alternatives. We make no allowance for interpersonal utility comparisons.

2 Tullock, Gordon, “The Cost of Transfers,” Kyklos, 24 (1971), 642.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Johnson, E. A. J., The Foundation of American Economic Freedom (Minneapolis, 1973), p. 305.Google Scholar

4 For a more complete discussion of the Constitution and its interpretation, see Anderson, Terry L. and Hill, Peter J., The Birth of a Transfer Society (Stanford, 1980).Google Scholar

5 Higgs, Robert, The Transformation of the American Economy, 1865–1914 (New York, 1971), p. 55.Google Scholar

6 Konefsky, Samuel J., John Marshall and Alexander Hamilton: Architects of the American Constitution (New York, 1964), p. 130.Google Scholar

7 94 U.S. 126 (1877).

8 94 U.S. 140 (1877).

9 Goudy, W. C., Munn and Scott v. Illinois: Brief and Argument for Plaintiffs in Error, Illinois Supreme Court (October term, 1875).Google Scholar

10 See Hughes, Jonathan R. T., The Governmental Habit: Economic Controls from Colonial Times to Present (New York, 1977).Google Scholar