From gold field discoveries to institutional sclerosis

Abstract. The paper gives a brief overview of long wave analyses by embedding them into a general growth model of the Schumpeterian kind. A theory is presented which rests on price distortions in product and factor markets, and on the observation that institutional sluggishness prevents a society from reacting quickly to such distortions. This, it is argued, breeds cycles of the Kondratieff type. Empirical evidence to support this theory is presented for Germany and for Argentina.