Heterodox Theories of Economic Growth

Abstract

In this chapter, I present an overview of the foundational ideas and main issues in heterodox growth theories, paying specific attention to Post Keynesian and Marxian contributions. Although it is not possible to do justice to the whole heterodox literature on economic growth within one chapter, this chapter is intended as an accessible entry point to the many different ways of heterodox growth theorizing. To that end, I set aside the details of the formal theoretical models as well as issues of economic development and the link between growth and development. I start in the next section with Post Keynesian models in general, then move on to models that focus on growth in developing countries, and finally discuss various Marxian approaches to economic growth. In the following section, I outline some common features of various heterodox growth theories and discuss the relevance of heterodox growth theories with respect to the recent ‘secular stagnation’ debate. Finally, I present a brief overview of recent work that is critical of growth itself. © 2026 selection and editorial matter, Tae-Hee Jo, Lynne Chester, and Carlo D’Ippoliti; individual chapters, the contributors.