Introduction

Since Adam Smith the analysis of economic growth was one of the main fields of interest in economic theory. Particularly from the late 1940s to the 1960s, many papers dealing with the explanation of growth were published. The controversy between Postkeynesian authors such as Harrod, Domar, Kaldor and Robinson and members of the neoclassical school such as Solow, Swan, Meade, Arrow or Phelps gave inspiring insights into the process of economic growth. The discussion focused on the question whether the long-run economic growth process would converge to a stable equilibrium or not. Besides many differences between these two schools of thought, most economists agreed, and still do, that technical progress is the main source of per capita income growth. For example, Solow (1957) gave evidence to this statement by applying the concept of growth accounting on the development in the USA in the period of 1909-49, and Kaldor (1957, 1961) stressed the key role of technological innovations for economic growth.