ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author seeks to evaluate the empirical support available to verify some of the main claims advanced by the models. The models by A. Shaikh, R. Goodwin, H. Minsky and Duncan Foley place the dynamics of profitability at the center of the changes linking accumulation and finance. The author anticipates that his view of profitability as the central tendency of excess demand fluctuations developed in Shaikh's analysis appears to be empirically justified. The tendency in the average rate of profit to fall present in the Spanish economy after the early-1960s led to the stagnation of the mass of profits in the early 1970s and the decline in capital accumulation after 1975. Bank borrowing to finance the share of capital investment not covered by internal funds is a small proportion of all outstanding debt. The sum of retained earnings, depreciation and external finance provided the total funding for gross fixed investment.
