ABSTRACT
Introduction Interest in capital investment has risen sharply in the 1990s after stagnating at a low level during the 1980s as may be seen from the international count of relevant journal articles in Figure 1.1.1 The preceding low level of interest may have something to do with the difficulty of breaking out of the narrowly defined ‘modern’ approach to investment, originating in Abel (1980). By contrast in the 1990s we have seen a divergence in approach, which has widened the scope of enquiry not only in respect of the causes of capital investment but also its consequences. In this first overview we deal with the determinants of investment. The overview for Part II addresses the consequences, while that for Part III considers some key issues for economic policy.
