Comments on Papers by Saint-Paul, Aghion, and Bhidé

Abstract

A new Center on Capitalism and Society must begin by discovering the center of gravity of its own research. Its name is obviously too inclusive to define what it intends to do. That will eventually depend on the intellectual history of the scholars involved in the Center, and on the immediate “social” and “capitalist” environment that impresses itself upon them. Having been given three quite diverse papers to absorb, I think I can best serve the Center’s purpose not by writing a referee’s report on each of them but rather by picking out a few interesting and novel themes grasped - or perhaps merely grazed - by the authors, and indicating why they seem interesting, and what further inquiries they suggest.

This paper is a comment on: Will Limited Needs Kill Capitalism? by Gilles Saint-Paul which can be found at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2205770; Interaction Effects in the Relationship between Growth and Finance by Philippe Aghion which can be found at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2205757; and How Novelty Aversion Affects Financing Options by Amar V. Bhide which can be found at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2205772.