The Nics, Global Accumulation and Uneven Development: Implications of a Simple Three-region Model

This paper develops a simple three-region model of the global economy along structuralist lines, with the North, NICs, and the (rest of the) South. The North produces an investment-cumconsumption good while the NICs and the South produce two different consumption goods. The North grows with excess capacity along Kalecki-Keynes lines; the NICs are modelled along Marxian lines with a given rate of exploitation and the South along Lewis lines with a given subsistence wage. The short-run and long-run dynamics and equilibrium properties of the model are analyzed. It is shown that parametric shifts that result in a relative growth of NIC capital (as compared to the North and the South) in the long run usually result in uneven North-South development.