Abstract

MACHADO, N; E, Gustavo; CASTELLANO, M  and  G, Alberto. The Real Interest Rate and Private Investment in Venezuela: A Causal Relationship? Period 1978-2002. Revista de Ciencias Sociales [online]. 2005, vol.11, n.3, pp.475-484. ISSN 1315-9518.

Abstract The decreasing level of private investment has been the fundamental factor that characterizes the behavior of the Venezuelan economy during the last quarter of a century; a situation that is explained by the failure of the model based on capitalist rent. Given this situation, it was considered pertinent to study the influence that the real interest rate had on the process of accumulation of capital during period 1978-2002. According to classical theory, it was the fundamental factor in explaining the behavior of investment. In this study econometric models were used as analytical instruments, framed within an explanatory type of research. The main result of the research was the discovery of indications that reflect the lack of a relationship between private investment and the real interest rate, all of which suggests the existence of what in the terminology of French regulation-ism is known as a structural crisis: a type of crisis the recovery from which requires not only economic policy measures, but also agreements in the political arena which lead to the realization of institutional reforms

Keywords : French regulationist approach; classical theory; structural crisis; private investment,; real interest rate.