The relationship between saving and credit from a Schumpeterian perspective

Mainstream economic theory underlines the close relation between saving decisions and credit supply: the saving decisions determine the credit supply and thus the investment flow carried out by all the firms. The objective of this paper is to highlight the theoretical limits of this causal sequence on the basis of the arguments developed by Schumpeter, who instead maintains that in a capitalist economy the credit supply and investment decisions are independent of saving decisions JEL classification code: E21, E22, G20, O10. Key words: saving, credit, investment, development, Schumpeter