The most influential and controversial economist of the twentieth century, John Maynard Keynes was the leading founder of modern macroeconomics, and was also an important historical figure as a critic of the Versailles Peace Treaty after World War I and an architect of the Bretton Woods international monetary system after World War II. This comprehensive Companion elucidates his contributions, his significance, his historical context and his continuing legacy.
The Elgar Companion to Post Keynesian Economics is a comprehensive guide to economic analyses in the tradition of Keynes and the so-called Cambridge (UK) school of economics. The coverage of themes and different theoretical orientations within Post Keynesianism is remarkable and the quality of the various entries is impressive. John Kings invisible hand is responsible for a minimum of overlaps and an optimum in quality and comprehensibility. This book has already proved to be of interest to a wide range of economists and can be expected to continue to do so for a long time to come. Heinz D. Kurz, University of Graz, Austria This thoroughly revised and updated second edition provides a comprehensive guide to Post Keynesian methodology, theory and policy prescriptions. The Companion reflects the challenges posed by the global financial crisis that began in 2008 and by the consolidation of the New Neoclassical Synthesis in macroeconomic theory. There are 41 entirely new entries, marking the emergence of a new generation of Post Keynesian scholars. The central issues that were dealt with in the first edition remain at the core of the book, but much more attention is paid in this second edition to financial markets, to Post Keynesian economics outside its traditional Anglo-American heartland and to gender issues and environmental policy. Including major theoretical, methodological and policy issues in Post Keynesian economics, this enriching Companion will strongly appeal to postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students in economics as well as related social science disciplines including international political economy, international relations, politics, public policy and sociology.
This book provides a timely and engaging treatment of Hyman Minsky's approach to economics, which is enjoying a renewed appreciation because of its prescient analysis of the slow but sure transformation of the capitalist economy in the post-war period.
John Maynard Keynes is the great British economist of the twentieth century whose hugely influential work The General Theory of Employment, Interest and * is undoubtedly the century's most important book on economics--strongly influencing economic theory and practice, particularly with regard to the role of government in stimulating and regulating a nation's economic life. Keynes's work has undergone significant revaluation in recent years, and "Keynesian" views which have been widely defended for so long are now perceived as at odds with Keynes's own thinking. Recent scholarship and research has demonstrated considerable rivalry and controversy concerning the proper interpretation of Keynes's works, such that recourse to the original text is all the more important. Although considered by a few critics that the sentence structures of the book are quite incomprehensible and almost unbearable to read, the book is an essential reading for all those who desire a basic education in economics. The key to understanding Keynes is the notion that at particular times in the business cycle, an economy can become over-productive (or under-consumptive) and thus, a vicious spiral is begun that results in massive layoffs and cuts in production as businesses attempt to equilibrate aggregate supply and demand. Thus, full employment is only one of many or multiple macro equilibria. If an economy reaches an underemployment equilibrium, something is necessary to boost or stimulate demand to produce full employment. This something could be business investment but because of the logic and individualist nature of investment decisions, it is unlikely to rapidly restore full employment. Keynes logically seizes upon the public budget and government expenditures as the quickest way to restore full employment. Borrowing the * to finance the deficit from private households and businesses is a quick, direct way to restore full employment while at the same time, redirecting or siphoning
Arguably one of the most important economists who has lived, Ricardo's impact on the economics profession is immense. This unique and comprehensive Companion elucidates his significance and continuing legacy. Ricardo made major contributions to all fields of the subject, from monetary issues to value and income distribution, from capital accumulation, technical progress and economic growth to foreign trade and international specialisation, and from taxes to public debt. What he called the main problem of political economy, the distribution of income and wealth, is again back on the political and economic agenda with a vengeance. Leading experts in the field explore his influence and offer novel interpretations of received doctrines.
'The book can be recommended both to those who know something about Austrian economics already, and to those who know nothing.' David Simpson, Economic Affairs 'Mr Boettke's very readable compendium consists of short articles by mostly young scholars, selected to illustrate the diversity and fecundity of modern Austrian economics.' Michael Prowse, The Financial Times The Elgar Companion to Austrian Economics is a major new reference work which highlights the common ground between all the branches of the school while demonstrating the breadth and diversity within it. The Companion reflects the many areas where Austrian economists have made contributions, including technical economics, methodology of the social sciences, political theory and political science. This book includes contributions from an international group of scholars whose work demonstrates a basic similarity and interest in questions which have historically been associated with the Austrian approach to economics, although many of the contributors would not consider themselves to be strictly of this school. The distinguished team of contributors commissioned by the editor includes: K.D. Hoover, I.M. Kirzner, A. Klamer, D. Lavoie, C.K. Rowley, M. Rizzo, M. Rutherford, R.E. Wagner, U. Witt, L. Yeager. Each entry is fully referenced and includes suggestions for further readings on the topic. The Companion will be the standard reference work for all those engaged in the field of Austrian Economics. It not only introduces students to the Austrian school, but also serves as an important research tool for scholars working within the Austrian tradition.
The Great Recession of 2008 restored John Maynard Keynes to prominence. After decades when the Keynesian revolution seemed to have been forgotten, the great British theorist was suddenly everywhere. The New York Times asked, “What would Keynes have done?” The Financial Times wrote of “the undeniable shift to Keynes.” Le Monde pronounced the economic collapse Keynes’s “revenge.” Two years later, following bank bailouts and Tea Party fundamentalism, Keynesian principles once again seemed misguided or irrelevant to a public focused on ballooning budget deficits. In this readable account, Backhouse and Bateman elaborate the misinformation and caricature that have led to Keynes’s repeated resurrection and interment since his death in 1946. Keynes’s engagement with social and moral philosophy and his membership in the Bloomsbury Group of artists and writers helped to shape his manner of theorizing. Though trained as a mathematician, he designed models based on how specific kinds of people (such as investors and consumers) actually behave—an approach that runs counter to the idealized agents favored by economists at the end of the century. Keynes wanted to create a revolution in the way the world thought about economic problems, but he was more open-minded about capitalism than is commonly believed. He saw capitalism as essential to a society’s well-being but also morally flawed, and he sought a corrective for its main defect: the failure to stabilize investment. Keynes’s nuanced views, the authors suggest, offer an alternative to the polarized rhetoric often evoked by the word “capitalism” in today’s political debates.
Methodological practice is at the heart of divisions between schools of macroeconomic thought. Jesper Jespersen s book explains why and precisely how, and gives the reader the insight to choose between rival approaches. His own inspiration comes from Critical Realism and Popper s Three World analysis, with Keynes as the main exponent of a realist approach. The starting point of realist theory is a view of how the world is, rather than axioms, and the test is whether the theory can make, as Jespersen puts it, the round trip back to reality , to give practical guidance to policy. This is only the focal point of a rich and attractive canvas. How I wish this book had been available when I taught methodology! And how I wish economists from all schools of thought would read it! Victoria Chick, University College London, UK This welcome volume by Jesper Jespersen offers an up-to-date realist approach to macroeconomics, drawing on recent developments in methodology, notably critical realism, as well as earlier Popperian ideas. He shows how economics in the Post-Keynesian tradition, using this approach, can address the important macro policy issues, and sets out a seven-point agenda for future theory development. This book provides an important launching-off point for addressing macroeconomic questions without the need for the abstractions as narrowly rational representative agents. Rather Jespersen explores the interdependencies between the macro and micro levels in real economic processes under conditions of uncertain knowledge. Sheila Dow, University of Stirling, UK Jesper Jespersen presents a treatise on the importance of the choice of methodology within macroeconomics. Given that no scientifically based macroeconomic policy recommendation should be established without an evaluation of the methods employed, this book gives a clear exposition of how proper macroeconomic analysis should be undertaken. Furthermore, it is convincingly argued that one of the lasting contributions of John Maynard Keynes was his emphasis on methodology; that macroeconomic consequences of uncertainty could not be analysed within the established general equilibrium framework. It is due to post-Keynesian economics supported by critical realism that the understanding of Keynes s methodology has been resurrected, which has eventually resulted in renewed debate on realistic macroeconomic policies to restore full employment without inflation. Macroeconomic Methodology is an inquiry into the question of how to conduct a proper scientific analysis of uncertainty within macroeconomics. It will be of great interest to scholars of the philosophy of social sciences and methodology, as well as post-Keynesian and heterodox economists.
ÔThis book advances the re-unification of the Institutionalist and Keynesian traditions, now unstoppable, which when last combined eighty years ago proved the power of progressive and pragmatic thought. Let the spirit of Keynes and Commons inspire our new era Ð and perhaps this time a coherent, enduring and useful academic economics may also result.Õ Ð James K. Galbraith, President, Association for Evolutionary Economics (2012) ÔFinancial Instability and Economic Security after the Great Recession is a welcomed volume for a variety of reasons. The book does a good job of: 1) surveying the foundations of Post-Keynesian Institutionalism (PKI); 2) unfolding new ways of understanding and appreciating the economic and institutional insights of Hyman Minsky (which are many); and 3) providing new economic analysis into the recent financial crisis both in the United States and globally. . . How uncertainty affects institutions and individual behavior is something that needs more exploration, and this volume contributes to a much-needed discussion on how both institutionalists and Post-Keynesians can work together on this. . . a very interesting and stimulating book that provides some new insights in the development of both Institutionalist and Post-Keynesian thought.Õ Ð Heterodox Economics Newsletter ÔThis important and fascinating book confirms that policymakers would do well to brush up on their reading of Hyman Minsky as they wrestle with the ongoing effects of the global financial crisis. It makes a compelling case for understanding the current situation as a crisis of capitalism Ð a system that veers between stability and instability Ð and for managing and regulating economies on the basis of MinskyÕs insight that stability breeds instability. MinskyÕs insight was psychological, not merely economic, and this volume furthers the argument for including disciplines such as psychology and philosophy in understanding markets. It also helps us recognize the truth that, in the end, economies are human constructs and it will require strong doses of humanism to successfully manage our economic future.Õ Ð Michael E. Lewitt, Harch Capital Management and author of The Death of Capital: How Creative Policy Can Restore Stability ÔThe volume offers an intriguing economic frame that vastly broadens the possibilities for economic research and shifts the focus of economists from markets to people. . . This volume makes a coherent and articulate case for a new interpretation of existing economic theories with long traditions that could help inform both research and policy in the future.Õ Ð Christian Weller, Perspectives on Work ÔA failing orthodoxy calls out for powerful alternatives. Neoclassical economics is that failed orthodoxy; Whalen and his contributors are the critical alternative. In this finely orchestrated edited volume, the contributors take turns wielding a sledgehammer to demolish the weakened edifice of neoclassical theory. Then, each adds a brick to a new theoretical foundation as they work together to expand upon the Post-Keynesian Institutionalist approach, especially the ideas laid down by Hyman Minsky. Their critique is clear and the alternative theory and policies they present are critical for anyone trying to understand the nature and operation of market-based economies.Õ Ð Dorene Isenberg, University of Redlands, US ÔA convergence of Post Keynesian and Institutional economics, which have much in common, offers a sound and practical way forward after the Great Recession. By drawing inspiration from Hyman Minsky and tracing similarities in the economics of Veblen, Commons and Keynes, this book pursues such a convergence in an original and thought-provoking manner. The result is a new way of thinking about economics, one based on serious economic theory and rooted firmly in economic reality.Õ Ð Philip Arestis, University of Cambridge, UK ÔFinancial Instability and Economic Security after the Great Recession explores the close relationship between Institutional and Post Keynesian economics, thereby contributing greatly to our understanding of the recent Ð indeed, still ongoing Ð crisis in the U.S. economy and global financial markets. Together these two schools of thought provide coherent diagnoses and prescriptions that are wholly lacking in orthodox neoclassical theory. We are reminded that institutions matter, unregulated financial markets are not self-correcting, economies stall at equilibriums far below potential, and activist government is the only path to rebuilding a stable and balanced economy. This book will help greatly in the important task of rethinking economics and pointing us in the direction of reform and recovery.Õ Ð Timothy A. Canova, Chapman University School of Law, US ÔFor those who take the work of Hyman Minsky seriously, this collection of essays provides a most welcome and refreshing examination of modern economic reality. It also demonstrates just how fruitful a conjoining of Post Keynesian and Institutionalist theory can be. Whalen has chosen his authors wisely, and, taken as a whole, their contributions provide an illuminating inquiry into what Minsky called Òmoney-manager capitalismÓ. The authors continue in the Minsky tradition, complementing his theoretical work and driving it forward. I highly recommend this book to not only economists who consider themselves Post Keynesian or Institutionalist, but to all who are looking for a way out of the theoretical impasse posed by conventional economics.Õ Ð John Henry, University of Missouri-Kansas City, US ÔIn the 1930s, economic theory and policy underwent dramatic change; such a shift occurs rarely and only in times of great calamity. We are in a similar period today, and this book enlightens economic policy and contributes to change that is ongoing in the mainstream of economic thinking. Economists and policymakers alike will benefit from this book.Õ Ð Ronnie J. Phillips, Colorado State University, US ÔCharles Whalen has been the torch-bearer for Post-Keynesian Institutionalism for many years. The fruit of his thought and time is reaped in the publication of this valuable work that should be of interest to all economists, particularly those concerned with the macroeconomic workings of the real economy. While there are multiple authors, Whalen wrote or co-authored half of the chapters, giving the book coherence not usually found in a collection of essays; a first-rate book.Õ Ð Charles K. Wilber, University of Notre Dame, US ÔThe end of the Great Moderation (a period characterized by modest business cycles) and the demise of its intellectual underpinnings, such as the efficient market hypothesis, opens the door to fresh thinking about the evolution of the US and world economies. This volume responds with a compendium of insights that grow out of Post-Keynesian Institutionalism. Central constructs in the analysis Ð essential to understanding the new Great Instability and to generating constructive policy responses Ð include money-manager capitalism, financial regulation, and economic evolution. The book provides a persuasive basis for reconstructing macroeconomics and for finding sets of policies that could lead to greater world prosperity. This is an important contribution, since much of the intellectual and policy response to the current crisis has challenged the status quo very little and has not inoculated the global economy from further instability.Õ Ð Kenneth P. Jameson, University of Utah, US ÔThis book makes a major contribution toward developing an economic framework to address the policy failures that precipitated the 2007Ð2009 financial crisis and slowed recovery from the Great Recession. It begins that process with wonderfully clear analyses of the influence of earlier non-classical economic thinkers on Keynes and Minsky and then uses their insights and hypotheses to critique the economic thinking that failed to anticipate the crisis. But, unlike many other excellent analyses of recent events, it also identifies policy options capable of preventing future crises and ensuring a more rapid recovery. The authors have laid a strong foundation for the theoretical perspective required to secure the broadly shared prosperity that many view as the overriding objective of an economic system.Õ Ð Jane DÕArista, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, US ÔInstitutionalists and Post Keynesians have a great deal in common, so much so that it is surprising how little cooperation there has been between them. This innovative and engaging volume will help to put this right. Several of the contributors identify the ideas of Hyman Minsky as providing a bridge between the two traditions (in much the same way as Micha Kalecki connects Post Keynesian and Marxian thought), suggesting important ways these camps can profit from each otherÕs insights. Across the volume, the crucial concepts of ÔfuturityÕ, expectations and fundamental uncertainty shape the authorsÕ approach to economic theory, while an insistence on the need for a Ômore wisely managed capitalismÕ unites their policy discussions. This book deserves to be widely read; it will have important consequences.Õ Ð John E. King, La Trobe University, Australia This timely book rethinks economic theory and policy by addressing the problem of economic instability and the need to secure broadly shared prosperity. It stresses that advancing economics in the wake of the Great Recession requires an evolutionary standpoint, greater attention to uncertainty and expectations, and the integration of finance into macroeconomics. The result is a broader array of policy options Ð and challenges Ð than conventional economics presents. Building on the pioneering work of Thorstein Veblen, John R. Commons and John Maynard Keynes, the authors synthesize key insights from Institutional and Post Keynesian economics into Post-Keynesian Institutionalism. Then they use that framework to explore an array of economic problems confronting the United States and the world. Inspired by the work of Hyman Minsky, the authors place financial relations at the center of their analysis of how economies operate and change over time. Students and scholars of macroeconomics and public policy will find this book of interest, as will a wider audience of financial analysts, policymakers and citizens interested in understanding economic booms and downturns.
