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on Post Keynesian Economics |
| By: | Ivo Maes (National Bank of Belgium, Research Department) |
| Abstract: | Keynesian economics dominated economic thought and macroeconomic policy-making in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the diffusion of Keynesian economics has been uneven. In this paper, we compare the spread of Keynesian economics in two continental European countries: Belgium and Italy. We focus on the post-World War II period, taking as the main message of Keynesian economics that the market is inherently unstable and that the government has a key role in economic life in steering effective demand. We further follow Coddington's distinction between "hydraulic", "disequilibrium" and "fundamentalist" Keynesianism. The study shows that Belgium and Italy were two countries were Keynesian economics gained ground only relatively late. The breakthrough of (hydraulic) Keynesianism came in areas which were close to the policy-making process: setting up national income accounts, the construction of macroeconomic models and correcting regional imbalances. The main difference between the two countries was the strong position of fundamentalist Keynesianism in the academic world in Italy, while in Belgium, disequilibrium Keynesianism was more influential. |
| Keywords: | Keynesian economics, Belgium, Italy, macroeconomic policy-making |
| JEL: | B22 E60 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbb:reswpp:200705-02&r=pke |
| By: | Veronica Ronchi (Università degli Studi di Milano) |
| Abstract: | During the ‘90s most Latin American countries were submitted to neoliberal structural reform policies. Neoliberal policies imposed market supremacy, reduced the State’s role in the economy and deregulated the markets. This paper aims at describing how these policies affected the most important macroeconomic indexes, with special emphasis on Argentina and Mexico, the two countries that suffered most from the economic crises of the ‘80s and ‘90s, and where the neoliberal policies were applied with greater orthodoxy. In spite of a slight improvement in some macroeconomic indexes, in Latin America neoliberalism failed to reduce poverty and unemployment, and was unable to guarantee a fair distribution of the wealth and improve welfare. |
| Keywords: | Latin America, Mexico, Argentina, ’90s, Neoliberalism |
| JEL: | E21 E22 E24 E26 N16 N26 N36 O16 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2007.42&r=pke |
| By: | Ron Martin; Peter Sunley |
| Abstract: | Thus far, most of the work towards the construction of an evolutionary economic geography has drawn upon a particular version of evolutionary economics, namely the Nelson-Winter framework, which blends Darwinian concepts and metaphors (especially variety, selection, novelty and inheritance) and elements of a behavioural theory of the firm. Much less attention has been directed to an alternative conception based on complexity theory, yet in recent years complexity theory has increasingly been concerned with the general attributes of evolutionary natural and social systems. In this paper we explore the idea of the economic landscape as a complex adaptive system. We identify several key notions of what is being called the new ‘complexity economics’, and examine whether and in what ways these can be used to help inform an evolutionary perspective for understanding the uneven development and adaptive transformation of the economic landscape. |
| Keywords: | complexity theory, evolution, economic landscape, networks, emergence, regional adaptation |
| JEL: | B52 O18 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:0703&r=pke |
| By: | Jürgen Essletzbichler; David L. Rigby |
| Abstract: | Evolutionary approaches in economics have gathered increasing support over the last 25 years. Despite an impressive body of literature, economists are still far from formulating a coherent research paradigm. The multitude of approaches in evolutionary economics poses problems for the development of an evolutionary economic geography. For the most part, evolutionary economic geography imports selective concepts from evolutionary biology and economics and applies those concepts to specific problems within economic geography. We discuss a number of problems with this approach and suggest that a more powerful and appealing alternative requires the development of theoretically consistent models of evolutionary processes. This paper outlines the contours of an evolutionary model of economic dynamics where economic agents are located in different geographical spaces. We seek to show how competition between those agents, based on the core evolutionary principles of variety, selection and retention, may produce distinct economic regions sharing properties that differentiate them from competitors elsewhere. These arguments are extended to illustrate how the emergent properties of economic agents and places co-evolve and lead to different trajectories of economic development over space. |
| Keywords: | evolutionary economics, economic geography, Generalized Darwinism, biological metaphors, self-organization |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:0702&r=pke |
| By: | Johannes Gluckler |
| Abstract: | An evolutionary perspective on economic geography requires a dynamic understanding of change in networks. This paper explores theories of network evolution for their use in geography and develops the conceptual framework of geographical network trajectories. It specifically assesses how tie selection constitutes the evolutionary process of retention and variation in network structure and how geography affects these mechanisms. Finally, a typology of regional network formations is used to discuss opportunities for innovation in and across regions. |
| Keywords: | evolution, network trajectory, evolutionary economic geography, social network analysis, innovation |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:0704&r=pke |
| By: | Alain Béraud (THEMA - Théorie économique, modélisation et applications - [CNRS : UMR8184] - [Université de Cergy Pontoise]) |
| Abstract: | Kaldor présente l'analyse qu'il fait de la répartition comme une théorie keynésienne. Son travail s'inspire, nous dit-il, des contributions de Keynes, dans le Traité de la Monnaie, et de Kalecki. Cependant, alors que Keynes et Kalecki développent des analyses de courte période, Kaldor décrit les caractéristiques d'un équilibre de longue période si bien que le mécanisme d'ajustement sur lequel il s'appuie, la flexibilité des taux de marge, est inapproprié. Pasinetti, en suggérant de l'article de Kaldor reposé sur une erreur logique et que la correction de cette erreur permettrait de montrer que le taux de profit — en équilibre de longue période — ne dépend que du taux de croissance naturel de l'économie et de la propension à consommer des capitalistes, relança le débat. Cependant, sa thèse apparaît comme douteuse. D'une part, l'équilibre qu'il décrit n'est pas unique et il se peut que, dans certaines circonstances, l'économie tende vers un autre équilibre dont les caractéristiques sont déterminées par la propension à épargner des salariés. D'autre part, l'idée que la fonction d'épargne proposée par Kaldor est logiquement incohérente est sans fondement. Enfin, l'hypothèse cruciale sur laquelle repose le raisonnement de Pasinetti, l'existence d'une classe d'individus qui tirent des profits la totalité de leurs revenus ne paraît guère caractériser de façon pertinente les systèmes économiques qui prédominent dans les économies développées. |
| Keywords: | Répartition, Kaldor, Keynes, Kalecki, Pasinetti |
| Date: | 2007–04–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00143948_v1&r=pke |