Keynes and the Cambridge Keynesians

Transcription

1 Keynes and the Cambridge Keynesians A 'Revolution in Economics' to be accomplished Luigi L. Pasimetti ' CAMBRIDGE.UNIVERSITY PRESS

2 Contents List of plates Preface Acknowledgements page xii xiii xx Book One Keynes's Unaccomplished Revolution The Federico Caffe Lectures, 1995 A Note on Federico Caffe 2 I A decision to break with orthodoxy 3 1 Introduction 3 2 Alternative interpretations 4 3 To 'revolutionise the way the world thinks about economic problems' 6 4 A review of a well-established chronology of events 8 5 The principle of effective demand 13 6 Scientific revolutions and alternative paradigms 16 7 Keynes's break with orthodoxy 21 II The 'revolution' after Keynes 25 1 Foreword 'Bastard' Keynesianism (or neoclassical synthesis?) 29 4 The Cambridge School of Keynesian Economics 33 5 Difficulties with absorbing odd facts (notably unemployment) into the 'normal-science' process of orthodox economics 41

3 viii Contents 6 Post-Keynesians, neo-rica.rdians, evolutionists, institutional) sts and others 44 7 Conclusion 48 References for Book One Book Two The Cambridge School of Keynesian Economics Prelude: the pupils of the first hour ' III Richard Ferdinand Kahn ( ) Co-author of The General Theoiy? 65 1 Biographical essentials 65 2 Kahn in the Cambridge Keynesian setting 65 3 Life and scientific contributions 67 4 Kahn and Keynes's General Theory 78 5 Kahn and the Keynesian revolution 82 6 Scientific writings of R. F.'Kahn. 85 IV Joan Violet Robinson ( ) The woman who missed the Nobel Prize for Economics 94 1 Foreword 94 2 Basic biography 96 3 Distinctive traits of her intellectual personality 99 4 Her scientific achievements Selected works of Joan Robinson 114 V Nicholas Kaldor ( ) Growth, income distribution, technical progress The man, Basic biography Kaldor's major contributions to economics Political activity Kaldor and Keynes Selected works of Nicholas Kaldor 130 VI Piero Sraffa ( ) The critical mind 134 VI.1 A brief bio-bibliographical sketch Biography Returns to scale, costs and value 140

4 Contents 3 The edition of Ricardo's Works Production of Commodities The principal works of Piero Sraffa 145 VI.2 An Italian economist at Cambridge Preamble " ; a new rising star Piero Srafia's education as-an economist First contacts with Keynes The beginning of a university career Sraffa's personal relationships Friendships: Mattioli, Gramsci, Wittgenstein Sraffa and Keynes A superb critic Sraffa and Keynes's pupils The Cambridge Keynesian group 169 VI.3 Continuity and change in Piero Sraffa's thought Premise ' Evolution in Piero Sraffa's thought A personal immersion into Sraffa's papers A few hints at the Sraffa archives subdivisions Three streams of thought An impossibly grand research programme What fraction of the original programme? Final remarks (or Sraffaversus Keynes?) 191 Appendix selected documents from Sraffa's unpublished papers! 194 Interlude: unwise behaviour 199 VII Richard Murphey Goodwin ( ) The missed Keynes-Schumpeter connection Foreword ' 'Basic biography Intellectual landmarks i A Cambridge enigma Italian renaissance A puzzling halt in Goodwin's economics creativity: Cambridge problem? Selected works of Richard Goodwin 215 J ix

5 x Contents ^, Postlude: fighting for. independence 217 References for Book Two 238 Book Three Towards a production paradigm for an expanding economy VIII Beyond neoclassical economics Two-connected 'revolutions' The historical background of economic analysis From mercantilism to neoclassicism, Methodological reductionism of neoclassical economics The ideal task of Keynesian economics 269 IX The stage of pure economic theory A separation theorem, The simplest version of thel'natural' economic system A succinct presentation of the model Normative properties On completing the 'natural' economic system 302 X The stage of institutional investigation The role-of institutions The institutional problem facing the challenge of history, Disillusionment with extreme solutions and elusiveness of a 'third way' The separation theorem revisited 323 XI Back to the future of the Keynesian revolution Recollection The generalising drive of the production (and learning) paradigm On monetary theory and policy Main sources of unsolved institutional problems Clash of the institutional implications of different paradigms The rationale behind conflicting institutional directions 353

6 Contents 7 Innovative features: learning as a human right and free communication of achieved knowledge as a social duty An international claim for a resumption of Keynes's revolution in economics 358 References for Book Three 361 Index 367 xi