Stabilization policy before Keynes.
Item
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Title
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Stabilization policy before Keynes.
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Identifier
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AAI9009713
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identifier
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9009713
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Creator
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Arapoglou, Iakovos K.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Alvin Marty
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Date
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1989
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Economics, General | Economics, History | Economics, Theory
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Abstract
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In 1936 Keynes put forward his view of what he called "classical" economics. His synopsis of the "classical" theory is found in Chapter 2 of his General Theory. In it Keynes has argued that the work of A. C. Pigou is "the only detailed account of the classical theory of employment which exists". He went on to add that "the fundamental theory underlying (the determination of actual employment) has been deemed so simple and obvious that it has received, at the most, a bare mention.".;In all of the above, and more, Keynes was wrong. Yet, somehow, his interpretation of "classical" economics has become "conventional wisdom". What follows is an attempt to set the record straight. We focus on the work of A. C. Pigou, the leading exponent, by Keynes' own admission, of the classical theory. More concretely we shall attempt to present Pigou's ideas in a systematic way, drawing on his twin great works The Theory of Unemployment (1933) and, more importantly, Industrial Fluctuations (1929).;In a broader sense, however, this essay is about economists and economic policy. It is about the economist's inveterate habit of telling his fellow citizens how best to achieve their ideals of an economically just and efficient society. It is about the contribution made by economists to the debate of the late 1920's and the 1930's concerning the great economic issues of that time: unemployment and stagnation, deflation and stability, the viability and desirability of the international economic order. Hence the need to look more carefully at the evolution of Keynes' thought and to examine, to some considerable extent, the doctrines and theories of the LSE "neo-individualists".;The essay concludes that, after everything else has been said, it remains true that the conventional account of "classical" economics, handed down to the present generation of economists by Keynes and his disciples, is, for the most part, fiction and that there has never taken place a "Keynesian Revolution" in economic theory and policy in the sense that this term is ordinarily understood.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
