"I think that today Keynesian economists primarily distinguish themselves from other economists through their belief that you cannot understand the behavior of our economy on the assumption that it is always at or near a full, or Walrasian, equilibrium, and that you cannot account for the movements that you see in output and employment on the assumption that everything you see is at the intersection of traditional supply and demand curves, and that the movements are only accounted for by shifts in those curves People who think of themselves as Keynesian economists can be divided as to what they would put in place of Walrasian equilibrium. Some of them think that what we observe in the world is a disequilibrium. If the economy is moving toward Walrasian equilibrium, it is doing so very slowly. Another group of Keynesian economists, who are in some ways closer to Keynes, believe that the economy is characterized by multiple equilibria; a modern capitalist economy is capable perhaps of producing a good Walrasian equilibrium, but also a bad equilibrium, that is, a situation with bad welfare properties and without forces that move the economy away from such a situation. I find myself halfway between those two schools of thought. I used to think that the correct analysis would emphasize disequilibrium. Now I have some doubts about that. Either of these approaches is a Keynesian alternative to the idea that the economy should be regarded as being in a Walrasian equilibrium."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Robert Solow, in Conversations with Economists (1983) by Arjo Klamer
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Keynesian_economics
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Keynesian economics
59 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Keynesian economics â
Related Quotes
"Finally, the development of Keynesian economics and, after the war, its gradually increasing application changed the âŚ"
"Following the collapse of the American investment bank Lehman Brothers, and threatening to engulf the entire banking âŚ"
"I find it amazing now that my first economics class, taught by Alan Sweezy, used John Maynard Keynesâs General TheoryâŚ"
"Keynesian economicsâthe go-to theory for those who like government at the controls of the economyâis in the forefrontâŚ"
"Although we cannot place all the blame for the dismal condition of LDCs on Keynesian economics, it bears a heavy respâŚ"
"After careful research along these lines, I came to the annoying conclusion that Keynes had been 100 percent right inâŚ"
"Keynesian economics is the economics of nominal rigidities basically, nominal rigidities everywhere. Fully anticipateâŚ"
"For a period of roughly 35 years, Keynesian theory provided a central paradigm for macroeconomists, and considerable âŚ"
"The word âKeynesianâ means many things to many people. Decades ago, it was a carelessly applied label for economic liâŚ"
"Since the mid-1970s, neoliberal economic policies have increasingly pervaded rich democracies. A list of such policieâŚ"