Marc Lavoie – författare

Post-Keynesian and heterodox economics challenge the mainstream economics theories that dominate the teaching at universities and government economic policies. And it was these latter theories that helped to cause the great depression the United States and the rest of the world is in. However, most economists and the top 1% do not want mainstream theories challenged—for to do so would mean questioning why and how the 1% got where they are. Therefore, numerous efforts have been and are being made to discredit if not suppress Post-Keynesian and heterodox economics. These efforts have had some success; this book is a response to them.

This book makes it clear that Post Keynesian/heterodox economics is, in spite of internal problems, a viable and important approach to economics and that it should resist the attempts of the critics to bury it. The reader will also find arguments that directly engage the critics and suggest that their views/criticisms are vacuous and wrong. As such, this will appeal to all who are interested in economic theory, economic history and who believe in challenging the orthodoxy.

Post-Keynesian and heterodox economics challenge the mainstream economics theories that dominate the teaching at universities and government economic policies. And it was these latter theories that helped to cause the great depression the United States and the rest of the world is in. However, most economists and the top 1% do not want mainstream theories challenged—for to do so would mean questioning why and how the 1% got where they are. Therefore, numerous efforts have been and are being made to discredit if not suppress Post-Keynesian and heterodox economics. These efforts have had some success; this book is a response to them.

This book makes it clear that Post Keynesian/heterodox economics is, in spite of internal problems, a viable and important approach to economics and that it should resist the attempts of the critics to bury it. The reader will also find arguments that directly engage the critics and suggest that their views/criticisms are vacuous and wrong. As such, this will appeal to all who are interested in economic theory, economic history and who believe in challenging the orthodoxy.

The collection includes a number of papers showing Lavoie''s evolving approach to neo-Kaleckian models of growth and distribution, incorporating hysteresis, overhead labour, monetary issues, price inflation, as well as various sources of autonomous non-capacity creating expenditures. It shows how all of these interact with alternative Marxian or Sraffian approaches as well.

A section of the book is also devoted to two-sector models, in particular the issue of the traverse from one equilibrium to another, extending the Kaleckian model but also providing insights into the works of Hicks and Pasinetti.

Both professors and graduate students will benefit from the decades of experience and wisdom amassed and presented in Post-Keynesian Growth Theory.

Readers will find analyses of the earlier advocates of endogenous money such as Nicholas Kaldor and Jacques Le Bourva. They will discover how the arguments in support of the post-Keynesian theory of endogenous money and the credit view of banking have evolved through this 35-year period, and how they have been related to the new procedures pursued by central banks. All these essays show the relevance of the realistic post-Keynesian monetary theory in understanding the subprime and euro crises, quantitative easing and the distributional role of interest rates.

Within these pages Marc Lavoie provides an overview of what has happened in post-Keynesian monetary economics over the last three and a half decades for students and scholars with interest in monetary economics, the horizontalist-structuralist debates and the recent history of economic thought.

The book is a considerably revised and updated version of the widely used and frequently cited 2014 edition. It provides a comprehensive account of post-Keynesian theory and policy. Topics covered include its methodological foundations, consumer theory and choice under fundamental uncertainty, firms and pricing, money and credit, effective demand and employment, growth theory, open-economy issues, inflation theory. It also links with ecological economics.

Scholars of economics, particularly post-Keynesian and heterodox economists, will find this comprehensive look at the field a necessary addition to their libraries, while students and instructors will find it a perfect text for any class on post-Keynesian economics.