Modern Cambridge Economics Series – serie

Frederic Lee sets out the foundations of a post-Keynesian price theory through developing an empirically grounded production schema. The administered, normal cost and mark-up price doctrines are explained in parts I-III of the book, as many of their theoretical arguments are important for developing the foundations. This involves discussing the work of Gardiner Means, Philip Andrews, and Michal Kalecki as well as the developers of the doctrines, such as Edwin Nourse, Paolo Sylos Labini, Harry Edwards, Josef Steindl and Alfred Eisner. Drawing upon the arguments and formal modelling offered by the doctrines, in conjunction with empirical evidence from one hundred studies on pricing and production, Dr Lee develops an empirically grounded pricing model and production schema. He argues that the model and the schema together constitute the foundations for post-Keynesian price theory.

This book is concerned with the use of fiscal and monetary policies to overcome three major obstacles to development commonly faced by less developed countries: inadequate investment; misallocation of investment resources; and internal and external imbalances i.e. inflation and balance of payments deficits. The book is divided into six chapters the first two of which are devoted to the definition of concepts and to an explanation of the Keynesian model of income determination and of Kalecki's model of financing investment, within the framework of which the role of fiscal and monetary measures and of foreign capital is later examined. Chapters 3 and 4 discuss the role of fiscal measures and of foreign capital, respectively, in promoting domestic investment. Chapter 5 examines the use of both fiscal and monetary instruments, including industrial and agricultural development banks, to influence the pattern of investment. The last chapter is devoted to the problems of internal and external imbalances. The author examines policies pursued by a representative sample of developing countries and concludes that most of them fail adequately to exploit the potential of fiscal and monetary instruments and of foreign capital to overcome the three sets of obstacles to development largely bacause of institutonal (socio-political) constraints. The approach to inflation and balance of payments difficulties followed in the book differs significantly from that of monetarists, notably the Chicago school and the IMF, whose basic propositions are reviewed and critically examined in some detail in Chapters 2 and 6. Although the primary focus of the book is on developing economies, this part of it is also relevant to industrial countries.

The division of the world into rich and poor nations, and the division within poor nations between a minority of rich people and a majority of poor people living at a minimum subsistence level, has been obvious to careful observers for a long time. This book gives an overview of the problems of underdevelopment confronting third-world countries, making use of both Marxist and neo-Keynesian methods of analysis. It makes clear the historical origins of these contemporary problems, particularly with reference to the major countries of Asia and Latin America, and discusses the ways in which inequalities, both within and between countries, are propaged and perpetuated. Other problems analysed are the typical patterns of fluctuating growth faced by third-world countries; the social structures in both rural and urban areas and their influence on the behaviour of governments and private investors in these countries; and environmental control and population planning issues faced by these countries. Finally, an introduction is provided to the planning methods adopted by most third-world countries and the hurdles such planning has encountered. The illustrations are drawn widely from among third-world countries.

The failure of orthodox economic analysis to provide acceptable answers to the dominant contemporary policy problems has given rise to a widespread feeling of 'methodological crisis' in the discipline. Students find it increasingly hard to relate to a textbook-authenticated paradigm which seems to be in the process of disintegration. The object of this book is to put some of the current theoretical controversies into long term perspective by tracing their historical antecedents. A connected object is to interpret some of the doctrinal divisions in the modern debate by showing that they spring from profound disagreements about what economics is and what questions the economist ought to be trying to answer. It examines the way leading theorists have adapted their theories and concepts to major changes in the problem-situation facing policy makers. The book is in no sense exhaustive (either in the range of theories or in the selection of theorists discussed) but focuses particularly on changes in economists' views on the scope and methodology of economics and on the evolution of strategic ideas in the fields of value theory, monetary theory and growth theory. It raises questions of a socio-historical kind, such as: when did economics acquire a sufficently coherent and well-attested paradigm to rank as a distinct discipline? What were the distinguishing characteristics of successive paradigms for economics? How revolutionary were the changes attributable to periods of significant theoretical change? How can we explain the success or failure of alternative paradigms in gaining a hold over the minds of a majority of professional economists? All economists will find valuable insights in this book. For undergraduate students it is a compact and readable introduction to the history of economic thought.

Joan Robinson shows how the economic mechanisms that produce wealth in the midst of growing misery can be understood. For this purpose she uses the classical theory of accumulation and the modern theory of international trade and finance. Her simple but penetrating analysis illuminates the problems of poverty, accumulation, industrialization and trade, while exposing misleading conceptions of the Third World. Throughout the book, general principles are demonstrated with particular examples, making those principles both clearer and more relevant. The book's conclusion is that the economic problems of the Third World remain rooted in deep-seated political conflicts of national and international interests.

Frederic Lee sets out the foundations of a post-Keynesian price theory through developing an empirically grounded production schema. The administered, normal cost and mark-up price doctrines are explained in parts I-III of the book, as many of their theoretical arguments are important for developing the foundations. This involves discussing the work of Gardiner Means, Philip Andrews, and Michal Kalecki as well as the developers of the doctrines, such as Edwin Nourse, Paolo Sylos Labini, Harry Edwards, Josef Steindl and Alfred Eisner. Drawing upon the arguments and formal modelling offered by the doctrines, in conjunction with empirical evidence from one hundred studies on pricing and production, Dr Lee develops an empirically grounded pricing model and production schema. He argues that the model and the schema together constitute the foundations for post-Keynesian price theory.

Capitalism in the twentieth century was marked by periods of persistent bad performance alternating with episodes of good performance. A lot of economic research ignores this phenomenon; other work concentrates almost exclusively on developing technology as its cause. This 2001 book draws upon Schumpeterian, Institutional and Keynesian economics to investigate how far these swings in performance can be explained as integral to capitalist development. The authors consider the macroeconomic record of the developed capitalist economies over the past 100 years (including rates of growth, inflation and unemployment) as well as the interaction of economic variables with the changing structural features of the economy in the course of industrialization and transformation. This approach allows for changes both in the economic structure and in the economic variables to be generated within the system. This study will be essential reading for macroeconomists and economic historians.

Capitalism in the twentieth century was marked by periods of persistent bad performance alternating with episodes of good performance. A lot of economic research ignores this phenomenon; other work concentrates almost exclusively on developing technology as its cause. This 2001 book draws upon Schumpeterian, Institutional and Keynesian economics to investigate how far these swings in performance can be explained as integral to capitalist development. The authors consider the macroeconomic record of the developed capitalist economies over the past 100 years (including rates of growth, inflation and unemployment) as well as the interaction of economic variables with the changing structural features of the economy in the course of industrialization and transformation. This approach allows for changes both in the economic structure and in the economic variables to be generated within the system. This study will be essential reading for macroeconomists and economic historians.

This book presents a study in the foundations of monetary theory with several unique features. It consists of two parts: a critique of the varieties of neoclassical monetary theory, and a rigorous statement of the foundations of Post Keynesian monetary theory. The two parts reflect Joseph Schumpeter's distinction between monetary theories in the divergent traditions of Real and Monetary Analysis. Part I offers a novel critique of Wicksellian and neo-Walrasian general equilibrium versions of Real analysis. The critique of Wicksell's monetary theory demonstrates the general impossibility of defining the natural rate of interest without which the loanable funds theory collapses. The critique of neo-Walrasian monetary theory, on the other hand, exploits the inessential role of 'money' in temporary equilibrium and overlapping generations models and develops a novel interpretation of the Patinkin controversy and the Clower finance constraint. The implications of these developments are then traced through the debates between monetarists and Keynesians. Part II presents a rigorous argument for securing the foundations of Post Keynesian monetary theory in the tradition of Monetary Analysis. In the context of the evolution of the monetary system from commodity money to credit money. Wicksell's natural rate of interest is replaced by Keynes's marginal efficiency of capital which is in turn applied to Myrdal's notion of monetary equilibrium to derive a formal definition of Keynes's point of effective demand. This leads to the most novel feature of the book: the demonstration of the existence of a long-run unemployment equilibrium without the assumptions of rigid wages. The principle of effective demand is shown to break Say's Law by placing a limit on the profitable expansion of output before full employment is reached.