Keynes's General Theory and Accumulation (Modern Cambridge Economics Series) [Paperback]

A. Asimakopulos (Author)

Book Description

Series: Modern Cambridge Economics Series | Publication Date: June 28, 1991

This book makes Keynes's writing on his General Theory accessible to students by presenting this theory in a careful, consistent manner that is faithful to the original. Keynes's theory continues to be important, because the issues it raised, such as the problems of involuntary unemployment, the volatility of investment, and the complexity of monetary arrangements in modern capitalist economies, are still with us. Keynes's method of analysis, which tries to allow for the complications of dealing with historical time, deserves the careful attention given in this book. Keynes's formal analysis dealt only with a short period of time during which changes in productive capacity as a result of net investment were small relative to initial productive capacity. Roy Harrod and Joan Robinson were the two most prominent followers of Keynes who attempted to extend his analysis to the long period by allowing for the effects of investment on productive capacity as well as on effective demand. The careful examination of their writings on this topic is a natural complement to the presentation of Keynes's General Theory and makes clear the severe limitations on any use of equilibrium concepts in dealing with accumulation in models that try to observe Keynes's warnings about an unknowable future in the type of world we inhabit.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Tom Asimakopulos was a great Kaleckian scholar. His knowledge of the nuances and innuendos of Kalecki's approach to macroeconomics had no equal." Paul Davidson, Journal of Economic Issues

"This monograph, part of the Modern Cambridge Economics series, reviews important areas of Keynes's General Theory and the theories of accumulation of two of his most distinguished followers, Roy Harrod and Joan Robinson." Journal of Macroeconomics

"This book is the legacy of a dedicated and tough-minded scholar who did his heroes the compliment of taking their work seriously, rather than just praising it." Robert W. Dimand, History of Political Economy

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (June 28, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521368154
• ISBN-13: 978-0521368155
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,423,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have for students of Keynes' ideas, March 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Keynes's General Theory and Accumulation (Modern Cambridge Economics Series) (Paperback)

If you ever tried to read Keynes's General Theory you know pretty well that some of Keynes's main ideas and some of his expositions of these same ideas are pretty confusing. It is well known by now that Keynes was in a hurry to get his book published and this is probably the reason why the GT is so hermetic. Asimakopulos goes a long way in explaining Keynes's ideas or, more precisely, some possible interpretations of these ideas in a simple and convincing manner. He also gives us two most wanted chapters with analysis of the works of two distinguished disciples of Keynes (i.e, Joan Robinson and Roy Harrod) and their attempts to extend his work to a dynamic framework. Of course, Asimakopulos' is not the only interpretation of Keynes'work. There is a whole "Keynes industry" in this world. It is, however, a short, advanced and neatly written piece of work and I consider it a must have especially for those who want a quick start on the topic.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Asimakopulos overlooked Keynes's mathematical modeling, March 24, 2005

By 

Michael Emmett Brady "mandmbrady" (Bellflower, California ,United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Keynes's General Theory and Accumulation (Modern Cambridge Economics Series) (Paperback)

The major conclusion that Asimakopulos(A)reaches in this book is that Keynes had no correctly defined and mathematically accurate representation of his theory of effective demand in the General Theory(GT;1936)that had a sound foundation in microeconomic theory.Thus,the GT must be rewritten and/or interpreted(reinterpreted)so as to correctly ground the intuitively correct ideas of Keynes on a sound foundation of microeconomic analysis.The foundation that A argues the GT should be based on is either the imperfectly competitive analysis of Richard Kahn and Joan Robinson or the more advanced version of the GT that Joan Robinson claimed that Michel Kalecki had written in explicitly mathematical terms three years before Keynes published his GT.The major criticism of A is that he completely overlooks the explicit mathematical model constructed by Keynes in chapters 20 and 21 of the GT.The model constructed by Keynes has an explicit microeconomic foundation based on a theory of the firm called pure competition.It is identical to the free competition assumption made by Pigou in 1933 in his book The Theory of Unemployment.This conclusion is obvious to any reader of the appendix to chapter 19 of the GT.Unfortunately,there is no evidence that A ever read Pigou's book or chapters 19,20,and 21 of the GT.A bases his entire assessment of Keynes's technical capabilities on a reading of pp.24-30 of chapter 3 of the GT alone.A's failure to read chapters 19,20,and 21 of the GT account for his mistaken belief that Keynes's analysis is unclear,ambiguous,confusing,incomplete,and problematic.