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In this study, we build a Kaleckian model incorporating institutional differences between the wage determination of regular employment and that of non-regular employment. Using this model, we investigate how an employment shift toward regular workers affects the capacity utilization rate and income distribution. Our results show that while such shift in employment decreases the capacity utilization rate and increases the wage share of regular workers, it either increases or decreases the wage share of non-regular workers. An increase in the flexibility of the labor market, as seen in an employment shift toward non-regular workers, increases the amplitude of business cycles. However, the introduction of a minimum wage fornon-regular workers stabilizes the economy.

We study a noncooperative policy game between monetary and fiscal policy, where only monetary policy can commit to future actions. The equilibrium outcome of the game depends on the strategies available to the monetary policymaker. If strategies are left unrestricted, the central bank can alter the incentives of the fiscal authority in a way that replicates the full commitment solution. If the central bank cannot commit to respond to fiscal policy, the fiscal authority generates fluctuations in government expenditure that undermine the stabilization goals of the central bank. (JEL E12, E23, E31, E52, E58, E62)

In response to the COVID-19 health crisis, the French government has imposed drastic lockdown measures for a period of 55 days. This paper provides a quantitative assessment of the economic and environmental impacts of these measures in the short and long term. We use a Computable General Equilibrium model designed to assess environmental and energy policies impacts at the macroeconomic and sectoral levels. We find that the lockdown has led to a significant decrease in economic output of 5% of GDP, but a positive environmental impact with a 6.6% reduction in CO2 emissions in 2020. Both decreases are temporary: economic and environmental indicators return to their baseline trajectory after a few years. CO2 emissions even end up significantly higher after the COVID-19 crisis when we account for persistently low oil prices. We then investigate whether implementing carbon pricing can still yield positive macroeconomic dividends in the post-COVID recovery. We find that implementing ambitious carbon pricing speeds up economic recovery while significantly reducing CO2 emissions. By maintaining high fossil fuel prices, carbon taxation reduces the imports of fossil energy and stimulates energy efficiency investments while the full redistribution of tax proceeds does not hamper the recovery. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10640-020-00488-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Kaleckian models, which study the relation between functional income distribution and demand formation, have focused on how macro-level distribution affects macro-level performance. In the real economy, however, labour–management negotiations are held at the industry level and thus the relation between sectoral distribution and sectoral/macroeconomic performance should be considered. This study presents a two-sector Kaleckian model with intermediate inputs and investigates how a distributive change in one sector affects sectoral/macroeconomic capacity utilization and capital accumulation. The results of the presented comparative static analysis and traverse analysis demonstrate that one sector’s change in the mark-up rate shifts each sector’s rate of capacity utilization in the opposite direction, while the impact of one sector’s change in the mark-up rate on performance differs by sector. The analyses also demonstrate that the effect of a change in the mark-up rate on capital accumulation depends on the firm’s animal spirits.

In standard solutions, the new-Keynesian model produces a deep recession with deflation in a liquidity trap. The model also makes unusual policy predictions: Useless government spending, technical regress, and capital destruction have large multipliers. These predictions become larger as prices become less sticky. I show that both sets of predictions are strongly affected by equilibrium selection. For the same interest-rate path, different choices of equilibria - either by the researcher's direct selection or the researcher's specification of expected Federal Reserve policy - can overturn all these results. A set of "local-to-frictionless" equilibria predicts mild inflation, no output reduction and negative multipliers during the liquidity trap, and its predictions approach the frictionless model smoothly, all for the same interest rate path.

Estudiamos la cuestión de convergencia al estado estacionario en un modelo SN (síntesis neoclásica) determinista de tiempo continuo. La revisión se basa en un esquema de previsión perfecta para la tasa de inflación esperada. El análisis nos permite deducir dos conclusiones. En primer lugar, la flexibilidad de precios no es garantía para la convergencia. En segundo lugar, si el equilibrio fuese estable, entonces una regla monetaria bien diseñada coadyuva al proceso de convergencia. La política monetaria debe buscar objetivos bien definidos, de otro modo es infructuosa.

Migrants' remittances are an essential source of income in many developing countries. In this article, we build a post-Keynesian stock–flow consistent model adapted to Moldova, one of the top recipients of remittances. In addition to increasing household consumption, migrants' transfers have strong effects on economic growth in Moldova. However, remittances are very sensitive to the economic conditions in migrants' destination countries, especially since the 2008 global financial crisis. After including remittances in consumption behavior and lenders' risk, we run simulations to show how shocks in migrants' destination countries (that is, Europe and Russia) impact the Moldovan economy through fluctuations in remittances. First, the increasing instability of remittances explains a significant portion of the economic volatility experienced by Moldova. Second, the high level of imports implies a weak multiplier effect of remittances, leading to an unsustainable pattern of growth.

International audience; In this work we study the granular origins of business cycles and their possible underlying drivers. As shown by Gabaix (Econometrica 79:733–772, 2011), the skewed nature of firm size distributions implies that idiosyncratic (and independent) firm-level shocks may account for a significant portion of aggregate volatility. Yet, we question the original view grounded on “supply granularity”, as proxied by productivity growth shocks – in line with the Real Business Cycle framework–, and we provide empirical evidence of a “demand granularity”, based on investment growth shocks instead. The role of demand in explaining aggregate fluctuations is further corroborated by means of a macroeconomic Agent-Based Model of the “Schumpeter meeting Keynes” family Dosi et al. (J Econ Dyn Control 52:166–189, 2015). Indeed, the investigation of the possible microfoundation of RBC has led us to the identification of a sort of microfounded Keynesian multiplier.

Resumo Por um lado, é possível, a partir de Keynes e dos pós-keynesianos, inferir que existem duas naturezas para a incerteza: a que diz respeito ao processo pelo qual o sujeito conhece (epistemológica) e a que se refere ao comportamento da realidade que se quer conhecer (ontológica), sendo que nos processos de tomada de decisão, ambas incertezas estão presentes. Por outro lado, para a abordagem neoinstitucionalista, o hábito como substrato das instituições possui repercussão tanto em nível do indivíduo quanto em âmbito do todo. Assim sendo, não seriam os hábitos e as instituições hábeis a reduzir a incerteza? O objetivo deste trabalho é responder a esta questão, articulando as teorias keynesiana e neoinstitucionalista no que toca ao modo pelo qual, nesta, os hábitos e as instituições podem contribuir para que se tenha, com base naquela, a diminuição das incertezas epistemológica e ontológica. Abstract On the one hand, following Keynes and the Post Keynesians, it is possible to infer two types of uncertainty: one that refers to the process of obtaining knowledge (the epistemological uncertainty) and the other which deals with the reality that one has to understand (the ontological uncertainty). It is important to stress that both are related to the decision-making process. On the other hand, regarding the Neoinstitutionalist perspective, habits are the substance of institutions and as so being they reverberate in the individual as well as at the structural level. Hence, are habits and institutions not able to reduce uncertainty? This paper aims to answer this question, articulating the Keynesian and the Neoinstitutionalist theories. The point is to show how habits and institutions in the latter can contribute to reducing uncertainty in the former approach.

We present a model where the saving rate of the household sector, especially households at the bottom of the income distribution, becomes the endogenous variable that adjusts in order for full employment to be maintained over time. An increase in income inequality and the current account deficit and a consolidation of the government budget lead to a decrease in the saving rate of the household sector. Such a process is unsustainable because it leads to an increase in the household debt-to-income ratio, and maintaining it depends on some sort of asset bubble. This framework allows us to better understand the factors that led to the Great Recession and the dilemma of a repeat of this kind of unsustainable process or secular stagnation. Sustainable growth requires a decrease in income inequality, an improvement in the external position, and a relaxation of the fiscal stance of the government.

This study estimates two types of Phillips curves––the price Phillips curve and nominal wage Phillips curve––for the Japanese economy and analyses the institutional structure of the dynamics of effective demand and income distribution in each period from 1977 to 2007. The estimated results allow us to make the following four findings. First, the Japanese economy was a profit-led regime and a counter-cyclical wage share regime until the 1990s. Second, although the combination of regimes can make the dynamics of effective demand and income distribution unstable, such dynamics were actually stable until the 1980s because wage share was sufficiently regulated by labour–management cooperation. Third, however, during the 1990s, the dynamics became unstable, because this regulation mechanism was weakened by a proportional increase in non-regular workers who were not members of labour unions. Finally, after the 2000s, the dynamics restabilized because Japanese firms quickened their speeds of employment adjustment and the distributive regime in Japan switched from a counter-cyclical wage share one to a pro-cyclical wage share regime.

In this paper, we explore the fluctuations of unemployment and vacancies in the Italian labour market over the last twenty years. For reasons of data availability on unfilled job openings, this period is split in two parts. The former is covered by a help-wanted time series, while the latter is analyzed by means of a harmonized vacancy rate. In both periods, in line with previous findings on the unemployment volatility puzzle, we find that the labour market tightness indicator is much more volatile than productivity. Moreover, we show that a matching model with segmented labour markets and on-the-job search has the potential to provide a rationale for this pattern.

Les modeles macroeconomiques standards utilises avant la crise, qualifies de neokeynesiens, reposent sur la notion de taux d’interet naturel plutot que de demande effective. Or les developpements recents de la theorie macroeconomique modelisent de maniere bien plus realiste le fonctionnement du marche des biens et services et le fonctionnement du marche du travail. Ces modeles retrouvent les intuitions keynesiennes – sous-consommation, paradoxe de l’epargne – dans des cadres qui permettent une confrontation plus rigoureuse aux donnees. Le caractere keynesien ou neoclassique de l’economie ne devrait pas etre un enjeu politique ou theorique, mais plutot un enjeu empirique. A cet egard, des resultats econometriques recents indiquent par exemple que l’economie americaine se comporte de maniere keynesienne dans les grandes crises et de maniere non keynesienne dans les crises de moindre amplitude, ce qui devrait guider la politique economique.Classification JEL : E12, E13, E17.

Goodwin cycles result from the dynamic interaction between a profit-led demand regime and a reserve army effect in income distribution. The paper proposes the concept of a pseudo-Goodwin cycle. We define this as a counter-clockwise movement in output and wage share space which is not generated by the usual Goodwin mechanism. In particular, it does not depend on a profit-led demand regime. As a demonstration, a simple Minsky model is extended by adding a reserve army distribution adjustment mechanism. The wage share responds positively to output but generates no feedback. In the augmented Minsky model, cycles are generated purely through the interaction between financial fragility and demand. By design, demand is not influenced by changes in income distribution. But the model does exhibit a pseudo-Goodwin cycle in the output-wage share space. This holds true even if a wage-led demand regime is introduced. This demonstrates that the existence of a counter-clockwise movement of output and the wage share cannot be regarded as proof of the existence of a Goodwin cycle and a profit-led demand regime.

In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, the French economist Thomas Piketty develops a new and rich set of data that deals with income and wealth distribution, output-wealth dynamics and rates of return, and has proposed as well some “laws of capitalism”. At the core of his theoretical argument lies the “fundamental inequality of capitalism”, an empirical regularity that states that the rate of return on wealth is higher than the growth rate of the economy. This simple construct allows him to conclude that increasing wealth (and income) inequality is an inevitable outcome of capitalism. While we share some of his conclusions, we will highlight some shortcomings of his approach based on a Cambridge post-Keynesian growth-and-distribution model. We argue, first, that r > g (i.e. that the rate of return on wealth is greater than the growth rate of the economy) is not necessarily associated with increasing inequality in functional distribution; second, Piketty commits a fallacy-of-composition argument when he says that the necessary condition for r > g is that capitalists have to save a large share of their capital income; third, post-Keynesian economists can learn from Piketty’s insights about personal income distribution and incorporate them into their models; and, fourth, we reiterate the post-Keynesian argument that a well-behaved aggregate production function does not exist and it therefore cannot explain the distribution of income.

The debate on secular stagnation suffers from vagueness and several shortcomings, which affect its economic policy implications. In this work we provide an alternative view on the advanced economies’ tendencies to stagnation, based on Josef Steindl’s contributions. Steindl’s pioneering 1952 book in particular is not prone to several problems that affect the current debate on secular stagnation. It does not rely on the dubious notion of an equilibrium real interest rate as the equilibrating force of saving and investment at full employment levels. Rather, it is based on the notion that modern capitalist economies face aggregate demand constraints, and that saving adjusts to investment through income growth and changes in capacity utilisation in the long run. Steindl’s treatment allows for potential growth to become endogenous to actual demand, and it seriously considers the role of institutions and power relationships for long-run growth. In illustrating Steindl’s contributions on this topic, the article presents an original model synthetizing the main points in particular concerning long run growth and stagnation. JEL codes: B22, E11, E12, E65, O11, PSL Quarterly Review, V. 69, N. 276 (2016): March

Au sein de la riche litterature issue du cadre elabore par Sraffa dans Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, une position eminente est occupee par les programmes de recherche developpes de facon independante par deux representants de cette ecole qui font reference : Pierangelo Garegnani et Luigi Pasinetti. Certains aspects specifiques de leurs approches pourraient donner a penser qu’elles sont alternatives. Cependant, quand on les analyse dans une perspective constructive, on decouvre non seulement une origine et une methodologie communes, mais aussi une stricte complementarite dans l’analyse des principales caracteristiques des systemes industriels.

The paper develops a model of economic fluctuations in the medium run and their relation with the short-run macroeconomic equilibrium. The business cycle is the result of two separate forces. On the one hand, there is Harrodian instability. On the other hand, this instability is contained by the inherent contradictions of capitalism. I focus on two of these contradictions: the profit-squeeze that results from the tightening of the labor market as employment and utilization increase, and the financial instability hypothesis as formulated by Hyman Minsky. With the inclusion of overhead labor, the model can explain the U-shaped behavior of the wage share along the business cycle (wage share decreases for low levels of utilization and increases for higher levels) that prevailed in most of the post-WWII period, as well as the decrease in the wage share as utilization increases that has been observed in the most recent cycles.

We build an agent-based model of a financial market that is able to jointly reproduce many of the stylized facts at different time-scales. These include properties related to returns (leptokurtosis, absence of linear autocorrelation, volatility clustering), trading volumes (volume clustering, correlation between volume and volatility), and timing of trades (number of price changes, autocorrelation of durations between subsequent trades, heavy tail in their distribution, order-side clustering). With respect to previous contributions we introduce a strict event scheduling borrowed from the EURONEXT exchange, and an endogenous rule for traders participation. We show that such a rule is crucial to match stylized facts.

In this work we study the granular origins of business cycles and their possible underlying drivers. As shown by Gabaix (2011), the skewed nature of firm size distributions implies that idiosyncratic (and independent) firm-level shocks may account for a significant portion of aggregate volatility. Yet, we question the original view grounded on “supply granularity”, as proxied by productivity growth shocks – in line with the Real Business Cycle framework–, and we provide empirical evidence of a “demand granularity”, based on investment growth shocks instead. The role of demand in explaining aggregate fluctuations is further corroborated by means of a macroeconomic Agent-Based Model of the “Schumpeter meeting Keynes” family (Dosi et al., 2015). Indeed, the investigation of the possible microfoundation of RBC has led us to the identification of a sort of microfounded Keynesian multiplier.

This study evaluates the economic impact of a shift towards renewable electricity mix in the Netherlands using the neo-Keynesian CGEM ThreeME (Multi-sector Macroeconomic Model for the Evaluation of Environmental and Energy policy). This scenario has been inspired by the Urgenda's report ‘Energy 100% Sustainable in the Netherlands by 2030’, which have been quantified using the Energy Transition Model (ETM) developed by Quintel. Using the output of the ETM regarding the change in the electricity generation shares as input in ThreeME, we derive the impact in terms of key economic variables (GDP, employment, investment, value-added, prices, trade, tax revenue, etc.). We find that transition to renewable energy may have a positive impact on the Dutch economy, creating almost 50 000 new jobs by 2030 and adding almost 1% of gross domestic product. © 2017

This study investigates how profit sharing influences the economy by using a Kaleckian model. Unlike existing research, I endogenise the profit share. The analysis shows that profit sharing decreases or increases the equilibrium capacity utilisation rate depending on whether the productivity-enhancing effect of profit sharing is weak or strong. Moreover, the presented numerical simulations show that the profit-sharing effects on income distributions differ according to the relative strength of the productivity-enhancing effect of profit sharing.

This article develops a model of unemployment fluctuations. The model keeps the architecture of the general-disequilibrium model of Barro and Grossman (1971) but takes a matching approach to the labor and product markets instead of a disequilibrium approach. On the product and labor markets, both price and tightness adjust to equalize supply and demand. Since there are two equilibrium variables but only one equilibrium condition on each market, a price mechanism is needed to select an equilibrium. We focus on two polar mechanisms: fixed prices and competitive prices. When prices are fixed, aggregate demand affects unemployment as follows. An increase in aggregate demand leads firms to find more customers. This reduces the idle time of their employees and thus increases their labor demand. This in turn reduces unemployment. We combine the predictions of the model and empirical measures of product market tightness, labor market tightness, output, and employment to assess the sources of labor market fluctuations in the United States. First, we find that product market tightness and labor market tightness fluctuate a lot, which implies that the fixed-price equilibrium describes the data better than the competitive-price equilibrium. Next, we find that labor market tightness and employment are positively correlated, which suggests that the labor market fluctuations are mostly due to labor demand shocks and not to labor supply or mismatch shocks. Last, we find that product market tightness and output are positively correlated, which suggests that the labor demand shocks mostly reflect aggregate demand shocks and not technology shocks.

Several prominent economists have argued that existing DSGE models cannot properly account for the evolution of key macroeconomic variables during and following the recent Great Recession. We challenge this argument by showing that a standard DSGE model with financial frictions available prior to the recent crisis successfully predicts a sharp contraction in economic activity along with a protracted but relatively modest decline in inflation, following the rise in financial stress in 2008:IV. The model does so even though inflation remains very dependent on the evolution of economic activity and of monetary policy. (JEL E12, E31, E32, E37, E44, E52, G01)

We argue that the vast bulk of movements in aggregate real economic activity during the Great Recession were due to financial frictions. We reach this conclusion by looking through the lens of an estimated New Keynesian model in which firms face moderate degrees of price rigidities, no nominal rigidities in wages, and a binding zero lower bound constraint on the nominal interest rate. Our model does a good job of accounting for the joint behavior of labor and goods markets, as well as inflation, during the Great Recession. According to the model the observed fall in total factor productivity and the rise in the cost of working capital played critical roles in accounting for the small drop in inflation that occurred during the Great Recession. (JEL E12, E23, E24, E31, E32, E52)

A tanulmányban ármerevséget vezetünk be egy ágensalapú piaci modellbe a Calvo-féle megoldáshoz hasonló módon. Amellett érvelünk, hogy az árak merevségének DSGE modellekben leírt következményei (átváltás az ár és a termelés ingadozása között, illetve az átlagos értékek változatlansága az ármerevség függvényében) csak a modellek sajátos feltevéseiből következnek. Megmutatjuk, hogy egy ágensalapú modellben más hatások mutathatók ki: pozitív kapcsolat van az ár és a termelés ingadozása között az ármerevség függvényében, ami egy fordított U alakú összefüggés szerint hat a változók ingadozására. A rugalmasabb árak nagyobb átlagos kibocsátáshoz is vezetnek. A vállalatok ármerevségbeli heterogenitásának nincs hatása a változókra. Ha a vállalatok nagyobb súllyal veszik figyelembe a versenytársak árait az árdöntés során, akkor rugalmas árak mellett csökken, ragadós árak mellett nő az ár és a termelés ingadozása. A vállalatok közötti ismertségi hálózat sűrűségének növekedése rugalmas árak esetén csökkenti a változók ingadozását, ragadós árak mellett nem hat rájuk. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kód: B59, D01, D21, D49, E12, L11., The paper introduces price rigidity into an agent-based market model in a way similar to Calvo pricing. It is argued that the usual consequences of rigidity of prices observable in DSGE models (trade-off between the volatility of the price and the output, and the constancy of average values as a function of price rigidity), are merely implied by the specific assumptions of the models. It is shown that the effects are different in an agent-based model. Here there is a positive relation between price volatility and output as a function of price rigidity, which affects the volatility of the variables in a reversed U-shaped relation. Higher price flexibility leads to higher average output as well. The heterogeneity of firms in price rigidity does not affect the variables. If firms place greater weight on the prices of their competitors in price decision-making, then with flexible prices the volatility of the price and the output decrease, while with sticky prices they increase. An increase in the density of the network of acquaintances among firms decreases the volatility of the variables with flexible prices, but it does not affect them with sticky prices.

Is the "non-existence¡± of the Phillips curve in China a truth or just an illusion due to the deficiency of data? Should policy analysis follow the light of New-Keynesian or New-classical economics? These questions require empirical work on the Phillips curve, which has long been limited in China due to an inaccurate unemployment rate and unreliable estimated output gap. Instead of the insignificant or self-contradicting results in previous work, this paper puts forward a significant estimation, creatively using the vacancy-jobseeker ratio instead of the unemployment rate. It is suggested that a robust Phillips curve cannot be ignored and New-Keynesian economics should be employed in policy analysis in the short run.

Se propone un modelo de equilibrio general para analizar c ́o mo un incremento en el consumo del gobierno, financiado con deuda, modifica los precios y las asignaciones. Se muestra que el gasto p ́ubl ico es no neutral y que en el periodo que se ejerce incrementa los nivel es de empleo y producci ́on. No obstante, en los periodos subsecue ntes la econom ́ıa se situar ́a en una senda de crecimiento (decrecim iento), si el gasto p ́ublico gener ́o m ́as (menos) recursos que los que req uiere para financiarse.

This paper excavates the set of ideas known as modern monetary theory (MMT). The principal conclusion is that the macroeconomics of MMT is a restatement of elementary well-understood Keynesian macroeconomics. There is nothing new in MMT's construction of monetary macroeconomics that warrants the distinct nomenclature of MMT. Moreover, MMT over-simplifies the challenges of attaining non-inflationary full employment by ignoring the dilemmas posed by Phillips curve analysis; the dilemmas associated with maintaining real and financial sector stability; and the dilemmas confronting open economies. Its policy recommendations also rest on over-simplistic analysis that takes little account of political economy difficulties, and its interest rate policy recommendation would likely generate instability. At this time of high unemployment, when too many policymakers are being drawn toward mistaken fiscal austerity, MMT's polemic on behalf of expansionary fiscal policy is useful. However, that does not justify turning a blind eye to MMT's oversimplifications of macroeconomic theory and policy.

A major reason for the recurrent episodes of financial instability is the predominance of interest-based debt and leveraging. Financial stability is achievable through risk sharing finance instead of risk shifting that characterizes contemporary finance. A risk sharing system serves the true function of finance as facilitator of real sector activities and avoids the emergence of a “paper economy” where there is gradual decoupling of finance from the real sector. Islamic finance was initially proposed as a profit-loss sharing system, but its core principle is risk sharing. In prohibiting interest-based debt instruments, Islam grounds finance on a strong risk sharing footing. Although still a young industry that has come a long way, it has not managed to develop truly risk-sharing instruments that would allow individuals, households, and firms as well as whole economies to mitigate systematic and un-systematic risks. It is suggested that governments should intervene and issue macro-market instruments to provide their treasuries with a significant source of non-interest rate based financing while promoting risk sharing. Moreover, given that evidence across the world suggests that monetary policy’s transmission mechanism may be impaired, it is suggested that these government issued securities could also impart added potency to monetary policy. JEL Codes: E12, E31, E44, PSL Quarterly Review, V. 67, N. 271 (2014)

The first important economic recession in this century started in USA with the burst of real estate bubble followed by the bankruptcy of some investment and commercial banks and the collapse of capital market. The financial-banking crisis spilt over the world economy and caused the second deepest economic recession in the last 80 years. The financial crisis has badly affected almost all market economies and was the result of a combination between market failures and mistakes made in macroeconomic policies. In the financial sector there was not enough regulation and supervision of corporate governance while in goods industry the pressure of over-regulation led to higher factor costs and supply contraction. The direct result of supply side policies and particularly of monetarist instruments is seen now clearly in the USA: large deficits, huge debts, reduced savings, heavy dependence on foreign money (capital) and resources, relatively low domestic output and supply.

We first document a strong negative correlation between the level of household net worth, and aggregate business cycle volatility over the past 50 years in the United States. The early 1960s and the Great Moderation of the 1980s and 1990s were periods of high asset values and low volatility. The 1970s and the Great Recession were periods of low asset values and high volatility. We then develop a model in which the level of wealth determines the magnitude of equilibrium aggregate fluctuations. Fluctuations in the model are demand-driven and associated with fluctuations in confidence. Agents must commit to consumption choices before their individual employment status is realized. In the event of unemployment, consumption must be paid for out of savings or through costly borrowing. Asset prices in the model are endogenous, and reflect the liquidity value of wealth. In this environment, expectations of higher unemployment can become self-fulfilling: higher expected unemployment leads households to reduce spending and increase precautionary saving, and in response to falling demand firms reduce hiring. The labor market in the model is decentralized, and equilibrium wages do not necessarily clear the labor market. High levels of household wealth make the economy more robust, in the sense that demand becomes less sensitive to the expected unemployment rate, while lower levels of wealth make the economy more fragile. The paper offers the following interpretation of the Great Recession: a fall in asset values left the economy vulnerable to a sharp decline in confidence, which sharply reduced demand and employment.

This paper examines the implications of different monetary and fiscal policy rules in an economy characterized by Harrodian instability. We show that (i) a monetary rule along Taylor lines can be stabilizing for low debt ratios but becomes de-stabilizing if the debt ratio exceeds a certain threshold, (ii) a `Keynesian' fiscal policy rule can stabilize the economy at full employment, (iii) a fiscal `austerity' rule that links fiscal parameters to deviations from a target debt ratio fails to adjust the `warranted' to the `natural' growth rate and destabilizes the warranted path, (iv) instability may arise from a combination of fiscal and monetary policy rules which separately would stabilize the system, and (v) austerity rules can in some circumstances enhance the stabilizing effects of monetary policy.

The interaction of incomplete markets and sticky nominal wages is shown to magnify business cycles even though these two features—in isolation—dampen them. During recessions, fears of unemployment stir up precautionary sentiments that induce agents to save more. The additional savings may be used as investments in both a productive asset (equity) and an unproductive nominal liquid asset. The desire to hold the nominal liquid asset puts deflationary pressure on the economy which, provided that nominal wages are sticky, increases labor costs, and reduces firm profits. Lower profits repress the desire to save in equity, which increases (the fear of) unemployment, and so on. This mechanism causes the model to behave differently from its complete markets version and is quantitatively important even if monetary policy counteracts the desire to hold more of the liquid asset by lowering the interest rate. The deflationary pressure yields a mean-reverting reduction in the price level, which implies an increase in expected inflation and a decrease in the expected real interest rate even if the policy rate does not adjust. Thus, our mechanism is different from the typical zero lower bound argument. Due to the deflationary spiral, our model also behaves differently from its incomplete market version without aggregate uncertainty, especially in terms of the impact of unemployment insurance on average employment levels.

This paper explains the basic mechanisms of Norges Bank’s core model for monetary policy analysis and forecasting (NEMO). NEMO has recently been extended with an oil sector to incorporate important channels of shocks to the Norwegian economy. We show how the effects of a change in the oil price depends on whether the price change is due to demand or supply factors in the international economy. Other extensions of the model include a more detailed modeling of the foreign sector. The paper also uses NEMO to highlight important driving forces of the Norwegian economy after the fall in the oil price. We demonstrate that the model has a reasonable empirical fit compared to VAR models.

In this paper, the relevance of Keynesian postulates has been examined in the Nepalese context for the period 1975-2012 using annual time series data. The empirical results from the Johansen co-integration tests clearly show that there is long run equilibrium relationship between government expenditure and real GDP, private consumption and gross fixed capital formation. Likewise, Granger Causality test confirms that there is bilateral causal relationship between government expenditure and gross fixed capital formation in Nepal. However, no causal relationship is observed between government expenditure and real GDP and private consumption. Thus, it is confirmed by this study that the Keynesian postulates are relevant for capital formation rather than for increasing real GDP growth and private consumption in Nepal.

This paper argues that the natural rate of unemployment hypothesis, in which equilibrium unemployment is determined by “structural†variables alone, is wrong: it is both implausible and inconsistent with the evidence. Instead, equilibrium unemployment is haunted by hysteresis. The curious history of the natural rate hypothesis is considered, curious because the authors of the hypothesis thought hysteresis to be relevant. The various methods that have been used to model hysteresis in economic systems are outlined, including the Preisach model with its selective, erasable memory properties. The evidence regarding hysteresis effects on output and unemployment is then reviewed. The implications for macroeconomic policy, and for the macroeconomics profession, are discussed.

a b s t r a c t We present a simple three-class model in the Kaleckian tradition to investigate the implications of a dominant managerial class for the dynamics of demand and distribution. Managers play a peculiar role in the economy, both because of their supervisory function – which results in surplus extraction and wage inequality – and because of their saving behavior. The adjustment of capacity utilization to accommodate goods market disequilibrium produces two distinct regimes with respect to the responsiveness of investment demand to profitability: a low investment-response regime, where effective demand appears to be both wage-led and inequality-led; and a high investment-response regime, where demand looks profit-led. In accordance with recent empirical evidence for the US, we introduce distributional dynamics that hinge on inequality squeezing workers’ wage growth. We find that the low investment-responsiveness regime produces a stable demanddistribution equilibrium only if the wage squeeze effect is relatively small. On the other hand, the equilibrium in the high investment-response regime is saddle-path stable. The main distributional implication of the wage squeeze and inequality is that the effect of redistribution toward workers in both the low investment response regime and the high investment response regime leads to declining inequality and capacity utilization. Hence, in both regimes, the inequality-led features of the equilibrium dominate the wage-led or profit-led nature of effective demand. These findings imply that distributive dynamics lead to a stronger basis for cohesion in the interests of managers and capitalists compared to workers and managers.

Endogenous money is a core component of post-Keynesian economics, but it has not been fully integrated into its macroeconomics. To do so requires replacing the accounting truism that ex post expenditure equals ex post income with the endogenous money insight that ex post expenditure equals ex ante income plus the ex post turnover of new debt. This paper derives this result after exploring precedents to this concept in the work of Schumpeter, Minsky, Keynes and Pigou.

This paper reflects on the development leading to the recent crisis and interprets this development as a series of events within a Minsky-Veblen Cycle. To illustrate this claim we introduce conspicuous consumption concerns, as described by Veblen, into a stock flow consistent Post Keynesian model and demonstrate that, under these conditions, a decrease in income equality leads to a corresponding increase in debt-financed consumption demand. Here Minskyian dynamics come into play: increased credit demand leads to a corresponding rise in credit supply, which, eventually, gives rise to a debt-financed consumption boom. As the solvency of households decreases and interest rates move up, banks reduce lending, triggering household bankruptcies and, finally, a recession. What follows is a stable period of consolidation, where past debts are repaid, financial stability is regained and conspicuous consumption motives may gradually take over again. We illustrate this approach to the current crisis and its explanatory validity by extending our stock-flow consistent model into a dynamic simulation.

This paper presents a Keynesian critique of Steve Keen's treatment of the aggregate demand–credit–endogenous money nexus. It argues his analytic intuition is correct but is developed in the wrong direction. Keen's fundamental relation describing determination of AD in an endogenous credit money economy suffers from two flaws. First, it neglects the core Keynesian problematic of leakages from and injections into the circular flow of income. Second, it falls into the theoretical morass regarding the black box of velocity of money via its adoption of a form of Fisher equation to determine AD. The paper contrasts Keen's treatment with a Keynesian structural framework.

Since 2008, the euro area unemployment rate has increased constantly, while this economy’s GDP was the same at the end of 2012 as it was in 2008. The recent trend of aggregate economic activity in this area illustrates the risk that an economy leaves its stability corridor, in which it usually progresses in a cyclical way, to enter an area of turbulence. In this area, the automatic stabilizers have weak feedback forces. To examine this kind of situation in a theoretical framework, this paper presents a model that relies both on Leijonhufvud’s corridor and on Harrod’s instability principle. This model allows a threshold to be defined beyond which the economy runs the risk of entering a cumulative process of simultaneous declines in growth and employment. However, the existence of such a process requires unemployment to have a sufficiently direct effect on the growth in aggregate demand, as seems to be the case nowadays. JEL Classification : B22, E12, E24.

The aim of this paper is to quantify the effects of changes in functional income distribution on selected macroeconomic variables in Croatia in period from 2000-2012. We use structural VAR approach with identification scheme based on a priori restrictions that are derived from theoretical framework of Post-Keynesian macroeconomic model. Our main hypothesis, which is confirmed in the empirical analysis, is that the accumulation of capital in Croatia was primarily determined by income from labor, i.e. that Croatia had wage-led accumulation. We also found that labor market dynamics was dominantly influenced by demand side shocks and that positive effects of the rise in exports, resulting from the gain in competitiveness (after reducing wage share in income) outweigh negative effects of weaker demand on the capacity utilization. So in our opinion export share increase should become policy priority, as domestic demand is currently constrained by high private and public debt levels. To the extent that increase in exports might require decline in the relative share of labor, negative impact on the investments in non-tradable sector would need to be offset with higher investments in tradable sector of Croatian economy.

In this paper, we investigate the nature of structural breaks in inflation by estimating a version of the New Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC) in the presence of a unit root in inflation. We show that, with a unit root in inflation, the NKPC implies an unobserved components model that consists of three components: a stochastic trend component, a component that depends upon current and future forecasts of real economic activity, and a stationary component which is potentially serially correlated (or a component of inflation that is not explained by the conventional forward-looking NKPC). Our empirical results suggest that, with an increase in trend inflation during the Great Inflation period, the response of inflation to real economic activity decreases and the persistence of the inflation gap increases due to an increase in the persistence of the unobserved stationary component. These results are in line with the predictions of Cogley and Sbordone (2008), who show that the coefficients of the NKPC are functions of time-varying trend inflation.

We review the main identification strategies and empirical evidence on the role of expectations in the New Keynesian Phillips curve, paying particular attention to the issue of weak identification. Our goal is to provide a clear understanding of the role of expectations that integrates across the different papers and specifications in the literature. We discuss the properties of the various limited-information econometric methods used in the literature and provide explanations of why they produce conflicting results. Using a common dataset and a flexible empirical approach, we find that researchers are faced with substantial specification uncertainty, as different combinations of various a priori reasonable specification choices give rise to a vast set of point estimates. Moreover, given a specification, estimation is subject to considerable sampling uncertainty due to weak identification. We highlight the assumptions that seem to matter most for identification and the configuration of point estimates. We conclude that the literature has reached a limit on how much can be learned about the New Keynesian Phillips curve from aggregate macroeconomic time series. New identification approaches and new datasets are needed to reach an empirical consensus. (JEL C51, D84, E12, E24, E31)

The classical argument for free trade stressed the possibilities of economic growth by exploiting the gains from trade. A trade surplus per se was not the main objective; presumably the argument was that trade would be balanced at the new higher growth rate. Moreover, the arguments for free trade were made against the background of an assumed hard peg (the gold standard) which would enforce balance of payments equilibrium. This means that contemporary free trade agreements (FTAs), with floating exchange rates, cannot be defended on the traditional grounds. With a floating exchange the appropriate policy advice for each individual jurisdiction is monetary mercantilism – the use of macroeconomic policy in an attempt to achieve a trade surplus as a percentage of GDP. If one partner pursues such a strategy alone, this will translate into a one-for-one increase in the growth rate, and potential regional hegemony for the first mover. To restore balance amongst the trade partners (not necessarily with the outside world) and yet still keep higher growth rates there would have to be a union-wide expansion. This need not be formally coordinated, but at least all the partners should be in broad agreement about the stance of policy.

I develop a New Keynesian model in which a type of government multiplier doubles when unemployment rises from 5 percent to 8 percent. This multiplier indicates the additional number of workers employed when one worker is hired in the public sector. Graphically, in equilibrium, an upward-sloping quasi-labor supply intersects a downward-sloping labor demand in a (employment, labor market tightness) plane. Increasing public employment stimulates labor demand, which increases tightness and therefore crowds out private employment. Critically, the quasi-labor supply is convex. Hence, when labor demand is depressed and unemployment is high, the increase in tightness and resulting crowding-out are small. (JEL E12, E24, E32, E62)

This paper attempts to emphasize the role of the rate of profit on the balance of payments by integrating the Marxian rate of profit with the post-Keynesian balance-of-payments-constrained growth model (Thirlwall’s Law). In this regard, the domestic rate of profit determines the direction of foreign capital, while foreign capital, in turn, influences the rate of profit. The dynamic model between the level of GDP, derived from the extended Thirlwall’s law (Thirlwall and Hussain 1982), and the rate of profit is thus created. The theoretical result obtained from the model is compatible with the stylized facts of many small and open economies that experienced rapid economic growth and balance of payments crises from the mobility of foreign capital.

The approach of economic growth involves understanding the concept and growth factors, respectively, analysing the growth theories, their trend in the context of the development of economic and social life. The economic growth signifies a process aimed at increasing activities in the national economy, expressed by macroeconomic indicators, respectively, the dynamics of the overall Gross Domestic Product or per inhabitant. It can appreciate that, in the short term, this process signifies phases of economic prosperity and on the long-term, expresses an upward trend, a consequence of the succession of increases and decreases. The study presents some elements which outlines the concept of economic growth, that is, definitions, meanings and the main characteristics of the theories of growth, as well as some of its determinant factors. Also, it gives a brief overview of the main theories of economic growth, as they have evolved over time, in line with the economic reality dynamics and the development of the instruments of economic analysis, starting from the classical theories to the new theories and models of economic growth of the modern age.

Steve Keen argues that post-Keynesians have not sufficiently emphasized the revolutionary character of endogenous money for macroeconomic theory, and that this should be done by recognizing that aggregate demand is equal to current or past income plus the change in debt. This equation, attributed in particular to Hyman Minsky, is discussed and questioned, and it is recalled that a similar equation had been proposed by Alfred Eichner. The consequences of bank credit for firms or households are further analysed within the context of the national accounts, and it is shown that one does not need a redefinition of aggregate demand and aggregate supply, in contrast to what is proposed by Keen.