Does anyone know of any attempts at what might be called a “Keynesian-Austrian synthesis” other than Garrison’s work? I’ve sketched something out recently that I want to try and make more formal and I’m curious what other work has been done - I haven’t come across much. One concern I have with Garrison is that there are parts where he (1.) assumes full employment, and (2.) constrains his version of the Keynesian model to a loanable funds theory of the interest rate. Both essentially rob Keynesianism of its central point, of course!
I’m working on a pretty standard IS-LM framework that doesn’t do what Garrison did, but which includes a capital structure as in Prices and Production. Has anything like this been done before that I ought to be aware of?
Part of the idea of this is to think about what Austrian points are robust to the inclusion of Keynesian assumptions and what Keynesian points are robust to the inclusion of Austrian assumptions to determine what simplifying assumptions are reasonable and what are truly damaging or misleading.
I’m not sure what you mean by “robust Keynesian points”. The question would be “are the conclusions of the traditional, simple Keynesian IS-LM model robust to the inclusion of a capital structure?” ie - do the conclusions that held with homogenous capital still hold with heterogeneous capital.
Daniel -
Great - thanks I’ll take a look at that.
Jonathan -
Yes - I ought to pick that up. I was looking through Value and Capital the other day and of course he covers both there too, but I’m not sure to what extent he integrates any of the ideas.
I don’t see how Garrison made any sort of “Keynesian-Austrian synthesis”. Keynesianism is all about price stability (read: letting wealthy elites keep or regain the pre-crash values of their assets).
I don’t see how Garrison made any sort of “Keynesian-Austrian synthesis”. Keynesianism is all about price stability (read: letting wealthy elites keep or regain the pre-crash values of their assets).
Well, I think Daniel is referring to Garrison’s modelling synthesis.
Right Jonathan - and I probably covered that too vaguely, although Jonathan is familiar with thoughts I have on Garrison (very positive btw - I’m not dumping on him). Garrison tries to provide a common framework for talking about Keynesianism, monetarism, and ABCT all together at the same time. There are a few places where I think he misses the mark, but that’s what I’m meaning.
How’s Time & Money? I’m considering starting that when I finish Human Action over Prices and Production, but I also recall reading that it’s critized by some Austrians because its attempts at modeling.
The diagrammatical exposition of this model has much aesthetic appeal, and thus it might not be unreasonable to expect that Garrison-style macroeconomics will make Austrian converts among mainstream economists and their students. Yet there is also the possibility that Garrison not so much succeeds in Austrianizing the mainstream as that he will mainstream the Austrians. For the fact remains that Garrisonian macroeconomics is essentially neoclassical macroeconomics, which he enriches with an Austrian model. His main concern is not so much with economic analysis as with representing the results of a foregoing economic analysis; and the elements of the analysis and representation are not individual human actions, but quantities of things that are subject to human action. We will now have to inquire whether and to what extent his attempt has been successful.
Yes, really the point is “presenting Prices & Production in a new light”. That definitely holds the potential for leaving many Misesians especially behind.