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Macroeconomics is an outgrowth from the main stream of classical monetary theory following Keynes. Keynes changed the emphasis from determination of the level of money prices to determination of the level of output and employment. He also changed the key relationship from demand and supply of money as determining the price level to the relationship between consumption expenditure and income, in conjunction with private investment expenditure, as determining the level of output and therefore employment demanded. The income multiplier replaced the velocity of circulation as the key concept of monetary theory.The tendency of the past twenty-five years has been to reintegrate Keynesian and classical monetary theory into one general system of analysis. Moreover, as inflation has succeeded mass unemployment as a major policy problem, interest in classical monetary theory has revived, while Keynesians have increasingly' emphasized the monetary aspects of Keynesian theory.The proper contemporary distinction is not between two separate branches of economic theory, but between two areas of application or contexts of the theory of rational maximizing behavior. In the one (the microeconomic) context, it is assumed either that the overall workings of the economic system can be disregarded, or that the macroeconomic relationships are in full general equilibrium. In the other (the macroeconomic) context, it is assumed that the maximizing decisions of individual economic units (firms and households) will not necessarily add up to a macroeconomic equilibrium, but will produce a disequilibrium situation that will in the course of time produce changes in the individual decisions.Harry G. Johnson was Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and the University of Chicago. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Member of the Executive Committee of the American Economic Association. He has been editor of The Manchester School and the Journal of
This text investigates the historical and theoretical synthesis of Keynesian economics and classical monetary theory to explain modern economic systems. Harry G. Johnson, a distinguished professor at the London School of Economics and the University of Chicago, utilizes his extensive background in international trade and monetary policy to bridge the gap between output-focused Keynesian models and price-focused classical frameworks. He argues that contemporary economic analysis should not treat these as separate branches, but rather as two distinct contexts for understanding rational maximizing behavior within a unified system.
What You Will Find
Experts recognize this work as a significant contribution to the mid-20th-century effort to integrate disparate economic schools of thought. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which serves as a foundational text for understanding the evolution of modern macroeconomic policy.
Page Count:
213
Publication Date:
1972-12-31
Publisher:
Aldine Transaction
ISBN-10:
0202060535
ISBN-13:
9780202060538