The study of a monetary economy requires concepts that are appropriate for this task. The essays in this dissertation study some of the concepts that Keynes used in this kind of analysis in The General Theory They have to do with the peculiarities of a monetary production economy and with the irreversibility of time. They also try to go beyond a history of economic theory and develop, where appropriate, the implications of Keynes's ideas for modern theory. Keynes argued that an essential feature of money was its zero elasticity of substitution. The first essay relates this idea to the 1930's debate on the recently introduced concept of elasticity of substitution, and shows its relation to the problems of multiplicity and stability of long-period equilibria. An economy in which there is a good with the essential features of money has multiple long-period unemployment equilibria. The essay also shows that some elements of the Cambridge controversies on the theory of capital were present in the substitution debate. The second essay traces the connection between the short period pricing in A Treatise on Money and the concepts Keynes used in order to link the present and the future in The General Theory. User cost and own rates of interest are generalizations for all assets of the theory of the Treatise on Money, with Fisherian elements that can be traced through Sraffa and Adarkar. This view of interest made it possible to understand the marginal efficiency of capital as something different from interest, and to reject its determination by marginal productivity. The third essay starts with the Keynesian concept of convention and builds an explanation in which investment decisions depend on individual expectations about the evolution of the economy. These individual expectations are based upon conventional knowledge and interactions among entrepreneurs. The interactions have macroeconomic effects which have, in turn, microeconomic consequences. Some of the results of the literature on the trade cycle can be obtained as a result of the introduction of conventions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:599303 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | García, M. |
| Publisher | University of Cambridge |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0152 seconds