Marx21

“The prototype models of new macro effectively abandoned the concerns that defined traditional macro. “New Keynesian” versions of new macro may include non-clearing labor markets and allow for real effects of aggregate demand policy. But it is assumed that in the absence of shocks, the economy converges to a structurally determined NAIRU, and cyclical fluctuations are generated by introducing stochastic shocks into models with a stable equilibrium solution. If only prices and wages were flexible, there would be no Keynesian problems of effective demand. It is not just that new macro gives another answer to old questions; new macro has stopped asking some of the main questions. The coordination and stability problems that were at the heart of macroeconomics (and of Keynes’s message) have been forgotten, and this implicit dismissal of stability concerns cannot be justified by reference to Walrasian general equilibrium theory. In fact, the realization that stability had not and probably could not be established under reasonable assumptions may have been a critical factor behind the virtual abandonment in microeconomics of all research on Walrasian general equilibrium theory. Is there a New Keynesian answer to the stability concerns? Not really. Stability is simply assumed. The models typically involve saddlepoints and jump variables, and the presumption of stability is used to pin down the outcome in the short run. Agents have rational expectations, and the jump variables seek out the stable saddlepath. [...] Macroeconomics is about the interactions across sectors and markets, and it has to address the stability and coordination problems that can arise from these interactions”

- Peter Skott, The Great Detour

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Clique aqui para ler o PDF do artigo completo “The Great Detour” de Peter Skott, publicado no journal Homo Oeconomicus.

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