Industrial Policies and the Macroeconomic Effects of Taxation: Some Comments

Abstract

Keynesian economic policies are currently in disrepute because of a tendency to define such policies in terms that are too narrow and uncreative and because the theoretical underpinnings have been inadequately understood by many so-called ‘Keynesian’ proponents. While one could argue that there was never any real problem of the relevance of Keynesian economic policies for those who thoroughly understood Keynes and the major related thinkers, there is undoubtedly a need to convince many others of the relevance of Keynesian policies today. Part of the challenge is to articulate and extend the theoretical foundations and explanations of Keynesian policy options. Another part of the challenge is to extend the policy options to deal with the ever-changing realities of the modern world. The studies by Amable and Petit (Chapter 2) and by Mair and Laramie (Chapter 1) both make interesting contributions in this direction.