The Emergence of Theoretical and Institutional Coherence in Post Keynesian Economics

Abstract

Since its inception in the 1930s, Keynesian economics has been subject to interpretation, and fragmentation into different schools of Keynesianism. One such school is Post Keynesian economics, the origins of which are principally associated with an eclectic group of economists located in Cambridge, England. Amongst this group were such luminaries as Nicholas Kaldor, Joan Robinson, and Richard Kahn. Another important figure at Oxford, was the Polish emigre economist, Michael Kalecki; in the United States, the founding contributors to the Post Keynesian tradition in macroeconomics include Paul Davidson, Sidney Weintraub, and Hyman Minsky.²

The title for this chapter was suggested by a paper by Hamouda and Harcourt (1988). However, where they conclude against the existence (or even desirability) of coherence, my own position is the opposite.