Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (2)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Chakravarty, S. P.
Right arrow Articles by MacKay, R. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Cambridge Journal of Economics 23:337-351 (1999)
Copyright © 1999 Cambridge Political Economy Society

Article

Revolution and counter-revolution: two views of unemployment

SP Chakravarty and RR MacKay

University of Wales, Bangor, UK

Abstract

There is a view in economics that Keynes did not have a microeconomic theory underpinning his explanation of macroeconomics. For example, Friedman (1970) even goes so far as to maintain that prices are arbitrary in Keyne's approach to economics. The conclusion which follows from this critique of Keynes is that Keynesian economics cannot explain the occurrence of unemployment in a market economy except by invoking ad hoc assumptions. It is argued in this paper that the above critique is based on a misunderstanding of the focus of the Keynesian explanation of unemployment. The focus in Keynes is not choice, but exclusion from choice. In conventional microeconomics, the concept of choice is not considered problematic. The observation that a particular action is taken is confused with the view that the action is voluntarily chosen. The Keynesian explanation entails an exploration of what the concept of voluntary choice means.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.