10 - Ricardo, Walras and Keynes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
Summary
1 Economists are in disarray. They disagree with each other in their theoretical models and policy proposals. Some (the classical and neoclassical economists) believe that full employment and full utilization will be realized in labour and capital markets, respectively, as long as the economy works perfectly, while others (the Keynesians) consider that no mechanism is working in the economy for the establishment of full employment in the factor markets. These contrasting perspectives are based on and derived from their antagonistic premises: Say's law for the Ricardian and Walrasian economics and anti- or non-Say's law for the Keynesian economics. Say's law rules out general overproduction, while anti-Say's law allows for its possibility. Also, on the basis of the wage-fund theory, the classical economists advocate that the real-wage rate should be reduced, if Say's law does not work perfectly so that there remains some positive amount of unemployment to be removed from the market. Keynesian economists, on the other hand, might direct our attention to the fact that labour and capital are complementary, rather than substitutive, so that a decline in the real-wage rate will give rise to a decrease in the demand for the consumption goods but does not create any significant substitution effect between labour and capital in favour of the former. Therefore, it will create a decrease in employment.
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- Ricardo's EconomicsA General Equilibrium Theory of Distribution and Growth, pp. 209 - 232Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989
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