#29:483
483
29 Modern Schools of Economic Thought
WHY DIDN'T KEYNES REJECT PERFECT COMPETITION IN
BOX 29.1
THE GENERAL THEORY?
Keynes did not reject the neoclassical assumption of perfect competition. His strategy was usually
to accept as much common ground as possible with (neo) Classical thinkers and then to reject only
those assumptions that he believed to be critical to the point he was trying to make. His followers
are divided on the wisdom of such a strategy.
Some, especially those who have read the work of Kalecki, insist that this was a mistake. It
would have been much simpler and more realistic to simply reject the notion of perfect competi-
tion and instead include different degrees of competition across industries.
Even orthodox economists accept the conclusion that in the absence of perfect competition,
markets do not clear because the optimal strategy for firms with market power is to restrict out-
put in order to control price. Prices and wages, then, are not set to clear markets.
However, Keynesian fundamentalists argue that the degree of competition is irrelevant to his
model. All that is needed is that output and employment are both functions of expected effective
demand. Then Say's Law is broken.
Furthermore, as Keynes argued, wages and prices are sticky: people will not use money con-
tracts nor hold money as a temporary store of purchasing power, unless prices are relatively
sticky. They have to have some confidence that flow supply prices do not vary much. Flow supply
prices are the prices that are required to induce producers to produce additional output. These
prices must be sticky, but at a price high enough to cover costs with a margin.
On the other hand, spot prices might be more flexible. These are the current prices at which
output can be sold out of inventory. They may not be high enough to induce more production. Only
if spot prices rise higher than flow supply prices will more output be forthcoming. So, while spot
prices can be relatively flexible, flow supply prices need to be fairly rigid to maintain conditions
that are conducive to production.
Also Keynes argued, being able to hold money and to write contracts, along with stickiness of
price, allows individuals to de lay decisions to the future. If money prices could fluctuate wild ly, it
would be too risky to hold money in order to delay decisions since one would not know how much
the money held would be worth in terms of resources or output. A perfect' market in labour with
flexible wages would not be compatible with a monetary economy. Money could not serve as the
uink between the present and the future, unless there is some stickines
3.Moneyは、交換の媒体としても価値のある店としても機能します。さらに、お金には2つの不可欠な要素がなければならない
特性:(a)生産の弾性がごくわずかであり、そのため生産に必要な労力が最小限である。この
貯蔵するためのお金の需要が増加し、総需要が減少すると、総雇用は減少する。
(b)補充の弾力性がごくわずかであるため、貯蓄するための金銭の需要が高まったときには、これを達成することはできません。
他の商品や資産に満足している。
以下の命題は、原理主義的ケインジアンアプローチの重要な要素から生じる。
1.不確実性が存在する場合、長期的に見ても、完全雇用では均衡がとれない可能性があります。
2.お金が会計の単位として機能するというその独特の役割を果たすことであるならば、お金の賃金の粘着性は不可欠です。
そこには契約が書かれており、価値の貯蔵庫としても機能しています。
3.Money serves both as a medium of exchange and a store of value. In addition, money must have two essential
properties: (a) a negligible elasticity of production, so that minimal labour is required in its production. This
ns that when the demand for money to hoard rises, and aggregate demand falls, total employment falls;
(b) a negligible elasticity of substitution so that when the demand for money to hoard rises, this cannot be
satisfied by other goods or assets.
The following propositions result from the key components of the fundamentalist Keynesian approach:
1. If uncertainty exists, then even in the long run, there may be no equilibrium at full employment.
2. The stickiness of the money wage is essential if money is to play its peculiar role of acting as the unit of account
in which contracts are written and also serving as a store of value.
3. If wages and prices are fully flexible, then money will not matter in the long run; but something else would
at
take its place.
Being able to hold money and to write contracts in money terms, along with stickiness of prices, allows individ-
monetary economy. We hold money because we do not trust our guesses about the future and it provides us with
uals to delay decisions to the future. A perfect labour market with flexible wages would not be compatible with a
a reliable store of value so long as wages and prices are relatively sticky in terms of money. (Note that this does not
require that inflarioni
1 with reasonable confidence project money's value into the future.)
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