’The General Theory’ – et hovedværk i makroteorien runder 80 år

Abstract

Med udgivelsen af The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money den 4. februar 1936 udfordrede Keynes sin samtids mainstream opfattelse teoretisk som metodologisk. Med udgangspunkt heri indtog det keynesianske paradigme efterfølgende for flere årtier næsten totalt den makroøkonomiske scene. I dag 80 år efter udgivelsen har denne alderstegne bog så stadigvæk noget interessant at fortælle moderne makroøkonomer? Kan man eksempelvis i General Theory finde inspiration til en anden opfattelse af økonomi, teoretisk som metodologisk, end den der er givet ved den moderne New Neoclassical Synthesis, som i dag dominerer den makroøkonomiske mainstream tænkning?

---

On the 4^th of February 1936, Keynes published his General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. With this book, Keynes tried to present an alternative to the mainstream macroeconomic understanding of his time, theoretically as well as methodologically. As could be expected, this new book of Keynes initiated an intense discussion among his fellow colleges about macroeconomic matters and at the same time gave inspiration especially to young economists to put forward a macroeconomic framework that later on became known as the Keynesian Revolution or the Keynesian paradigm in economics. Today, 80 years after its publication; is The General Theory still of interest to modern macroeconomists? Could this old book inspire economists to take a somewhat different view than that of the modern New Neoclassical Synthesis that dominates the macroeconomic mainstream on economics and methodological matters?