Social and Behavioral Sciences | Open Access Articles

A Risky Theory Of Business Cycles, David C. Thomas

David Chandler Thomas, PhD

Book review of Tyler Cowen's 1997 book, Risk and Business Cycles.

An Empirical Evaluation Of Three Post Keynesian Models, Peter Skott, Ben Zipperer

Peter Skott

Structuralist and post Keynesian models differ in their assumptions about firms’ investment behavior and pricing/output decisions. This paper compares three benchmark models: Kaleckian, Robinsonian and Kaldorian. We analyze the implications of these models for the steady growth path and the cyclical properties of the economy, and evaluate the consistency of the theoretical predictions with empirical evidence for the US. Our regression results and the stylized cyclical pattern of key variables are consistent with the Kaldorian model. The Kaleckian investment function and the Robinsonian pricing behavior find no support in the data.

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Appropriate Fiscal Policy Over The Business Cycle: Proper Stimulus Policies Can Work, Philip E. Graves

PHILIP E GRAVES

Fiscal policy has become quite controversial in the post-Keynesian era, the debate over the Obama stimulus package being a contentious recent example. Some pundits go so far as to take the position that macroeconomic theory has failed to meaningfully progress in terms of providing useful recommendations for policy-makers, particularly in times of recession. Others take the laissez-faire view that policy reactions to the business cycle do not help in a rational expectations world and indeed do harm by increasing uncertainty. Still others, while not necessarily viewing themselves as in any sense ―Keynesian,‖ have a nagging feeling that sometimes doing nothing …