Re: Re: Re: intro macro text

["J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>]

Michael,
      Did the McKenna version resemble the current
standard formulation or the Davidson-Smolensky
formulation?  Did it have any other odd particulars
to it?
      I disagree that AS/AD is inherently "anti-Keynesian."
For the umpteenth time, go look at Chapter 21, Section
IV of Keynes's General Theory.  There it is in a verbal
description, if not in a drawn graph, well before McKenna.
      I have also noted that one can have a consistent
linkage between the K-cross and AS/AD if one does
the K-cross in purely nominal terms.  One gets the
shift of AD out of the K-cross multiplier analysis.  How
it breaks out between a price and output increase then
depends on the shape of the AS curve.  I even do an
analysis of the multiplier that involves purely price increases
for the vertical AS zone case.
     I may be more enamored of the
multiplier than many because I also teach Urban Economics,
where it is a very real  phenomenon.  I hear colleagues who
are using Mankiw and don't mind that he has relegated the
multiplier to a dinky box in the back because they think that
"there is no multiplier" and just shake my head.  Sure as hell
is one out there, and I, for one, think students should know it.
      Again, I think the "anti-Keynesian" implication comes
from assuming a vertical AS curve, not the use of AS/AD
itself, per se.
Barkley Rosser
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 12:32 PM
>Subject: [PEN-L:980] Re: Re: intro macro text


>The first book to have introduced AS-AD seems to have been.  McKenna, J.P.
1955.
>Aggregate Economic Analysis, 1st ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press). It
did
>not have much influence.
>
>"J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." wrote:
>
>>       I note that the first people, after Keynes himself,
>> to use the terminology of aggregate supply and aggregate
>> demand were Paul Davidson and Eugene Smolensky in
>> their 1964 book, _Aggregate Supply and Demand Analysis_.
>>
>
>Yes, their's was different in that respect.  They were not just trying to
hoist
>macro onto a simple supply and demand curve.  Keynes provided the
terminology,
>but the theory AS/AD is anti-Keynesian.
>
>
>> They followed the main Keynes version using Z-score functions
>> in a space of employment on the x-axis and revenue on the
>> y-axis.  This, of course, resembles the "Keynesian cross,"
>> although not in its standard textbook Samuelsonian form.
>> It is not the same as the current AS/AD that has P on the y-axis.
>> But, as I have already noted, one can find that one in Chapter
>> 21 of Keynes's _General Theory_.
>> Barkley Rosser
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Keaney Michael <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>
>> To: 'pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' <pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Date: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 2:30 AM
>> Subject: [PEN-L:964] intro macro text
>>
>> >Peter Dorman wrote:
>> >
>> >Stretton's book is interesting but very idiosyncratic -- not suitable
for
>> >the
>> >sort of course I want to teach.  For me, there are two things I'm trying
to
>> >accomplish, to improve student's understanding of how economies work,
and
>> to
>> >increase their ability to critique mainstream economics as an
intellectual
>> >and
>> >political force.  That's why I'm happy to use an orthodox text, as long
as
>> >it
>> >isn't too counterproductive pedagogically.
>> >
>> >MK writes: I'm not sure how Stretton does not fit your criteria. I read
his
>> >book as trying to accomplish just those aims. And it would be a strange
>> >orthodoxy that dispensed with AS/AD, as you would wish it to do. Of
course
>> >the content may be too broad in coverage for your purposes.
>> >
>> >In a recent RRPE John McDermott brought to attention Robert Guttmann's
>> >neglected "How Credit-Money Shapes the Economy" (M.E. Sharpe, 1994).
While
>> >it's probably not at all what you are looking for, its treatment of
money
>> as
>> >endogenous enables Guttmann to offer a very good economic history of the
US
>> >to the present. It's a lot more convincing than most macro.
>> >
>> >Michael K.
>> >
>> >
>
>--
>Michael Perelman
>Economics Department
>California State University
>Chico, CA 95929
>
>Tel. 530-898-5321
>E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>