Keynes and the Classics: A Dynamical Perspective

Abstract

Although it is possible to draw various purely technical distinctions between modern and pre-Keynesian economics, it is mainly with respect to matters of intellectual orientation that the two are strikingly different. Many and diverse reasons have been advanced to explain why this should be so, most of them plausible, all of them fairly elaborate. The purpose of this note is to add an element of unity and simplicity to these explanations by suggesting a straight-forward dynamical interpretation of the foundations of Keynesian and classical thought.