Michal Kalecki

This book presents a thorough evaluation of Michal Kalecki's theory of the capitalist economy. It provides readers with a complete view of Kalecki's theory, including his very important writings on the economics of underdeveloped countries.

This volume of intellectual biography takes the Polish economist Micha Kalecki (1899-1970) from the shattering of his prosperous childhood, in Tsarist Łódź in the 1905 Revolution, to Cambridge and the failure of his co-operative research with John Maynard Keynes's supporters in Cambridge.

Kalecki's ideas on economic functioning are discussed in this book, followed by an analysis of his contributions to the theories of long-run planning and growth under socialism. His ideas on social aspects of economic development under socialism are discussed.

Rosa Luxemburg, Oskar Lange and Michal Kalecki made important contributions to twentieth century political economy that guided the thinking of their student Tadeusz Kowalik. These contributions are re-examined by renowned economists, highlighting the common themes in their political economy and the neglected aspects of their work.

This volume of intellectual biography records the work of Michał Kalecki’s maturity: his work on monetary economics and the theory of profits; his work on the problems of socialism and developing countries; and the extension of his theory of capitalism to define his work in relation to Keynes and previous political economic principles. Kalecki had, by 1939, laid out the essential elements of his theory of the business cycle in capitalism. This book begins at Oxford where, at the Institute of Statistics, he worked on the economic planning and financing of World War Two, as well as extending and detailing the particulars of his theory and examining the conditions for full employment in the post-War international monetary and financial system. Kalecki would then work for the United Nations on full employment, inflation, and developing countries. He departed from the United Nations in 1955, and returned to Poland to extend two new directions of his ideas – on the economics of developing countries and his theory of growth in the socialist economy, alongside further work on business cycles. This book is essential reading for all those who want to understand Kalecki’s lasting contribution to economic theory and policy.

This is the first of seven volumes in a definitive edition of the works of Michal Kalecki, who is one of the most distinguished economists of this century. The works will be of interest for the controversial light which they shed on the ideas expounded by John Maynard Keynes, since Kalecki arguably arrived at these conclusions even earlier than Keynes. This volume documents the confrontation between the two economists. It also charts Kalecki's development of a theory of full employment, including his early theoretical writings, and some of his less famous works.