The Megacorp And Macrodynamics

These essays on Post-Keynesian economics were written expressly for a volume to honour the life and work of Alfred Eichner. The original countributions - that critically examine and extend ideas in Eichner's "The Macrodynamics of Advanced Market Economies" are organized in seven sections that correspond to areas of economics in which Eichner made a significant contribution. Part 1 deals with the megacorp, a theory of firm pricing and investment that was one of Eichner's most important contributions. Issues of productivity and technical change, that lie at the center of Eichner's macrodynamic model, are the focus of part 1 and parts 3 and 4 elaborate on Eichner's work on growth and money and yield insights into the theoretical disagreements among the Post-Keynesians themselves. Part 5 presents a number of examples of non-neo-classical model building. Part 6 opens with a critique of the "new economic history" that leads to other essays on thorny methodological issues confronting Post-Keynesians. Part 7 gives a European perspective on North American Post-Keynesian economics. The essays reveal the relationships between Eichner's work and Institutionalist and Marxian economics. At the same time, the book raises current theoretical conflicts among these groups as well as among Post-Keynesians themselves. This book compliments Alfred S.Eichner's "The Macrodynamics of Advanced Market Economies", also published in 1991, and is appropriate for scholars and upper-level undergraduates and graduate students.

This book provides both an explanation of the inflation which has bedeviled economic policy in the West since the end of World War II and a micro-economic theory to purge Keynesian models of the Walrasian strain derived from Marshall's Principles. By focusing on what is taken to be the representative business firm of the twentieth century - the large corporation or megacorp - the microeconomic model presented in the book reverses the usual assumptions of economic analysis. Instead of assuming the existence of firms with no control over prices, the book examines how the megacorp uses its pricing power to finance its own internal rate of growth. The result is a determinant model of how prices are set under the sort of oligopolistic conditions which prevail in most modern industries throughout the world.

These essays on Post-Keynesian economics critically examine and extend ideas in Eichner's "The Macrodynamics of Advanced Market Economies". They are organized in seven sections that correspond to areas of economics in which Eichner made a significant contribution.

This title was first published in 1976. This book provides both an explanation of the inflation which has bedeviled economic policy in the West since the end of World War II and a micro-economic theory to purge Keynesian models of the Walrasian strain derived from Marshall's Principles. By focusing on what is taken to be the representative business firm of the twentieth century - the large corporation or megacorp - the microeconomic model presented in the book reverses the usual assumptions of economic analysis. Instead of assuming the existence of firms with no control over prices, the book examines how the megacorp uses its pricing power to finance its own internal rate of growth. The result is a determinant model of how prices are set under the sort of oligopolistic conditions which prevail in most modern industries throughout the world.

This title was first published in 1976. This book provides both an explanation of the inflation which has bedeviled economic policy in the West since the end of World War II and a micro-economic theory to purge Keynesian models of the Walrasian strain derived from Marshall's Principles. By focusing on what is taken to be the representative business firm of the twentieth century - the large corporation or megacorp - the microeconomic model presented in the book reverses the usual assumptions of economic analysis. Instead of assuming the existence of firms with no control over prices, the book examines how the megacorp uses its pricing power to finance its own internal rate of growth. The result is a determinant model of how prices are set under the sort of oligopolistic conditions which prevail in most modern industries throughout the world.

This volume examines the macrodynamic behaviour of advanced economies with social institutions similar to those of the United States and other members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. It is a critique of, and provides alternative models to, conventional neoclassical theory. The principles developed are used to explain two major phenomena in economic life: the nation's secular growth rate and the cyclical deviations around that growth. These interdependent movements of trend and cycle constitute the economy's macrodynamic behaviour. Eichner uses a systems framework for integrating four distinct institutional dimensions in society - the normative, the political, the economic, and the anthropogenic. This book, by one of the leading proponents of Post-Keynesian economics, is the culmination of over 13 years of scholarly work. The author's untimely death in February 1988 prevented the final revisions of his manuscript. The book should prove an essential addition to the library of scholars and students of economics both within and outside the Post-Keynesian tradition.

Alfred Eichner's pioneering contributions to post-Keynesian econmics offered significant insights on the way modern economies and institutions actually work. Published in 1987, his "Macrodynamics of Advanced Market Economies" contains rich chapters on dynamics and growth, investment, finance and income distribution, a timely chapter on the State and fiscal policy, and two analytical chapters on endogenous money that are years ahead of their time. Featuring chapters by many of Eichner's disciples, this book celebrates his rich contributions to post-Keynesian economics, and demonstrates that his work is in many ways as valid today as it was over two decades ago.