Keynesian economics
Synonyms
Examples
First and foremost, Keynesian economics is a theory of aggregate demand and of the effects of aggregate demand on real output and inflation.
Thanks to the work of John Maynard Keynes and of Milton Friedman, we now have a better understanding of how governments can (at least in principle) reduce the severity of major economic downturns. Keynesian economics taught us that government spending can raise GDP and reduce unemployment.
It is too early to say there is a consensus about how all these topics fit together. Yet one can say that the new classical challenge has been met: Keynesian economics has been reincarnated into a body with firm microeconomic muscle.
In reading the economics journals and talking with newly-minted PhDs, it is as if Keynesian economics never existed.
Notwithstanding the predominant role in academic economic theory that Keynes and Keynesian economics achieved during the twentieth century, his basic outlook and policy recommendations were shaped by the particular experiences of the British Empire's waning years.
The legacy of Keynesian economics.