Functional Finance and Full Employment: Lessons from Lerner for Today

Recent global economic developments invite a reconsideration of orthodox macroeconomic theory and policy and encourage a revisiting of the ideas of unorthodox thinkers of the past. This paper reviews fifteen lessons to be learned from the work of Abba Lerner. These lessons, which fall under the general categories of functional finance and full employment, are as relevant today as they were when they were first put forward some five decades ago. They include insights into the workings of the macroeconomy that provide a basis for analyzing current macroeconomic developments and for formulating effective macroeconomic policies.

"Savings-Recycling Public Employment: An Assets-Based Approach to Full Employment and Price Stability"

William Vickrey's single-minded commitment to full employment is evident in a series of papers written in the last years of his life. In these works Vickrey formulated an assets-based approach to macroeconomic analysis that has definite implications for budgetary and employment policy. For Vickrey the relation between desired and actual holdings of net financial assets--or net nominal savings--is crucial to understanding macroeconomic processes, and the government budget is the key policy instrument in the necessary recycling of net nominal savings to bring the desired and actual levels into equality at the full employment level of output and income. Vickrey believed that the major task for economists and policymakers was to devise the means whereby the necessary recycling of net nominal savings can take place without unexpected changes in the rate of either inflation or deflation. This paper proposes government deficit-financed, guaranteed public employment as an automatic stabilizing policy instrument capable of serving as just such a means.

"The Case for an Environmentally Sustainable Jobs Program"

The job numbers in the United States and around the globe continue to look bleak. Not only are the absolute numbers dismal, but also job growth has dragged on with no hope for a substantial change in prospects. This situation supports the view that we are facing a long-term problem that requires critical and creative problem-solving responses. Since unemployment is the major cause of poverty, many of our most pressing social problems are directly or indirectly related to joblessness. I argue that not only the quantity but also the quality of jobs is at issue.

Visions and Scenarios: Heilbroner's Worldly Philosophy, Lowe's Political Economics, and the Methodology of Ecological Economics

Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary alternative to mainstream environmental economics. Attempts have been made to outline a methodology for ecological economics and it is probably fair to say that, at this point, ecological economics takes a “pluralistic” approach. There are, however, some common methodological themes that run through the ecological economics literature. This paper argues that the works of Adolph Lowe and Robert Heilbroner can inform the development of some of those themes. Both authors were aware of the environmental challenges facing humanity from quite early on in their work, and quite ahead of time. In addition, both Lowe’s Economics and Sociology (and related writings) and Heilbroner’s “Worldly Philosophy” (itself influenced by this work of Lowe) recognized the endogeneity of the natural environment, the impact of human activity on the environment, and the implications of this for questions of method. Lowe and Heilbroner also became increasingly concerned with issues related to the environment over time, such that these issues became of prime importance in their frameworks. This work deals directly with ecological and environmental issues; both authors also dealt with other issues that relate to the environmental challenge, such as technological change. But it is not only their work that explicitly addresses the environment or relates to environmental challenges that is relevant to the concerns of ecological economists. Both Heilbroner’s “Worldly Philosophy” and Lowe’s “Political Economics” offer insights that may prove useful in developing a methodology of ecological economics. Ecological economists have taken a pluralistic approach to methodology, but the common themes in this work regarding the importance and nature of vision, analysis (including structural analysis), scenarios, implementation, the necessity of working backwards, the role for imagination, rejecting the positive/normative dichotomy, and so on, all are issues that have been elaborated in Lowe’s work, and in ways that are relevant to ecological economics. The goal of the paper is actually quite modest: to make ecological economists aware of the work of the two authors, and get them interested enough to explore the possible contribution of these ideas to their methodological approach.Keywords: vision, scenario, analysis, Adolph Lowe, Robert Heilbroner, methodology of ecological economics

"Visions and Scenarios: Heilbroner's Worldly Philosophy, Lowe's Political Economics, and the Methodology of Ecological Economics"

Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary alternative to mainstream environmental economics. Attempts have been made to outline a methodology for ecological economics and it is probably fair to say that, at this point, ecological economics takes a "pluralistic" approach. There are, however, some common methodological themes that run through the ecological economics literature. This paper argues that the works of Adolph Lowe and Robert Heilbroner can inform the development of some of those themes. Both authors were aware of the environmental challenges facing humanity from quite early on in their work, and quite ahead of time. In addition, both Lowe's 'Economics and Sociology' (and related writings) and Heilbroner's "Worldly Philosophy" (itself influenced by this work of Lowe) recognized the endogeneity of the natural environment, the impact of human activity on the environment, and the implications of this for questions of method. Lowe and Heilbroner also became increasingly concerned with issues related to the environment over time, such that these issues became of prime importance in their frameworks. This work deals directly with ecological and environmental issues; both authors also dealt with other issues that relate to the environmental challenge, such as technological change. But it is not only their work that explicitly addresses the environment or relates to environmental challenges that is relevant to the concerns of ecological economists. Both Heilbroner's "Worldly Philosophy" and Lowe's "Political Economics" offer insights that may prove useful in developing a methodology of ecological economics. Ecological economists have taken a pluralistic approach to methodology, but the common themes in this work regarding the importance and nature of vision, analysis (including structural analysis), scenarios, implementation, the necessity of working backwards, the role for imagination, rejecting the positive/normative dichotomy, and so on, all are issues that have been elaborated in Lowe's work, and in ways that are relevant to ecological economics. The goal of the paper is actually quite modest: to make ecological economists aware of the work of the two authors, and get them interested enough to explore the possible contribution of these ideas to their methodological approach.

"Toward a New Instrumental Macroeconomics: Abba Lerner and Adolph Lowe on Economic Method, Theory, History, and Policy"

This paper argues that the ideas of Abba Lerner and Adolph Lowe contain overlapping and complementary insights and themes that may contribute to the development of a new approach to macroeconomics and that have rather specific practical policy implications. Lerner's notions of functional finance and money as a creature of the state are combined with Lowe's structural analysis to forge an approach to macroeconomic theory and policy that considers both aggregate proportionality and balance and sectoral relations and that addresses issues regarding monetary production and effective demand as well as ongoing structural and technological change. Such a "new instrumental macroeconomics," focusing on full employment, price stability, and a decent standard of living for all, has important points of contact with recent proposals promoting job opportunities through direct job creation with a public service corps that benefits communities while serving as a buffer stock of labor providing price stability.

Selective Use of Discretionary Public Employment and Economic Flexibility

Full employment is normally associated with structuralrigidities that may result in production bottlenecks and inflationary pressures. Flexibility or elasticity of the production system istherefore a desirable feature of an economic system. Many standardmodels, however, exhibit flexibility because of the use of unacceptablyunrealistic assumptions. While unemployment and excess capacity areimportant real- life factors that endow economic systems with flexibility, the flexibility gained in this manner comes at a high social and economiccost. This paper explores these issues and proposes the selective use ofdiscretionary public employment as a means of promoting higher levels ofemployment--and even full employment--without creating structuralrigidities, resulting in negative enivronmental consequences, or causing undesirable geographic dislocation of workers.

Introduction to Symposium on the European Economic and Monetary Union

This article is a short introduction to the 5 paper symposium on the European economic and monetary union appearing in this issue.EMU; Employment; Full Employment; Stabilization