Post-Keynesian modelling: where are we, and where are we going to?

Abstract

This paper presents the current “state of the art” of Post-Keynesian modelling, as well as the most important issues raised by it. We first present a new formal statement of the Keynes' model, highlighting the importance of the “static model of a dynamic process”, and insisting on the influence of “true uncertainty” and of the “views concerning the future.” The paper then analyses the three most important classes of Post-Keynesian contemporary models: the Kaleckian models of growth; the Minskian models showing the destabilizing impacts of financial variables on the economy; and the path-dependant models insisting on the nature of time in economics, and on the absence of any “natural” anchor. We argue that, whereas the current Post-Keynesian models have a lot in common with Keynes’ model, none of them encompasses all its rich and realistic properties, and a synthetic dynamic Post-Keynesian model is desirable, and has still to be framed. The main barriers to this synthesis are underlined.Post-Keynesian modelling; Keynes’ “static model of a dynamic process”; Kaleckian models; Minskian models; Models of path dependency