The Paradox of Money in the Economics of Joan Robinson

Is there a paradox in the economics of Joan Robinson in the post-Keynesian period?1 Apart from Richard Kahn, she worked with Keynes more closely than anyone else during the years of preparation of the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, a book which explains unemployment in terms of money and interest and which Keynes initially entitled ‘The Monetary Theory of Production’ (Keynes, 1979, p.49). In the early post-General Theory years, Mrs Robinson published several books and numerous journal articles expounding, with Keynes’s approval, the doctrines of the General Theory. In her published writings she was always a loyal follower and defender of Keynes’s theory. Yet in the post-Keynesian phase (after 1946) of her career money occupies no significant place in her extension of the General Theory to capital accumulation, economic growth, and the distribution of income. There appears to be a paradox in the sense that, after deep immersion in the monetary economics of Keynes, the absence of money as a strategic factor in her theory runs counter to expectations. The present chapter examines this apparent paradox. Section 1 deals briefly with the period prior to the preparation of the General Theory; Section 2 with the preparation and early aftermath of the General Theory; Section 3 with the post-Keynesian period following Keynes’s death in 1946; and Section 4 contains some general observations and conclusions.