This paper examines Robert E. Lucas's views on the relationship of macroeconomics to real world economic phenomena, and on Keynes's place in its history, suggesting that these stem from a particular and debatable understanding of how the subdiscipline has evolved. It considers some implications for today's awkward economic facts of aspects of Keynes' General Theory, not so much its speculations about the role of psychology and social conventions in the economic decisions of individual agents recently highlighted by Akerlof and Shiller (2009) however, as its insights into the influence of the monetary system on the coordination of these decisions, along lines later extended by Clower (1965) and Leijonhufvud (1968). It concludes that the questions about co-ordination that Keynes addressed, not to mention some of his answers, are well worth revisiting.
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Length: Date of creation: 2009 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:uwo:uwowop:20092
Contact details of provider: Postal: Department of Economics, Reference Centre, Social Science Centre, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C2 Phone: 519-661-2111 Ext.85228 Web page: http://economics.uwo.ca/econref/WorkingPapers/
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Find related papers by JEL classification: B22 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Macroeconomics B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals E12 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Keynes; Keynesian; Post-Keynesian E13 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Neoclassical E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
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