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On Keynes' Animal Spirits

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  • Marchionatti, Roberto

Abstract

According to Keynes the formation of entrepreneurial expectations on investment in an uncertain environment depends on conventional judgements and animal spirits, in addition to and supporting rational calculation. Conventions and animal spirits have no room in the mainstream theoretical framework, because their existence makes long-term expectations exogenous and their influence totally arbitrary. For this reason in particular animal spirits have been excluded from scientific enquiry. This paper argues that: a) the theoretical framework of bounded rationality permits reconsidering and supporting Keynes' hypothesis that in an uncertain environment it is reasonable that the decisions of economic agents should depend on non-rational motives, b) in this context, animal spirits can be considered as a typical entrepreneurial impulse, depending on political, social and economic atmosphere: the latter being analysed in terms of motivations of innovative behaviour. Copyright 1999 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG

Suggested Citation

  • Marchionatti, Roberto, 1999. "On Keynes' Animal Spirits," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 415-439.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:52:y:1999:i:3:p:415-39
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    Cited by:

    1. Roberto Marchionatti, 2010. "J. M. Keynes, thinker of economic complexity," History of Economic Ideas, Fabrizio Serra Editore, Pisa - Roma, vol. 18(2), pages 115-146.
    2. Dow Alexander & Dow Sheila C., 2011. "Animal Spirits Revisited," Capitalism and Society, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 1-25, December.
    3. Sonya Marie Scott, 2018. "Crises, confidence, and animal spirits:exploring subjectivity in the dualism of Descartes and Keynes," The Journal of Philosophical Economics, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, The Journal of Philosophical Economics, vol. 11(2), pages 1-28, May.
    4. Anna Carabelli & Nicolo De Vecchi, 2001. "Hayek and Keynes: From a common critique of economic method to different theories of expectations," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 269-285.
    5. Pech, Wesley & Milan, Marcelo, 2009. "Behavioral economics and the economics of Keynes," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 891-902, December.
    6. Antonio Bianco, 2015. "Shadow banking, relationship banking, and the economics of depression," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 68(275), pages 297-326.
    7. Hanoch, Yaniv, 2002. ""Neither an angel nor an ant": Emotion as an aid to bounded rationality," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 1-25, February.
    8. Antonelli, Cristiano, 2007. "The system dynamics of collective knowledge: From gradualism and saltationism to punctuated change," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 215-236, February.
    9. Roberto Marchionatti, 2003. "Dealing with Complexity: Marshall and Keynes on the Nature of Economic Thinking," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Richard Arena & Michel Quéré (ed.), The Economics of Alfred Marshall, chapter 3, pages 32-52, Palgrave Macmillan.
    10. Michaël Lainé, 2016. "The heterogeneity of animal spirits: a first taxonomy of entrepreneurs with regard to investment expectations," Post-Print hal-01744745, HAL.
    11. Garrone Giovanna & Marchionatti Roberto, 2007. "Keynes, statistics and econometrics," CESMEP Working Papers 200703, University of Turin.
    12. Garrone Giovanna & Marchionatti Roberto, 2007. "The appropriate style of economic discourse. Keynes on Economics and Econometrics," CESMEP Working Papers 200702, University of Turin.
    13. Antonio Bariletti & Eleonora Sanfilippo, 2015. "At the origin of the notion of “creative goods” in economics: Scitovsky and Hawtrey," Working Papers 2015-02, Universita' di Cassino, Dipartimento di Economia e Giurisprudenza.
    14. Gabe J. Bondt & Stefano Schiaffi, 2015. "Confidence Matters for Current Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence for the Euro Area and the United States," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 96(4), pages 1027-1040, December.

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