Beyond Microfoundations
Post Walrasian Economics

This book discusses the foundations for post-Walrasian macroeconomics.

David Colander (Edited by)

9780521552370, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 January 1996

284 pages, 9 b/w illus.
23.5 x 16.1 x 2.6 cm, 0.52 kg

"...this book is extremely valuable for expanding the horizon of economic thinking. It provides a key to a sizeable literature working towards new economic paradigm." Michael Ambrosi, Eastern Economic Journal

Beyond Microfoundations discusses the foundations for a post-Walrasian macroeconomics and, in doing so, carries the work of Robert Clower and Axel Leijonhufvud to the present. This book spells out both why an alternative approach to macro is needed, and what the essence of the approach will be. This post-Walrasian approach to macro is neither Keynesian nor Classical, both of which have Walrasian foundations, but it offers an approach to macro in which Walrasian economics is turned on its head. Specifically, it rejects the Walrasian ad hoc assumptions of the existence of a unique equilibrium and of simple dynamics. That rejection leads one to a fundamentally different conception of macro than most macroeconomics have implicit in their formal model. Post-Walrasian macroeconomics offers a vision of macro in which micro foundations devoid of an explicit macro context have no place, but one in which institutions have a fundamental role. Post-Walrasian macroeconomics provides a foundation for an alternative macroeconomics for the twenty-first century built on the edges of chaos.

About the authors
Preface
1. Overview David Colander
Part I. The Post-Walrasian Macroeconomic Vision: 2. Taking markets seriously: groundwork for a post-Walrasian macroeconomics Robert Clower and Peter Howitt
3. Towards a not-too-rational macroeconomics Axel Leijonhufvud
4. The macrofoundations of micro David Colander
Part II. The Underpinnings of Post-Walrasian Macroeconomics: 5. The evolution of macroeconomics: the origins of post-Walrasian economics Perry Mehrling
6. Chaos theory and post-Walrasian macroeconomics J. Barkley Rosser Jr
7. Marshallian general equilibrium analysis David Colander
Part III. Modelling a Post-Walrasian Economy: 8. Heterogeneity, aggregation and a meaningful macroeconomics Robert J. Martel
9. Walras, complexity and post-Walrasian macroeconomics David M. Reaume
10. Team coordination problems and macroeconomic models John Bryant
11. 'Competitive' market disequilibrium: a post-Walrasian analysis of investment John Bryant
Part IV. New Structuralist Macroeconomics vs. Post-Walrasian Macroeconomics: 12. Endogenizing the natural rate of unemployment: Phelps's structural slumps and the post-Walrasian framework Hans van Ees and Harry Garretsen
13. Post-Walrasian macroeconomic policy David Colander and Hans van Ees
Part V. Appendix: Literature Survey: An annotated bibliography on the (macro)foundation of Post-Walrasian economics Hans van Ees and Harry Garretsen
Name index
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Macroeconomics [KCB]