Introduction to Post-Keynesian Economics: New Foundations by Marc Lavoie

Abstract

As post-Keynesian economics is nearing its 50th anniversary (see Rochon 2023), it is an opportunity to reflect on what Lavoie (2022, p. 34) calls the ‘institutionalization of postKeynesian economics’, that is the state of post-Keynesian conferences, books, journals, summer schools, textbooks and organizations. Inevitably, this leads us into discussions over the future of the institution. Needless to say, there are far more conferences, summer schools, textbooks, and journals today than some 2 decades ago, let alone 5 decades, and the future promises many more. The number of post-Keynesian books, in particular, has also multiplied, largely the result of post-Keynesian-friendly publishers. Among these books, there are notably, Arestis (1992), Dutt and Amadeo (1990), King (2002) and more recently Blecker and Setterfield (2019) and Hein (2023), but in our opinion, very few have impacted the heterodox community quite in the way Lavoie’s book has. For many, and we hear this all the time from young and older scholars alike, this is the ultimate book of reference on anything related to post-Keynesian economics. According to Google Scholar, this edition of the book has been cited 1602 times — making it one of the most cited post-Keynesian or heterodox books. The book covers many topics relevant to the growth of post-Keynesian economics, which following Lavoie, we define broadly to include a great many heterodox traditions. As an indication of the influence of this book, in 2022, someone on Twitter stated unequivocally, ‘post-Keynesian economics is whatever Lavoie says it is.’ This book is more than merely informative on post-Keynesian economics; it lays the foundation for future reflection and research. The first version of the book appeared in 1992 and had a slightly different title, Foundations of Post-Keynesian Economic Analysis. Rochon was an undergraduate student at the University of Ottawa in the mid-1980s, and taking Lavoie’s class (in French) on ‘Post-Keynesian Theory: Money and Effective Demand’, in 1986. The content of that class would eventually become the 1992 book, indicating a long, reflective, gestation period. But it took some 22 years for a new version of the book to be in print, along with a slightly modified, flipped, title, now Post-Keynesian Economics: New Foundations, albeit with the same publisher, Edward Elgar. The revised title was largely the result of the vast changes to the second version of the book — including a new chapter on