Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine modern monetary policy as practiced and promoted by the officials of Central Banks, with the Federal Reserve Bank of the USA and the Bank of Japan in leading roles. Design/methodology/approach – Modern monetary policy is assessed for its...

The past decades have witnessed falling wage shares and a polarization of personal income distribution. Average wages and average labour compensation have not kept up with productivity growth. Functional income distribution has shifted at the expense of labour. In many countries personal income...

This paper examines how supply-side policies may play a role in fighting a low aggregate demand that traps an economy at the zero lower bound (ZLB) of nominal interest rates. Future increases in productivity or reductions in mark-ups triggered by supply-side policies generate a wealth effect...

Presented by Charles I. Plosser, President and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Bundesbank — Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Spring 2012 Research Conference, Eltville, Germany, May 25, 2012

Does the public believe that fiscal and monetary stimulus reduce unemployment? I present survey evidence on this question from a random sample of Pennsylvania residents. Few respondents express a consistently Keynesian view of fiscal or monetary stimulus. In fact, the typical respondent believes...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the short-term macroeconomic effects of the fiscal policy in Colombia for the 1980-2007 period using a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model. Design/methodology/approach – The authors' benchmark is a five-variable SVAR model which...

In Chapter 3 of the General Theory, Keynes sketches out what he calls the essence of the General Theory of Employment. He introduces the Keynesian expenditure-based model, his aggregate demand function and also his aggregate supply function, a concept which spawned much debate among...

In Chapter 4 of the General Theory, Keynes discusses the units of measurement he will be using in the remainder of the book, in particular his reason for measuring in nominal rather than real terms, objection to aggregate measures of real output and physical capital stock, and his concept of...

Chapters 8, 9 and 10 set out Keynes’ theory of consumer behavior. Chapter 8 is entitled The Propensity to Consume: I. The Objective Factors, Chapter 9 is The Propensity to Consume: II. The Subjective Factors, and Chapter 10 is The Marginal Propensity to Consume and the Multiplier. Contrary to...

This paper puts John Maynard Keynes’ "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" into its historical context, both in terms of economic history and in terms of the history of economics. It discusses the post-World War I period as background to the General Theory, looks at the...