IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jhisec/v43y2021i4p548-563_4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The German Anti-Keynes? On Walter Eucken’S Macroeconomics

Author

Listed:
  • Feld, Lars P.
  • Köhler, Ekkehard A.
  • Nientiedt, Daniel

Abstract

The work of Walter Eucken (1891–1950), founder of German ordoliberalism, is often described as being in direct opposition to that of John Maynard Keynes. Our paper challenges this claim by making two main arguments. First, we show that Eucken supported a proto-Keynesian stimulus program at the height of the Great Depression, the so-called Lautenbach plan of 1931. Second, we analyze his critique of full employment policy, which reveals that Eucken’s approach to solving macroeconomic problems is fundamentally different from, if not necessarily contrary to, that of Keynes.

Suggested Citation

  • Feld, Lars P. & Köhler, Ekkehard A. & Nientiedt, Daniel, 2021. "The German Anti-Keynes? On Walter Eucken’S Macroeconomics," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(4), pages 548-563, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jhisec:v:43:y:2021:i:4:p:548-563_4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1053837220000279/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Keynes, John Maynard, 1919. "The Economic Consequences of the Peace," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number keynes1919.
    2. Blaug,Mark, 1997. "Economic Theory in Retrospect," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521577014, November.
    3. Dal Pont Legrand, Muriel & Hagemann, Harald, 2017. "Business Cycles, Growth, And Economic Policy: Schumpeter And The Great Depression," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(1), pages 19-33, March.
    4. Barry Eichengreen & Albrecht Ritschl, 2009. "Understanding West German economic growth in the 1950s," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 3(3), pages 191-219, October.
    5. Blyth, Mark, 2013. "Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199828302.
    6. Jörg Bibow, 2018. "How Germany’s anti-Keynesianism has brought Europe to its knees," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(5), pages 569-588, September.
    7. Backhouse, Roger E. & Bateman, Bradley W. & Nishizawa, Tamotsu & Plehwe, Dieter (ed.), 2017. "Liberalism and the Welfare State: Economists and Arguments for the Welfare State," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780190676681.
    8. Hansjorg Klausinger, 1999. "German Anticipations of the Keynesian Revolution?: The Case of Lautenbach, Neisser and Ropke," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(3), pages 378-403.
    9. Eichengreen, Barry & Hatton, Tim, 1988. "Interwar Unemployment in International Perspective," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt7bw188gk, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Feld, Lars P. & Köhler, Ekkehard A. & Nientiedt, Daniel, 2021. "Ordoliberalism and the social market economy," Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics 21/5, Walter Eucken Institut e.V..
    2. Francesco Denozza, 2019. "Spettri del mitico ordo: diritto e mercato nel neoliberalismo (Ghosts of mytical ordo: Law and markets in neoliberalism)," Moneta e Credito, Economia civile, vol. 72(288), pages 327-348.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jörg Bibow, 2018. "How Germany’s anti-Keynesianism has brought Europe to its knees," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(5), pages 569-588, September.
    2. Stephen C. Nelson, 2015. "Paper Entanglements: Why (and How) Keynes’s Ideas about Sovereign Debt Still Matter," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(6), pages 492-508, November.
    3. Adrian Pabst & Andrew Westwood, 2021. "The Politics of Productivity: institutions, governance and policy," Working Papers 015, The Productivity Institute.
    4. Saúl Néstor Keifman & Luis Blaum, 2021. "El keynesianismo en la Argentina," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4483, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    5. Focacci, Chiara Natalie & Perez, Carlota, 2022. "The importance of education and training policies in supporting technological revolutions: A comparative and historical analysis of UK, US, Germany, and Sweden (1830–1970)," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    6. Hansjoerg Klausinger, 1999. "The Stability of Full Employment. A Reconstruction of Chapter 19-Keynesianism," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp063, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    7. Steininger, Lea & Hesse, Casimir, 2024. "Buying into new ideas: The ECB’s evolving justification of unlimited liquidity," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 357, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    8. Giulio Federico, 2001. "IMF Conditionality," Economics Papers 2001-W19, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford, revised 01 Sep 2001.
    9. Tamborini, Roberto & Tomaselli, Matteo, 2020. "The determinants of austerity in the European Union 2010–16," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    10. Aiginger, Karl, 2010. "The Great Recession vs. the Great Depression: Stylized facts on siblings that were given different foster parents," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 4, pages 1-41.
    11. Simon Dudek & Hans-Martin Zademach, 2023. "Territorial development in Bavaria between spatial justice and austere federalism: A historical-materialist policy analysis of Bavarian regional development politics and policies, 2008–2018," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(4), pages 890-904, June.
    12. Kilian Huber, 2021. "Are Bigger Banks Better? Firm-Level Evidence from Germany," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(7), pages 2023-2066.
    13. Lars P. Feld & Ekkehard A. Köhler, 2023. "Standing on the shoulders of giants or science? Lessons from ordoliberalism," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 195(3), pages 197-211, June.
    14. Tomasz Grodzicki & Mateusz Jankiewicz, 2020. "Forecasting the Level of Unemployment, Inflation and Wages: The Case of Sweden," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 2), pages 400-409.
    15. Achim Truger, 2015. "Implementing the golden rule for public investment in Europe," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 138, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    16. Gilles Carbonnier, 2018. "Humanitarian economics," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-54, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    17. Andrew Robson & David Hart, 2019. "The post-Brexit donor: segmenting the UK charitable marketplace using political attitudes and national identity," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 16(2), pages 313-334, December.
    18. Reto Bürgisser & Donato Di Carlo, 2023. "Blessing or Curse? The Rise of Tourism‐Led Growth in Europe's Southern Periphery," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 236-258, January.
    19. Peter A.G. van Bergeijk, 2013. "Earth Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14673.
    20. Karsten Kohler & Engelbert Stockhammer, 2022. "Growing differently? Financial cycles, austerity, and competitiveness in growth models since the Global Financial Crisis," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 1314-1341, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals
    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation
    • E63 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Comparative or Joint Analysis of Fiscal and Monetary Policy; Stabilization; Treasury Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jhisec:v:43:y:2021:i:4:p:548-563_4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/het .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.