IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/psl/pslqrr/202113.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On two recent attempts to introduce animal spirits in macroeconomics: Heresy or enlightened church reform?

Author

Listed:
  • Teodoro Dario Togati

    (Universita' di Torino, Italy)

Abstract

As noted by Alan Greenspan in 2008, one key flaw in standard models is that they treat animal spirits as a simple ‘add factor’ rather than as a structural one. This paper evaluates the extent to which two recent approaches placing the emphasis on animal spirits – namely Farmer’s ‘Neo-Paleo-Keynesian’ (NPK) project and Akerlof and Shiller’s behavioural approach – manage to overcome this flaw. By following the powerful religious metaphor introduced by Farmer, according to which general equilibrium theory underlying standard models should be regarded as a ‘church’, this paper stresses two points. First, animal spirits turn out to be devilish features that are inconsistent with the church’s commandments. Second, by trying to reconcile them with the church, these two approaches are unable to truly reform it as required by Greenspan; rather, they appear to be heretical stances that are forced to violate some fundamental dogmas of the church.

Suggested Citation

  • Teodoro Dario Togati, 2021. "On two recent attempts to introduce animal spirits in macroeconomics: Heresy or enlightened church reform?," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 74(296), pages 51-73.
    • Handle: RePEc:psl:pslqrr:2021:13
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa04/psl_quarterly_review/article/view/17485/16697
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Teodoro Dario Togati, 2020. "Ulysses’ journey home to Ithaca: a new metaphor for understanding the General Theory," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 44(6), pages 1395-1414.
    2. Ricardo J. Caballero, 2010. "Macroeconomics after the Crisis: Time to Deal with the Pretense-of-Knowledge Syndrome," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(4), pages 85-102, Fall.
    3. McFadden, Daniel, 1999. "Rationality for Economists?," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 19(1-3), pages 73-105, December.
    4. Teodoro Dario Togati, 2019. "How can we restore the generality of the General Theory?," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 43(5), pages 1397-1415.
    5. Jess Benhabib & Pengfei Wang & Yi Wen, 2015. "Sentiments and Aggregate Demand Fluctuations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83, pages 549-585, March.
    6. Roncaglia,Alessandro, 2019. "The Age of Fragmentation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108745819, September.
    7. Olivier Blanchard, 2000. "What Do We Know about Macroeconomics that Fisher and Wicksell Did Not?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(4), pages 1375-1409.
    8. Roger E. A. Farmer, 2009. "Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why it Matters for Global Capitalism," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 85(270), pages 357-358, September.
    9. Farmer, Roger E. A., 2014. "How the Economy Works: Confidence, Crashes and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199360307, December.
    10. David Vines & Samuel Wills, 2018. "The rebuilding macroeconomic theory project: an analytical assessment," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 34(1-2), pages 1-42.
    11. Lee E. Ohanian, 2010. "The Economic Crisis from a Neoclassical Perspective," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(4), pages 45-66, Fall.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Stijn Claessens & M Ayhan Kose, 2017. "Asset prices and macroeconomic outcomes: a survey," BIS Working Papers 676, Bank for International Settlements.
    2. Stijn Claessens & M Ayhan Kose, 2018. "Frontiers of macrofinancial linkages," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 95.
    3. Elias Dinopoulos & Wolf-Heimo Grieben & Fuat Sener, 2012. "The Conundrum of Recovery Policies: Growth or Jobs?," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2012-03, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.
    4. Athreya, Kartik B., 2014. "Big Ideas in Macroeconomics: A Nontechnical View," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262019736, April.
    5. Eleni Iliopulos & Thepthida Sopraseuth, 2012. "L'intermédiation financière dans l'analyse macroéconomique : le défi de la crise," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 451(1), pages 91-130.
    6. Francesco Sergi, 2020. "The Standard Narrative about DSGE Models in Central Banks’ Technical Reports," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 163-193, March.
    7. Andrzej Wojtyna, 2013. "Kontrowersje wokół charakteru ożywienia po kryzysie finansowym i recesji," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 11-12, pages 5-21.
    8. Cachanosky, Nicolas, 2014. "The effects of U.S. monetary policy on Colombia and Panama (2002–2007)," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 428-436.
    9. Francesco Sergi, 2015. "L'histoire (faussement) naïve des modèles DSGE," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 15066, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    10. Teodoro Dario Togati, 2021. "General Theorizing and Historical Specificity in the ‘Keynes Versus the Classics’ Dispute," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 273-294, April.
    11. Emre Örün, 2020. "Theoritical Seekings in Macroeconomics," Istanbul Journal of Economics-Istanbul Iktisat Dergisi, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 70(2), pages 451-477, December.
    12. Yuli Radev, 2015. "New dynamic disequilibrium," Economic Thought journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 6, pages 65-90.
    13. Cachanosky, Nicolás & Lewin, Peter, 2016. "An empirical application of the EVA® framework to business cycles," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 60-67.
    14. Nicolas Cachanosky, 2014. "The Mises-Hayek business cycle theory, fiat currencies and open economies," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 27(3), pages 281-299, September.
    15. Eugenio Caverzasi & Alberto Russo, 2018. "Toward a new microfounded macroeconomics in the wake of the crisis," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(6), pages 999-1014.
    16. Chevallier, Julien, 2012. "Global imbalances, cross-market linkages, and the financial crisis: A multivariate Markov-switching analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 943-973.
    17. Francesco Sergi, 2015. "L'histoire (faussement) naïve des modèles DSGE," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01222798, HAL.
    18. Ronny Mazzocchi, 2013. "Scope and Flaws of the New Neoclassical Synthesis," DEM Discussion Papers 2013/13, Department of Economics and Management.
    19. repec:hal:psewpa:halshs-00744047 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. McAdam, Peter & Warne, Anders, 2019. "Euro area real-time density forecasting with financial or labor market frictions," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 580-600.
    21. Kyle Herkenhoff & Lee Ohanian, 2019. "The Impact of Foreclosure Delay on U.S. Employment," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 31, pages 63-83, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Animal spirits; general equilibrium; research programmes; Keynesian economics; macroeconomic models;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E12 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Keynes; Keynesian; Post-Keynesian; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E13 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Neoclassical
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

    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:psl:pslqrr:2021:13. 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: Carlo D'Ippoliti (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.economiacivile.it .

    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.