IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/revpoe/v21y2009i3p447-461.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Kaldor on Debreu: The Critique of General Equilibrium Reconsidered

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Boylan
  • Paschal O'Gorman

Abstract

This paper revisits Kaldor's methodological critique of orthodox economics. The main target of his critique was the theory of general equilibrium as expounded in the work of Debreu and others. Kaldor deemed this theory to be seriously flawed as an empirically adequate description of real-world economies. According to Kaldor, scientific progress was not possible in economics without a major act of demolition, by which he meant the destruction of the basic conceptual framework of the theory of general equilibrium. We extend Kaldor's critique by recourse to major developments in 20th century philosophy of mathematics, and then go on to demonstrate that Debreu's work, based as it is on Bourbakist formalism and in particular Cantorian set theory, is conceptually incompatible with Kaldor's requirements for an empirical science. This aspect of Kaldor's critique has not been explored, and as a consequence a major source of substantiating his critique has remained undeveloped.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Boylan & Paschal O'Gorman, 2009. "Kaldor on Debreu: The Critique of General Equilibrium Reconsidered," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 447-461.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:21:y:2009:i:3:p:447-461
    DOI: 10.1080/09538250903073495
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09538250903073495
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09538250903073495?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Targetti, Ferdinando, 1992. "Nicholas Kaldor: The Economics and Politics of Capitalism as a Dynamic System," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198283485.
    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. K. Vela Velupillai, 2012. "Bourbaki's Destructive Influence on the Mathematization of Economics," ASSRU Discussion Papers 1201, ASSRU - Algorithmic Social Science Research Unit.

    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. repec:ilo:ilowps:366690 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Marcos Tostes Lamonica & Carmem Aparecida Feijo, 2007. "Crescimento E Industrialização No Brasil: As Lições Das Leis De Kaldor," Anais do XXXV Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 35th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 053, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    3. Robert Tignor, 2004. "Unlimited Supplies Of Labor1," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 72(6), pages 691-711, December.
    4. Giorgio Lunghini, 2010. "On the Crisis: Back to the Classics!," QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, Associazione Rossi Doria, issue 3, September.
    5. Louis-Philippe Rochon, 2001. "Cambridge's Contribution to Endogenous Money: Robinson and Kahn on credit and money," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 287-307.
    6. Matias Vernengo & Louis-Philippe Rochon, 2001. "Kaldor and Robinson on money and growth," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 75-103.
    7. Johan Deprez, 1994. "Nicholas Kaldor and the Real World," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 1311-1314, December.
    8. Maria Cristina Marcuzzo, 2017. "The “Cambridge” critique of the quantity theory of money: A note on how quantitative easing vindicates it," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(2), pages 260-271, April.
    9. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Marinko Škare, 2011. "Employment Growth, Inflation and Output Growth: Was Phillips Right? Evidence from a Dynamic Panel," CESifo Working Paper Series 3502, CESifo.
    10. Sean Turnell & Leanne Ussher, 2009. "A 'New Bretton Woods': Kaldor and the Antipodean Quest for Global Full Employment," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 423-445.
    11. Gomes, Luiz, 2022. "Nicholas Kaldor’s Economics: a Review," MPRA Paper 111352, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Tostes Lamonica, Marcos & Feijó, Carmem Aparecida, 2012. "The importance of the manufacturing sector for Brazilian economic development," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), August.
    13. Colacchio, Giorgio & Forges Davanzati, Guglielmo, 2017. "Endogenous money, increasing returns and economic growth: Nicholas Kaldor’s contribution," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 79-85.
    14. J.E King, 2007. "Kaldor’S War," Monash Economics Working Papers 25-07, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    15. Piva, Mariacristina., 2004. "The impact of technology transfer on employment and income distribution in developing countries : a survey of theoretical models and empirical studies," ILO Working Papers 993666903402676, International Labour Organization.
    16. John E. King, 2010. "Kaldor and the Kaldorians," Chapters, in: Mark Setterfield (ed.), Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Growth, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Therese Jefferson & John King, 2009. "Nicholas Kaldor and Critical Realism," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 463-480.
    18. Alessandro Bellocchi & Giuseppe Travaglini & Beatrice Vitali, 2023. "How capital intensity affects technical progress: An empirical analysis for 17 advanced economies," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 606-631, July.
    19. Guglielmo Forges Davanzati, 2015. "Nicholas Kaldor on endogenous money and increasing returns," Working Papers PKWP1505, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    20. K. Vela Velupillai, 2012. "Ferdinando Targetti - In Memorium Scholar, Friend, Colleague- and a Gentleman," ASSRU Discussion Papers 1208, ASSRU - Algorithmic Social Science Research Unit.
    21. John Edward King, 2016. "Nicholas Kaldor after thirty years," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 69(277), pages 107-277.

    More about this item

    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:taf:revpoe:v:21:y:2009:i:3:p:447-461. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CRPE20 .

    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.