What future for ‘Macroeconomics after Keynes’? A road map to restore the generality of The General Theory

This chapter addresses two key questions: why did Keynes lose his generality battle and what can be done to restore his generality claim? In answer to the first, the chapter argues that one major reason why Keynes lost his generality battle is that he did not develop a good articulation of his ‘research programme’ in Lakatosian terms. For example, unlike the Arrow–Debreu microeconomic model underlying the general equilibrium macro, the GT does not provide a unifying vision of the economy. As for the second question, this chapter seeks to identify the conditions under which the generality claim can be restored. The most important of these is the one identified by Pasinetti, namely the full-blown articulation of a ‘monetary theory of production’ research programme. This requires developing an autonomy of macro-perspective, placing the emphasis on the role of conventions, institutions and aggregate variables as emergent, persistent features of the economy.