The microfoundation and autonomous agents: G.L.S. Shackle as a front-runner to progressive post-Keynesian economics

The general argument put forward in this paper is that many of the unique methodological challenges of PPKE can either be found directly in the work of G.L.S. Shackle or can be inspired from his basic ideas. Accordingly, PPKE’s methods for dealing with reality may be enhanced by paying closer attention to the works of Shackle, if for no other reason than his unconventional conception of market participants as autonomous agents, whose beliefs and decisions are not the effects of a causal system that produces a stream of predictable outcomes. From Shackle’s perspective, there is no point in trying to predict economic trends, events and results by treating them as if they were the output of a causal structure, such as a river that regularly deposits items along its banks. By the same token, it will be fruitless to try to understand or forecast human choices as if they were determined in advance; the future is open, although partly structured and partly created by human actions of today.