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Post-Keynesian macroeconomic foundations for Comparative Political Economy

By Engelbert Stockhammer


PKES Working Paper 2022

December 2020

Since the global financial crisis and the ensuing weak growth interest in macroeconomic issues has grown within Comparative Political Economy (CPE). The dominant Varieties of Capitalism approach focuses on how different institutional arrangements contribute to competitiveness and thus has a strong supply-side focus, which is complementary with modern mainstream economics. Baccaro and Pontusson (2016) have suggested basing CPE on post-Keynesian theory of distribution and growth. This paper generalises their point and makes a systematic case for post-Keynesian (PK) foundations for CPE. It highlights the PK theory of money and finance and that PKE analyses inequality as well as financial relations as based on class and power relations. The paper identifies the analysis of financialisation, financial cycles, the understanding of neoliberal growth models and the political economy of central banks as areas where PKE can provide specific insights for CPE.

Keywords: post-Keynesian economics, comparative political economy, growth models, financial instability

JEL classification: E02 E12 P50