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Learning from distant cousins? Post-Keynesian Economics, Comparative Political Economy and the growth models approach

By Engelbert Stockhammer, Karsten Kohler


PKES Working Paper 2210

March 2022

Since the Global Financial Crisis there has been growing interest in post-Keynesian macroeconomic theory by political economists. In particular the recent growth models approach in Comparative Political Economy (CPE) draws heavily on Kaleckian macroeconomics of demand regimes. This paper, firstly, traces the disintegration of 19th century political economy and highlights that many streams within heterodox economics are a continuation of the political economy project, as are the subfields of CPE and International Political Economy in the social sciences. Secondly, the paper gives an overview of the growth models approach and its relation to post-Keynesian economics (PKE). It clarifies different strategies of identifying growth models empirically, namely GDP growth decomposition versus analysing growth drivers, and it highlights changes in growth models since the Global Financial Crisis. Finally it identifies opportunities and challenges that emerge from a continued engagement of PKE with political economy and with CPE in particular.

Keywords: Post-Keynesian Economics, Comparative Political Economy, growth models, varieties of capitalism

JEL classification: B20 B50 E12 O43 P51