Preview

Keynes Theory of Income and Employment

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3146 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Keynes Theory of Income and Employment
KEYNES THEORY OF INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT

CONTENT OF REPORT

• CLASSICAL THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT

• KEYNES CRITICISM OF CLASSICAL THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT

• KEYNES THEORY OF INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT

• SIGNIFICANCE OF KEYNES THEORY

• Criticism on Keynes’ Theory

KEYNES THEORY OF INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT

The theories of employment are broadly classified into two: (a) Classical theory of employment (b) Keynesian theory of employment.
The classical theory assumed the prevalence of full employment. The ‘Great Depression’ of 1929 to 1934, engulfing the entire world in widespread unemployment, low output and low national income, for about five years, upset the classical theorists. This gives rise to Keynesian theory of employment.

Classical Theory of Employment:-
The term ‘classical economists’ was firstly used by Karl Marx to describe economic thought of Ricardo and his predecessors including Adam Smith. However, by ‘classical economists’, Keynes meant the followers of David Ricardo including John Stuart Mill, Alfred Marshal and Pigou. According to Keynes, the term ‘classical economics’ refers to the traditional or orthodox principles of economics, which had come to be accepted, by and large, by the well known economists by then. Being the follower of Marshal, Keynes had himself accepted and taught these classical principles. But he repudiated the doctrine of laissez-faire. The two broad features of classical theory of employment were: (a) The assumption of full employment of labour and other productive resources, and (b) The flexibility of prices and wages to bring about the full employment
(a) Full employment:-
According to classical economists, the labour and the other resources are always fully employed. Moreover, the general over-production and general unemployment are assumed to be impossible. If there is any unemployment in the country, it is assumed to be temporary or abnormal. According to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    During the 1930’s, the United States went through a terrible economic crisis referred to as the Great Depression. This came about from a series of events that caused a domino effect on the economy. After the stock market crash, people in the U.S. lost billions of dollars and demand dropped which lowered the equilibrium and caused a surplus in goods and services. This would normally cause individual wealth and increase demand because the prices for goods and services were lowered. But this surplus in goods and services caused people to become unemployed because there services were no longer needed. This went against the classical economist’s views of a vertical supply curve where equilibrium is always met and no surpluses or shortages exist.…

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    adam smith

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Adam Smith is well known for being the Father of Economics. He was the first person to organize economic theory into the body of knowledge we base our theory on today. His theories today are known as Classical Economics and his book The Wealth of Nations was the first economics test. Characteristics of the Classical System include supply creates demand, wages and prices are flexible, the demand for money equals transactions demand plus percautionary demand, no hoarding is possible, savings is a function or determined by the rate of interest and the relationship is direct, investment is a function of the rate of interest and the relationship in inverse, saving and investment are equal, no depression is possible in the long run, and Laissez Faire.…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    econonmic forcasting

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages

    From 1776 until 1936 the Classical model was used in the United States. Classical economic theory believes in the concept that the free market requires no or little government intervention. Ensuring that resources are used according to the choices of the individuals and businesses in the market place; Classical economics uses value theory to determine the prices in the market. Classical economy has the ability to self-regulate without government intervention. This method was sufficient until 1936 during the Great Depression and the economy wasn’t repairing itself and regulating the market. To better understand the Great depression John Maynard Keynes, a British economist, published a new set of theories that formed a new type of economics now referred to Keynesian economics. The Keynesian Theory suggests that the economy relies on government spending to help jumpstart it during downturns like a recessions. From 1936 to 1973 Keynesian economics served as the chosen economic model in most…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    By increasing government spending during times of depression to raise employment and to decrease government spending when the economy was flourishing. This was entitled deficit spending and a key aspect in resolving the Great Depression. Source II provides a cynical viewpoint on capitalism, mocking and stating that the theory does not account for human nature; selfishness, egoistic and highly self-motivated. Instead of relying upon the individuals who have conquered capitalism and depending on their compassion to share their profits, Keynes proposes that governments should be responsible for rescuing the economy. Considering that at this time the major influencer was The Great Depression, the issues that came with Classical Liberalism was the association with capitalism.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Great Depression challenged the classical model with the reality of a long depression and high unemployment. In The General Theory, Keynes attacked the classical model in two important ways. First, he identified some flaws in the model. Second, unlike the business cycle theorists, he offered a well-developed alternative model of the macroeconomy. This model was the basis for the Keynesian revolution, the change in macroeconomic theory and policy that occurred when Keynes's ideas displaced the classical explanation of how output and employment are determined. The Keynesian model…

    • 2103 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    John Maynard Keynes believed the government's job was to spend money on industrial development, social programs, and other forms of infrastructure in order to create more jobs for unemployed men to work. He believed if the government spent more than it might spark new economic activities that would help pull the world out of the depression. This would create new jobs and lower the unemployment rate of many countries. He thought those who couldn’t work in the private sector the government should invest in order to provide them with…

    • 90 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The United States’ economy began to sour during the stock market crash of 1929 that would ultimately send American society into a deep depression. The prosperous era of the 1920’s came to an abrupt end in turn the 1930’s came to be know as the Great Depression. As Hoover stepped down from shameful presidency, Franklin Roosevelt took over. The primary reason for his victory was because of his “The New Deal” platform. This rejected many of Hoover’s solutions and proposed something totally different. Roosevelt’s administration fixed temporary employment problems, but drastically changed the role of government, there was lots of change but the economy never prospered like it did in the 1920’s.…

    • 721 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    vase

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Keynesian explanation for the Great Depression came under came under heavy fire in 1963, when Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz published A Monetary History of the United States. Free-market economists philosophically opposed to the heavy government interventionism unleashed by Keynesianism, Friedman and Schwartz made a compelling argument that the Great Depression had been caused less by a failure of aggregate demand than by a sharp constriction in the nation's money supply. Foolish decisions by the Federal Reserve, they argued, combined with hoarding of cash by individuals fearful of bank failures, caused the stock of money circulating in the economy to fall by one-third between 1929 and 1933. This "Great Contraction," as Friedman called it, had a choking effect on employment, incomes, and prices, unnecessarily prolonging the Great Depression by years. The New Deal's Keynesian intrusion into the free market had done little to address the underlying money…

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When the stock market crashed in 1929, it led into a domino effect all the way into the 1930’s. Many of us know this time of being called the Great Depression. The Great Depression caused many people to lose their jobs, mostly people in the marketing and manufacturing industries (Michelle, 2006). Gene Smiley states, “25 percent of all workers and 37 percent of all nonfarm workers were completely out of work. Some people starved; many others lost their farms and homes” (Smiley, 2008). People got very cautious with their money after the stock market crash. This caused a surplus in goods and services which should lower the price and increase the demand (Michelle, 2006). This was not the case at this time; the demand for employee’s got less because they were not needed. With nobody buying anything there was no demand and the supply of employment got less. Another factor is that President Roosevelt pushed for companies to play Social Security taxes and taxes on their profits. Some companies did pay out the money needed, but some paid it out in other ways (Smiley, 2008). Some steel industries paid out remaining Social Security taxes by giving bonuses and raising the hourly pay rate (Smiley, 2008). “As these three policies came together, real hourly labor costs jumped without corresponding increases in demand or prices, and firms responded by reducing production and laying off employees” (Smiley, 2008). The marketing industry took the biggest hit with the supply and demand of labor during the Great Depression.…

    • 318 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Keynes, John Maynard. The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. London: Macmillan, for the Royal Economic Society, 1989.…

    • 1827 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Rising unemployment and declining profits further depress demand. People became pessimistic thinkers, and tend to save their money. Keynes believed that there was only one way out. He put forth about the role of government in a capitalist economy, and that was for the government to start spending in order to put money into private-sector pockets and get demand for foods and services up and running again. This process is called “managed capitalism.” Keynes studied Marxism for finding out the hints to help the working class. Except applying Marxist theory of revolution and abolishment of private ownership, there are three characteristics he applied on his paradigm. Firstly, it urged that government intervention to solve a particular role in economic life is necessary. Secondly, wages should be kept above the subsistence level to provide quality life. This theory will help to create demand, maintain a high level of employment and above satisfactory wages. Last but not least, providing higher wages to workers lead to higher consumption and investments. Also it creates a sustainable and prosperous economy. Such economic ideas and solutions were agreed by President Roosevelt and many other economists. Thus, government appeared to be powerful and firmly entrenched on balancing…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Economic theories are constantly changing. Keynesian theory, with its emphasis on activist government policies to promote high employment, dominated economic policymaking in the early post-war period. But, starting in the late 1960s, troubling inflation and lagging productivity prodded economists to look for new solutions. Economic theories will be debated and tested. Some will be accepted, some modified, and others rejected as we search to answer these basic economic questions: How do we decide what to produce with our limited resources? How do we ensure stable prices and full employment of resources? How do we provide a rising standard of living both for now and the future? This process continues today and its motivating force remains the same as that three centuries ago: to understand the economy so that we may use it wisely to achieve society 's goals.…

    • 2728 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Recession

    • 2049 Words
    • 9 Pages

    For an economy to be at full employment, around 96 or 97% of the population has to be employed. Some type of unemployment is normal and it is impossible to get rid of them. The Structural unemployment is an example, it’s the unemployment due to technological…

    • 2049 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Italy Factfile

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Keynesian economic theory can be seen as a government deploying supply-side policies and increasing government spending to try and boost an economy’s GDP. For example, the government could increase spending in education, to increase the general employability of an economy for future years, to reduce unemployment levels in the future, reducing the amount paid in unemployment benefits by a government and to increase economic prosperity, wealth and consumer spending for an economy, so that the government will recoup the money spent in taxes and GDP will increase. The government could also spend money on the public sector of the economy; such as if the government improves the health service by building more hospitals, jobs will be created, e.g. nurses and doctors; reducing unemployment levels, and along with this, the public will be healthier due to the higher standards of health services and hospitals available, reducing sick days / illness and increase productivity within the economy and GDP. The approach was developed in the early 20th century, when neoclassical policies seemed to be failing once the great depression hit in the 1920s. [Wisegeek.com, 2011]…

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    John Maynard Keynes is perhaps one of the most influential economists of our generation. Keynes, a British economist who lived from 1883 to 1946, changed the philosophy and practice of macroeconomics including the government economic policy. His theory, referred to as Keynesian Economics, was based on a circular flow of money, which refers to the idea that when spending increases in an economy, earnings also increase, which can lead to even more spending and earnings. Keynes believed that the government should intervene throughout the business cycle to increase spending and enable the economy to prosper to its full potential even during times of recession.…

    • 1145 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays