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Keynesian Policies for Voluntary Unemployment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2016

William Peterson
William Peterson*
Affiliation:
Cambridge, Growth Project, Department of Applied Economics
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Extract

This paper represents an attempt to construct a simple classical model of the aggregate labour market from which it is nevertheless possible to draw certain Keynesian conclusions about the desirability of intervention, in the form of a conventional counter-cyclical fiscal policy, in order to maintain full employment. The starting point of the paper is the observation, based on recent studies of the simulation properties of two macroeconomic models of the United Kingdom, (Brooks et al [1983], Peterson [1984]), that it appears to be possible to devise policies which start from current levels of output, employment and inflation and which represent an unambiguous improvement in all welfare indicators. Such policies have become known as «free lunches», apparently after the habit of 19th century American barkeepers in providing their customers with free, but thirst provoking, food in order to stimulate sales of drink : similar incentives are offered by Nevada casino proprietors. In these contexts the catch is obvious, but in the case of expansionary macroeconomic policies there is scope for more controversy.

Type
Research Article
Information
Recherches Économiques de Louvain/ Louvain Economic Review , Volume 52 , Issue 3-4: Symposium on Unemployment in Europe , December 1986 , pp. 399 - 411
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales 1986 

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References

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