Not Methodological Individualism But Methodological Collectivism: Macroeconomic Methodology of Michał Kalecki

MATSUYA Hiroki

doi:10.11286/jmr.33.71

<p> The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate that it is not methodological individualism but methodological collectivism that enables Kalecki (1933), before Keynes (1936), to establish “the fundamental prerequisites to macroeconomics,” which demonstrate that investments determine savings and that savings are equalized by investments in relation to income, and to escape from the concept of “utility” and instead to utilize that of “income.” Kalecki’s macroeconomic model assumes an imperfectly competitive-market economy which consists of the two classes, the capitalists and the workers, and proves their fundamental characters as “active economic agents” and “passive economic agents,” respectively. Based on the principle of effective demand, Kalecki (1933) shows that the capitalists’ decision on investment and consumption determines the workers’ income, or wages, while the capitalists earn what they spend. Kalecki (1939a), however, points out the possibilities for the workers to be “active economic agents” through the activities of trade unions and to influence an distribution factor, which are examined in detail in Kalecki (1939a), Kalecki (1943), and Kalecki (1971a). This is to say that it is these works of Kalecki that enable the activities of trade unions as a role of labour supply to be incorporated into the analysis in the principle of effective demand. Moreover, Kalecki, who utilizes methodological collectivism, may be regarded as a forerunner in behavioural economics.</p>

Not Methodological Individualism But Methodological Collectivism: Macroeconomic Methodology of Michał Kalecki

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