The much-exaggerated death of Keynesian economics

Abstract

The supposed death of Keynesian economics has long been debated. This paper revisits the four central Keynesian propositions identified by Tobin's 1977 paper, ‘How dead is Keynes?’, to argue, in the light of the global financial crisis and the Great Recession, that Keynesian economics remains alive and relevant as useful economics for understanding the economy in a world of fundamental uncertainty, with particular reference to chapter 19 of Keynes's General Theory concerning economic instability and wage and price flexibility.