Kalecki’s Economic Dynamics: A Personal View

Abstract

As the 1986 Perugia conference amply demonstrated, Kalecki’s stature as an economist is now receiving the consideration it deserves. His presentation of his theory to the Econometric Society in 1933, after finding little resonance in Poland, was an event of great significance, though its initial impact seems to have been negligible. Fortunately Kaldor was present; unfortunately, for Kalecki, so also was Regnar Frisch. The greatness of that original paper resides in its successful combination of two essential ingredients: basing the theory on carefully chosen, empirically observable facts and, then, ingeniously constructing from these building blocks a precise, soluble mathematical model. I was introduced to this splendid piece of work in Jacob Marshak’s seminar of 1936-7 at Oxford. As a youthful Marxist, I was captivated by it: here was an exact, compelling and comprehensible explanation of the dynamics of capitalist reality — something I found neither in textbooks nor in lectures.