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The evolution of Patinkin’s interpretation of Keynes’ principle of effective demand

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Don Patinkin (1922–1995) was both an eminent theoretical economist and a great historian of economic thought. In the latter field, his focus was on Keynes’ “principle of effective demand” from Chapter 3 of the General Theory. Having submitted a first interpretation of the “principle” in 1976 – in which he claimed that it contains major flaws – Patinkin revisited the subject several times over the next couple of years. In this process, his interpretation changed markedly. The aim of this paper is to trace (and to comment on) the evolution of Patinkin’s interpretation of the theory of effective demand.
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The evolution of Patinkin’s interpretation of
Keynes’ principle of effective demand
Jochen Hartwig
To cite this article: Jochen Hartwig (2022) The evolution of Patinkin’s interpretation of Keynes’
principle of effective demand, The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 29:3,
505-522, DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2022.2037683
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The evolution of Patinkins interpretation of Keynes
principle of effective demand
Jochen Hartwig
ABSTRACT
Don Patinkin (19221995) was both an eminent theoretical econo-
mist and a great historian of economic thought. In the latter field,
his focus was on Keynes’“principle of effective demandfrom
Chapter 3 of the General Theory. Having submitted a first inter-
pretation of the principlein 1976 in which he claimed that it
contains major flaws Patinkin revisited the subject several times
over the next couple of years. In this process, his interpretation
changed markedly. The aim of this paper is to trace (and to com-
ment on) the evolution of Patinkins interpretation of the theory
of effective demand.
KEYWORDS
Patinkin; Keynes; principle
of effective demand;
D/Z model
JEL CLASSIFICATION
B22; B31; E12
1. Introduction
KeynesChapter 3 on The Principle of Effective Demand’”, Patinkin (1979a, 155)
writes, is at one and the same time the most important and the most obscure chapter
in the General Theory: most important, because it contains the major innovation of the
book …”. And obscure, indeed, it is also as is evidenced by the incessant debate on
the correctinterpretation of the model of effective demand Keynes presents in this
chapter the D/Z model to which I have contributed in a dozen publications over
the past 20 years.
1
That this debate soldiers on bears evidence to the utmost importance
as pointed out by Patinkin of understanding the major innovationof the
General Theory.
Revisiting Patinkins interpretation seems rewarding, not only because he is widely
regarded as one of the leading expertson the Keynesian revolution (Backhouse 2002,
186), but also because his interpretation of Keynesprinciple of effective demand
changed substantially over time. Having submitted a first interpretation of this model
in 1976 in which he claimed that it contains major flaws Patinkin revisited the D/Z
ß2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
CONTACT Jochen Hartwig jochen.hartwig@wiwi.tu-chemnitz.de Faculty of Economics and Business
Administration, Chemnitz University of Technology, Th
uringer Weg 7, Chemnitz, 09107, Germany; KOF Swiss
Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland; Forum for Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Policies, Hans B
ockler
Foundation, D
usseldorf, Germany
1
King (1994) scrutinizes the early stages of this debate. To conclude that there was some confusion about
aggregate supply and demand analysis in the early 1950s would be a grotesque understatement, he sums
up (14).
THE EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT
2022, VOL. 29, NO. 3, 505522
https://doi.org/10.1080/09672567.2022.2037683
model several times over the next couple of years. In this process, his interpretation
changed markedly. The objective of this paper is to describe and to comment on the
evolution of Patinkins interpretation of Keynesprinciple of effective demand over a
period of time that covered more than thirty years of his academic career.
In reconstructing the evolution of Patinkins interpretation of Keynesprinciple
of effective demand, the paper covers a niche in the literature on the economics
of Patinkin that unlike many other aspects has not come under much scru-
tiny yet. Earlier literature has compared Patinkins views with those of his contem-
poraries Haavelmo, Klein, Lange, Marschak, and Modigliani (Boianovsky 2002;
Rubin 2002,2004; Hagemann 2017).
2
Patinkins impact on the development of
disequilibrium macroeconomics in the 1970s is also well-researched (Rubin 2012;
Backhouse and Boianovsky 2013). The only other contribution that deals with
Patinkins interpretation of Chapter 3 of KeynesGeneral Theory is Arthmar and
Brady (2009). These authors, however, instead of systematically reconstructing the
evolution of Patinkins interpretation, rather briefly review certain points raised
by Patinkin(Arthmar and Brady 2009, 128). In particular, they confine them-
selves to discussing Patinkins (changing) interpretation of the aggregate supply
function Z, remaining largely silent about his views on the aggregate demand
function D, which were also in flux.
3
The paper is structured chronologically. The next section discusses Patinkins
early engagement with the matter, that is, before the publication of volumes XIII
and XIV of the Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. It will be seen that
these early contributions do not address KeynesChapter 3 model yet. Section III
scrutinises KeynesMonetary Thought (KMT) and two subsequent articles that
appeared in the journal History of Political Economy in 1977 and 1978 in which
Patinkin published a correction of an error in and a reply to a reviewer of the
1976 book, respectively. Taken together, these three writings present a coherent
interpretation of Keynestheory of effective demand that Patinkin moved away
from, however, in his 1979 Economic Inquiry article already mentioned above. In
Patinkin (1982a) he consolidated his new interpretation. Section IV examines this
reorientation. Section V concludes.
2. Early views
In Chapter 3 of the General Theory, Keynes introduces two functions, the aggregate
supply function (Z) and the aggregate demand function (D), both being functions of the
level of employment (N). So the title of Patinkins(1949) article Involuntary
unemployment and the Keynesian supply functionseems to indicate that he wanted
to make inroads into the theory of effective demand set out in this chapter. However,
Chapter 3 is not Patinkins point of reference in his 1949 article. He rather suggests to
2
Rancan (2017, 162, fn. 28) considers especially Langes and Marschaks influence on Patinkin as already
reconstructed.
3
Also note that Arthmar and Bradys main intention it is to prove that the slope of Zcan be derived mathemat-
ically from Chapter 20 of KeynesGeneral Theory. Their section on Patinkin, which serves as a preamble
(Arthmar and Brady 2009, 127) to that proof, sets the stage for Arthmar and Bradys rebuttal of Patinkins
claim as to Keynessupposed lack of mathematical proficiency(Arthmar and Brady 2009, 129).
506 J. HARTWIG
augment the familiar Keynesian cross”–which he calls standard Keynesian analysis
(Patinkin 1949, 364) without making any reference to Samuelson (1948) who passes for
the originator of that model
4
with an aggregate supply function built up from
Walrasian supply functionsin individual markets (Patinkin 1949, 365). Patinkin calls
it the aggregate desired-supply function(Patinkin 1949, 365) and suggests that this
function S¼Q(Y) might be a horizontal line in the Keynesian cross diagram.
5
However, he prefers to give it a small positive slope with respect to real income/output
(Y). At any rate, the aggregate supply function normally (except in wartime that
means) lies above the expenditure function E¼F(Y) (being the vertical sum of the con-
sumption and the investment function) so that it intersects the 45-line at a higher level
of output than the expenditure function (Figure 1).
The point of intersection of the aggregate supply function with the 45-line Patinkin
defines as full employment output (g). He suggests measuring involuntary unemploy-
ment by the difference between this full employment output and the actual level of out-
put that results from the intersection of the expenditure function with the
45-line (Y
0
).
6
In a situation where g>Y
0
, prices would start falling according to Patinkin. Only if
price reductions have absolutely no effect on spenders, involuntary unemployment
would persist amidst a deflationary spiral (Patinkin 1949, 372). However, thanks to the
real-balance effect and the depressing impact of excess supply on interest rates, the
expenditure function moves upward, ideally so much that it intersects the 45-line at
Figure 1. Aggregate supply curve in the Keynesian cross I (source: Patinkin 1949, Figure 3).
4
Already in his PhD thesis (submitted in 1947), Patinkin adopted Samuelsons theory of income determination.
This conception probably derived from Langes teaching and a careful reading of Samuelsons 1941 paper
The Stability of Equilibrium’” (Rubin 2012, 244).
5
It can be shown that the assumptions made in aggregating the supply function imply that the real return to
productive services is constant; that is, the price of finished goods is always proportionate to the price of pro-
ductive services. (S)ince the real return is constant, suppliers might desire to provide the same amount of
goods regardless of the level of income. In that case the aggregate supply function would be a horizontal line-
…” (Patinkin 1949, 366). Patinkin abandoned this argument in the reprint of his article (Patinkin 1981)
because it contradicts the law of diminishing returns. See also Boianovsky (2002, 230232)
6
In modern terms we would call Patinkins suggested measure of involuntary unemployment the output gap.
THE EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT 507
the full employment output level (Patinkin 1949, 368, reiterating Patinkin 1948).
However, it may also be that the upward push of the expenditure function peters out
before full employment is reached. In this case, some involuntary unemployment per-
sists despite falling prices (Patinkin 1949, 372373).
Also Patinkins magnum opus Money, Interest, and Prices (Patinkin [1956]1991)
contains some clues to aggregate supply. Here, Patinkin drops the idea of a positively
sloped (or horizontal) aggregate desired-supply functionfrom which he had dis-
tanced himself in an unpublished note one year earlier already (Boianovsky 2002, 236).
He replaces it with a familiar aggregate supply functionwhich had already been pre-
sent in section 14 of Patinkin (1949) and which results from the production function.
For a given real wage, that determines labour input, and a given capital stock a certain
output level results from the production function. Therefore, the aggregate supply
curve is vertical in the Keynesian cross diagram (Figure 2). It follows that, for any
given real wage rate, the aggregate commodity supply function must appear as a
vertical line drawn at the level of gross national product for that specified wage
rate. As long as this rate remains unchanged, so, too, must this vertical line(Patinkin
[1956]1991, 211). He goes on stating that a rise in the real wage will shift the aggregate
supply function to the left and vice versa. As in Patinkin (1949), a drop in demand can
result in involuntary unemployment if producers are unwilling to permit their invento-
ries to build up. However, this would lead to a deflation of money wages and prices
that restores full employment through the interest-rate and real-balance channels.
Keynesian economics, Patinkin concludes, overlooks the direct influence of the real-
Figure 2. Aggregate supply curve in the Keynesian cross II (source: Patinkin [1956] 1991, Figure
IX-3).
508 J. HARTWIG
balance effect on this demand. Similarly, it overlooks the supply side of the commodity
market which, by its excess over the demand, generates this effect(Patinkin [1956]
1991, 325). Interestingly, unlike in his 1949 article, Patinkin in Money, Interest, and
Prices does not mention the possibility that the upward push of the expenditure func-
tion might peter out before full employment (point Bin Figure 2) is reached. On the
contrary, Patinkin [1956]1991, 324328) explains that the dynamic process caused by
falling wages and prices cannot stop(Patinkin [1956]1991, 325) at a position below
full employment.
7
3. KeynesMonetary Thought
Patinkin (1976) marks a reorientation in his preoccupation with aggregate supply and
demand analysis. Although the most common view that, with this book, he turned
away from being a mathematical economic theorist towards becoming a historian of
economic thought is an oversimplification (Backhouse 2002, 198), the publication of
volumes XIII and XIV of the Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes (in 1973)
prompted him to refocus from Keynesian economicsto the economics of Keynes
(Rivot 2016, 1002). Patinkin set himself to the task of reviewing the progress of
Keynesideas towards the principle of effective demand, an endeavor that resulted in a
monograph titled KeynesMonetary Thought. A Study of its Development(Arthmar
and Brady 2009, 130).
8
Patinkin describes the relationship between his new approach and the work dis-
cussed above with great candour: (T)he contention of my 1949 article that there is
no supply curve in the General Theory was based on a complete an inexcusable fail-
ure at the time to understand Keynesnotion of aggregate supply price(Patinkin
1976, 84, fn. 3).
9
In KMT, Patinkin displays a deeper understanding of the aggre-
gate supply curve. However, for him, some basic logical difficulties remain
(Patinkin 1976, 84).
Although readers of the present article are probably familiar with the passages from
the General Theory where Keynes states his aggregate-demand-aggregate-supply (D/Z)
model, these must nonetheless be reproduced here. Keynes writes:
Let Zbe the aggregate supply price of the output from employing Nmen, the
relationship between Zand Nbeing written Z¼/(N), which can be called the aggregate
supply function. Similarly, let Dbe the proceeds which entrepreneurs expect to receive
from the employment of Nmen, the relationship between Dand Nbeing written
D¼f(N), which can be called the aggregate demand function.
7
See also Boianovsky (2006) on the topics covered in this paragraph.
8
From what he quotes in KMT we can infer that three types of items published in volumes XIII and XIV of the
Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes were instrumental for Patinkin in reconsidering his ideas towards
the principle of effective demand: (i) the correspondence between Keynes and his colleagues Roy Harrod,
Ralph Hawtrey, Richard Kahn, Nicholas Kaldor, Bertil Ohlin, Dennis Robertson, and Joan Robinson, (ii) lec-
tures contributed by Keynes in the early 1930s, and (iii) the drafts of the General Theory.
9
Further down, Patinkin acknowledges that Keynesupward-sloping Zcurve was similar to his own right- or
leftward-shifting vertical aggregate supply function in Patinkin ([1956]1991). Accordingly, my criticism then
of the General Theory on the grounds that it did not provide for an analysis of supply was not well taken
(Patinkin 1976, 91, fn. 12).
THE EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT 509
Now if for a given value of Nthe expected proceeds are greater than the aggregate
supply price, i.e., if Dis greater than Z, there will be an incentive to entrepreneurs to
increase employment beyond Nand, if necessary, to raise costs by competing with one
another for the factors of production, up to the value of Nfor which Zhas become
equal to D. Thus the volume of employment is given by the point of intersection
between the aggregate demand function and the aggregate supply function; for it is at
this point that the entrepreneursexpectation of profits will be maximised. The value of
Dat the point of the aggregate demand function, where it is intersected by the aggregate
supply function, will be called the effective demand (Keynes [1936]1973, 25, italics
in original).
This quote spells out some fundamental differences between Keynesaggregate-
demand-aggregate-supply (D/Z) model from Chapter 3 of the General Theory and the
Keynesian cross as alternative ways of representing Keynestheory. First, the two curves
as defined by Keynes are in nominal terms while those of the Keynesian cross are in real
terms. Furthermore, Keynes speaks of expectations and profit-maximising. Those ele-
ments are absent from the Keynesian cross. Most importantly, Keynesaggregate supply
function Zis not the 45-line of the Keynesian cross. Zdepends on employment, the 45-
line does not; Zhas a distinguishable price- and quantity-component, the 45-line has
not. In short: unlike Z, the 45-line is no autonomous supply function, it is a helping
line(Samuelson 1948, 257). It is just there to find out which level of income is consistent
with the aggregate demand it supports, given the assumptions made about the aggregate
demand schedule.
As will be seen, the evolution of Patinkins interpretation of Keynesprinciple of
effective demandconsisted to a large extent in Patinkin adopting changing views as to
the meaning and especially the slope of the aggregate supply function Z. With respect
to the latter, another passage from a footnote in the General Theory is crucial:
For example, let us take Z
w
¼/(N), or alternatively Z¼W./(N) as the aggregate
supply function (where Wis the wage-unit and W.Z
w
¼Z). Then, since the proceeds
of the marginal product is equal to the marginal factor-cost at every point on the
aggregate supply curve, we have
DN¼DAwDUw¼DZw¼D/ðNÞ,
that is to say /0(N) ¼1; provided that factor cost bears a constant ratio to wage cost,
and that the aggregate supply function for each firm (the number of which is assumed
to be constant) is independent of the number of men employed in other industries, so
that the terms of the above equation, which hold good for each individual entrepreneur,
can be summed for the entrepreneurs as a whole. This means that, if wages are constant
and other factor costs are a constant proportion of the wages-bill, the aggregate supply
function is linear with a slope given by the reciprocal of the money-wage (Keynes [1936]
1973,5556, fn. 2).
Key for Patinkins understanding of the aggregate supply function is Keynesstate-
ment that /0(N) ¼1. If /0(N) ¼DZ
w
/DN¼DZ/(WDN)¼1, it follows that DZ/DN¼
Wand that Z¼WN. This means that Zis a cost function in which Nrepresents all
variable-factor inputs. (T)he aggregate supply price equals total variable costs
(Patinkin 1976, 87, fn. 7).
510 J. HARTWIG
Combining Zwith the aggregate demand function Dyields Figure 3.
The Z
w
curve has a slope of 1; hence it is the 45-line (DZ
w
¼DN). At employment
level N
1
,(t)he corresponding ordinate OA represents actual costs of production of
that output. In contrast, the ordinate OB represents not the actual proceeds but the
expected ones. Why, then does Keynes treat the difference between OA and OB as
if it represented actual, realized profits that motivate the entrepreneur to expand out-
put? And even more puzzling, why does Keynes contend that profits are at a maximum
at the point of intersection of his demand and supply curves, where profits as measured
by the foregoing difference are zero?(Patinkin 1976, 90, italics in original).
So Patinkins interpretation of the D/Z model is in conflict with Keynesclaim that
producing an output corresponding to the effective demand maximises expected prof-
its. This is not the only interpretative problem, however. Also, in the last sentence of
the footnote, Keynes suggests that the slope of the aggregate supply curve equals the
reciprocal of the money-wage. Surely, the slope cannot both be equal to 1 and to the
reciprocal of the money-wage, unless the latter also equals 1. Or does Keynes mean
the slope of the Zcurve as opposed to the Z
w
curve in the last sentence? This is what
Patinkin (1976, 88) believes to be true. However, as was shown above, if the slope of
the Z
w
curve equals 1, then the slope of the Zcurve equals the money wage-unit (W),
not its inverse. Therefore, Patinkin claims that the word reciprocal”“should not
appear here, or else it refers to the measurement of the slope with respect to the vertical
axis(Patinkin 1976, 88, fn. 8).
Figure 3. The D/Z diagram I (source: Patinkin 1976, Figure 9.1).
THE EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT 511
If the system converges to N
0
in Figure 3, then proceeds will just cover costs. This,
in Patinkins(1976,8788) reading, Keynes means by proceeds which will just make it
worth the while of the entrepreneurs to give that employment(Keynes [1936] 1973,
24). However, this ignores that Keynes adopted Marshallian microfoundations, which
assume that entrepreneurs maximise profits not that they aim at covering costs.
10
Also,
Keynes explicitly states in the passage quoted above that the entrepreneursexpect-
ation of profits will be maximisedat the point of effective demand. Patinkin therefore
suggests that these words should simply be deleted from the General Theory
(Patinkin 1976, 93).
As was mentioned in the Introduction, two journal articles complement Patinkins
analysis in KMT. The correctionPatinkin (1977) found necessary to make refers to a
minor issue. In Figure 3 (reproduced from Patinkin 1976) he placed income in wage-
units in square brackets below the employment levels. Patinkin soon realised that with
respect to real income, the 45-line no longer measures the minimum proceeds (costs)
on which firms will insist since its unitary slope now represents the marginal return
from this output. By definition, if output rises by one unit, its total value rises by one
unit. Hence, with respect to Y
w
the 45-line represents the total market value of output
(variable costs plus profits in wage units) and not the aggregate supply price as defined
by Patinkin in KMT (total variable costs). Since he did not attribute this part of his
argument to Keynes, this error does not bear on Patinkins interpretation of the theory
of effective demand in the General Theory.
11
Patinkin (1978) is a defence of his interpretation of the Zfunction in KMT against a
(mostly critical) review by Roberts (1978). Patinkin reiterates that, based on the
footnote”–or rather the upper part of it the Zfunction (in wage-units) must be
interpreted as representing total factor costs (Patinkin 1978, 585). But then he makes a
concession that paves the way for his reinterpretation of Keynestheory of effective
demand vis-
a-vis KMT that will be discussed in the next section. He writes that
Keynes incorrectly defines a supply curve as identical with the total-variable-cost
curve(Patinkin 1978, 586, italics added). Vaguely, he allows the aggregate supply
curve to be derived from profit-maximisation. It then no longer coincides with the
45-line. The proposition that every point on the aggregate supply curve is a point of
maximum profitshe declares valid(Patinkin 1978, 590, italics in original). This is all
quite surprising against the background of KMT. Patinkin refrains from explaining
these statements, but refers (in fn. 24) to his forthcoming article (Patinkin 1979a) for
a more systematic and detailed discussion of these points. He summarises his new
view as follows: There can be little doubt that aggregate supply price as specified in
10
Asimakopulos (1982, 18) insists that Keynes accepted implicitly Marshalls microeconomics, and they
provided the foundations for his aggregate supply function. He also notes that Keyneschoice of words in
the General Theory just echoes Marshalls definition of the supply price for a particular commodity, the nor-
mal supply price of any amount of that commodity is the expectation of which will just suffice to main-
tain the existing aggregate amount of production’” (Asimakopulos 1982, 23 citing Marshall 1920, 342343).
The proceeds which will just make it worth the while of the entrepreneurs to give that employment include
all the elements, other than user costs, to be found in industry supply curves, that is, labour, other factor costs
and profits(Asimakopulos (1982, 25). Asimakopulos (1982, 32) also criticizes that PatinkinsZcurve in
Figure 3 becomes vertical at full employment N
F
because Zis derived from individual firms curves which are
drawn without reference to possible constraints on output due to shortages of labour or other variable
inputs. So if the individual curves do not have vertical parts, their aggregate counterpart should neither.
11
In the German translation of KMT (Patinkin 1979b), the Y
w
terms in square brackets are gone.
512 J. HARTWIG
this footnote is equal to total variable costs. And though this specification is analytically
incorrect , no clear evidence has been supplied that Keynes specified aggregate sup-
ply price in any other way at other points in the General Theory(Patinkin 1978, 591).
The next task Patinkin set himself to was to specify the aggregate supply function
correctly. The next section will show that Patinkin dropped his claim that the aggregate
supply curve is the 45-line. His new claim is that Keynes did not properly understand
his own Zfunction.
12
4. A Study of KeynesTheory of Effective Demand
In Patinkin (1979a), he argues more formally than in his earlier contributions on
aggregate supply. He opens up his argument stating: let us first derive an aggregate
supply function from the principle of profit-maximization. Accordingly, let the produc-
tion function be
Y¼wðNÞ(1)
(Patinkin 1979a, 158).
As stated in the Abstract, my aim in this paper is not only to trace the evolution of
Patinkins interpretation of the theory of effective demand, but also to comment on it.
Patinkins attribution of a macroeconomic production function (from which to derive
the aggregate supply function) to Keynes might be questioned. Keynes, in Chapter 4 of
the General Theory, expressed concern over the concept of aggregate real output Yin
formula (1) because real output was not homogeneous. He declared that he wanted
to use only two units for measuring macroeconomic aggregates, namely money and
labour. Therefore, authors such as Hayes (2007) and Ambrosi (2011) have denied the
admissibility of the aggregate production function for a reconstruction of Keynesthe-
ory.
13
However, Keynes occasionally used the notion of aggregate real output himself
on p. 209 of the General Theory, for instance, he calls it O; and it is a very useful and
established concept in macroeconomics.
14
So I would go along with Patinkin in taking
the aggregate production function with labour as the only variable factor of production
as starting point.
15
Next, Patinkin writes down the first-order condition as
w=p¼w0ðNÞ(2)
and calls it the labor-demand function(Patinkin 1979a, 158).
12
(M)y basic criticism of Keynespresentation of his aggregate supply function is that it is a confused one
(Patinkin 1978, 588).
13
An anonymous reviewer for this journal seems to agree claiming that the use of a production function implies
that the variables appearing in Figure 2 above and in Figure 4 below are defined in terms of a single good
produced that can be consumed or invested. According to the reviewer, in such an economy, the aggregate
demand function would not be independent of the aggregate supply function or the 45-line in the Keynesian
cross; and Says Law would apply.
14
See Hartwig and Brady (2008) for a critique of Hayes (2007). Froyen (1976) argued that Keynes finally opted
for a single measure of output in the General Theory.
15
In fact, I did exactly this when I reconstructed the Zfunction in Hartwig (2000, 174179). At that time, how-
ever, I was unaware of Patinkin (1979a) and used Chick (1983) as my main point of reference.
THE EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT 513
Arguably, if Keynes had accepted the neo-classical labour-demand function, it would
hardly have been necessary for him to devise a new (General) theory of employment.
I fully agree with Asimakopulos (1982, 30) that (t)here is no separate independent
demand curve for labour in Keynesmodel. (The) inverse relationship [between
employment and the real wage] should not be confused with a labour-demand curve
There is no labour market in Keynesmodel in which labour demand and labour
supply curves interact to determine the equilibrium level of employment and the real-
wage rate.
16
Nonetheless, the first-order condition is very important as it picks up the
idea of profit-maximisation. Following Chick (1983), my approach in earlier publica-
tions has been to solve Equation (2) for the price level, to call this the supply price lev-
el, then to multiply this supply price level with the output level from Equation (1) to
get Z¼wwN
ðÞ
w0N
ðÞ
or Zw¼wðNÞ
w0ðNÞ:
17
Patinkin argues slightly differently. He first expresses
the production function (1) in money termsand deflates it by the wage-unit (w) to get
Yw¼pwðNÞ
w:(3)
Upon substitution from profit-maximizing condition (2), this becomes the aggre-
gate supply function
Zw¼wðNÞ
w'ðNÞ(4)
(Patinkin 1979a, 159160).
Applying the quotient rule and assuming diminishing marginal productivity (wʺ(N)
<0) it is easy to show that the slope of the Z
w
curve is greater than unity.
18
So Z
w
lies
above the 45-line, which represents variable costs. This is Patinkins new insight vis-
a-vis Patinkin (1976).
From the perspective of the Chick-Hartwig interpretation if I may call it that way
as detailed in Chick (1983), Hartwig (2000) and elsewhere, Patinkins approach to
substitute Equation (2) into Equation (3) is not quite satisfactory as it ignores that there
are two price levels involved in the D/Z model, not just one.
19
The supply price is not
the market price level an entrepreneur expects, but the proceeds he must have for the
last unit of output at each level of employment to satisfy the profit maximising condi-
tion. This unit supply price will grow with employment under conditions of decreasing
16
The English translation of Hartwig (2000)isKeynes vs. Pigou. Reconstruction of an Employment Theory
Beyond the Market Paradigm. See also Davidson (1983).
17
Note that for employment to rise by one unit the supply price levelhas to increase under conditions of
diminishing returns. Hence, the real wage must fall and income must be transferred from the previously
employed workers to the entrepreneurs. This principle enshrined in Keynesaggregate supply function is in
keeping with Pigous([1933]1968)Theory of Unemployment (see also Arthmar and Brady 2009, 139140).
18
dZw
dN ¼1wN
ðÞ
w00 N
ðÞ
w0ðNÞ
½
2>1:
19
Interestingly, Patinkin had seen that in KMT, where he wrote: In graphical terms Keynes seems to have
treated the difference between OA and OB in Figure 9.1 [Figure 3 in this paper] as if it represented the differ-
ence between two different per-unit prices that actually existed in the economy at a given level of aggregate
output(Patinkin 1976, 92).
514 J. HARTWIG
marginal returns to labour. P
s
, the price level implicit in Z, is in a way purely hypothet-
ical. If, for a certain N
1
, the entrepreneurs expected the price level Ps¼wdN1
dY to rule
in the market they would employ N
1
men because they knew that profits would thereby
be maximised. But which price level do they really expect? This question is not
answered by the aggregate supply function at all but by the aggregate demand function.
The price level implicit in D, which I call the demand price levelP
d
, is the price level
the entrepreneurs really expect to rule in the market and which they must takeunder
free competition that Keynes assumes. Being profit-maximizers, the entrepreneurs
must be on the aggregate supply curve they cannot be off that curve. All points on Z
are profit-maximising. The aggregate demand curve Dpicks the rightprofit-maxi-
mising level of employment where it intersects Zat the point of effective demand.
In my most recent contribution to the D/Z controversy (Hartwig 2017), I use spe-
cific functional forms for the Dand Zfunctions and run numerical simulations which
allow study of the comparative statics of the model in the face of various shocks.I
use the production function Y¼N
a
with a¼0,7 as starting point. As chance would
have it, Patinkin (1979a, 161) uses almost the same function Y¼AN
a
(with 0 <a<1)
for illustrative purposes.
20
This production function gives rise to the following Z
w
func-
tion (depicted in Figure 4)
Zw¼ANa
aANa1¼1
aN(5)
The slope of Z
w
,(1/a), is greater than unity, which is the slope of the total variable
cost (TVC) curve. By construction, every point on this aggregate supply curve is a
point of maximum profits for the real-wage rate to which it corresponds(Patinkin
1979a, 161).
21
For the aggregate demand curve D
w
¼
1
f(N) in Figure 4,0A ¼N
1
Tare
total proceeds, N
1
Uare wages and UT are profits (all in wage-units). In accordance
with the property of a Cobb-Douglas function, the share of wages in the total value of
output is constant and equal to
a¼N1U=N1T¼N2S=N2R
(Patinkin 1979a, 162).
This means that the slope of the Zcurve is equal to the inverse of the wage share (a)
or, in other words, equal to the inverse of the output elasticity, which is equal to the
wage share for a CobbDouglas production function. Although this insight pre-dates
Patinkin (1979a),
22
it was Ambrosi (2011) who seems to be the first to have suggested
20
I did not quote Patinkin (1979a) in Hartwig (2017) because I discovered his article only recently when collect-
ing literature for the present paper. Patinkin (1979a) has not received much attention. The article has received
only 12 citations in Scopus (as of November 2021); and no reviewer or editor has ever pointed my attention
to it. See Patinkin (1982b)onmultiple discoveriesin science.
21
I would replace real-wage ratewith marginal product of labouras Patinkins wording reflects his substitu-
tion of the labour-demand functioninto the production function, which was criticized above. However,
since we assume that the supply price level moves to equate the real wage with marginal product, Patinkins
formulation is correct.
22
The earliest statement I found is by Marty (1961) who wrote: The tangent of the angle made by drawing a
line from the supply function to the origin is the reciprocal of the relative share of labour. If the relative share
is constant as we move along the supply function we trace a linear function. Linearity of the supply function
THE EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT 515
that it can be used to solve one of the puzzles posed by the footnoteon pp. 5556 of
the General Theory. In the last sentence of the footnote, Keynes claims that the slope of
the aggregate supply function equals the inverse of the money wage. Ambrosi agrees that
this is wrong, but he claims that the statement could be corrected simply by inserting the
word shareat the very end of the footnote. In other words, Ambrosi thinks that
Keynes really meantthat the slope of the aggregate supply function is equal to the
reciprocal of the money wage share. Although it cannot be proved that Keynespen
slippedhere,
23
this is an attractive explanation. Hartwig (2017,362363) offers a math-
ematical proof that the slope of Z
w
is equal to the inverse of the output elasticity.
24
In section III of his article, Patinkin (1979a) collects passages from the General Theory
which accord with his new interpretation of the theory of effective demand. However, in
section IV, he rejects the idea that this was Keynesown interpretation. His argument is
twofold. First, there is the footnotewhere Keynes states that the slope of the aggregate
supply function in wage-units equals 1. This means he must have thought that Z
w
is the
45-line. And second, neither in KeynesTreatise on Money nor in the drafts of the
Figure 4. The D/Z diagram II (source: Patinkin 1979a, Figure 2).
implies constancy of the relative share(Marty 1961, 561562). Patinkins(1979a, 159, fn. 5) statement that
Marty has not analyzed the slope and other propertiesof Zis thus incorrect. See also Davidson and
Smolensky (1964, 125, 134135), Asimakopulos (1982, 26) and Arthmar and Brady (2009, 140) on (1/a) being
the slope of Z
w
.
23
See Heller (2009).
24
This argues against Patinkins(1976, 88) conjecture that the last sentence of the footnotewas about the
slope of Zinstead of Z
w
.
516 J. HARTWIG
General Theory can references to profit-maximisation and marginal analysis be found. So
ignoring the fact that the passage from p. 25 of the General Theory quoted above is per-
fectly in line with his new interpretation, Patinkin concludes that, for Keynes,Drepre-
sents expected proceeds and Z(erroneously) total variable costs.
The last critique Patinkin offers is that even if Keynes had correctly derived his
aggregate supply curve from profit maximisation (thus yielding, say, Z
w
¼(1/a)N in
Figure 2 [Figure 4 in this paper]), its intersection with D
w
¼
2
f(N) at Ris not a point of
maximum profits(Patinkin 1979a, 171). To prove this, Patinkin first redefines the
aggregate demand curve D
w
¼
2
f(N) in Figure 4 as representing actual proceeds
(Patinkin 1979a, 172173), even though he admits, that for Keynes it represented
expected proceeds.
Given that Patinkins aim for his article was to determine to the best of my
ability what he [Keynes] did say(Patinkin 1979a, 155), this departure from his
source seems odd. I can only speculate about his reasons. Maybe these had to do
with the problem of how to arrive at aggregate results starting out from the
expectation formation of individual entrepreneurs. On pp. 24-25 of the General
Theory, Keynes describes Dand Zboth as functions of N. But while Nin the
entrepreneurs’“microZfunctions stands for the employment in the entrepre-
neursown firms, and the individual Zfunctions can be aggregated straightfor-
wardly, the Nin the microDfunctions cannot stand for the employment in the
entrepreneursown firms because demand expectations of individual entrepreneurs
do not depend on the employment they give themselves. Therefore, Asimakopulos
(1982) rejects the expectational Dfunction, and he quotes Patinkin (1979a,
172174) as a point of reference (see Asimakopulos 1982, 21, fn. 10).
25
Patinkins
argument seems to be somewhat different, though. He accepts that individual
entrepreneurs are (demand-) price takers because they cannot observe the aggre-
gate demand function. For them, Keynesdescription of the point of intersection
of the aggregate demand and supply curves as one of maximum profits is
correct(Patinkin 1979a, 173). For the firms as a whole, operating as one unit
(Patinkin 1979a, 173), however, things are different. The unitcan perceive the
aggregate demand curve the actual one that is, not Keynesexpectational one
and can move freely on it, according to Patinkin. If the macroDcurve is D
w
¼
2
f(N) in Figure 4 as Patinkin has postulated (see above) then the difference
between actual proceeds on D
w
¼
2
f(N) and total variable costs on the 45-line
hence profit is higher than at the point of effective demand Rwhen employ-
ment falls below N
2
.
26
Patinkin comes to this conclusion because he treats the aggregate of firms like
a monopolist who can move freely on the Dcurve. I have doubts that the aggre-
gation problem should be solved this way. In my interpretation (see fn. 25 above),
the Dcurve is exogenous for the entrepreneurs, as is the price component
25
I think Asimakopulosrejection of the expectational Dfunction is unwarranted. Entrepreneurs do form
expectations on overall employment or the state of the business cycle, respectively when they decide how
many workers to employ in their own firm. So macroemployment and microemployment are interre-
lated. See Hartwig (2004,8182) for a defence of the expectational Dfunction.
26
See also Boianovsky (2002, 248249) on the topics covered in this paragraph and the next.
THE EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT 517
inherent in it. Entrepreneurs are (demand-) price takers. They cannot move freely
on D. On the other hand, being the suppliers, entrepreneurs cannot be off the
aggregate supply curve. To repeat from above, the aggregate demand curve D
picks the rightprofit-maximising level of employment where it intersects Zat
the point of effective demand.
27
Howsoever, Patinkin softens his criticism of Din his concluding examination of the
theory of effective demand. Patinkin (1982a) is basically a reprint of Patinkin (1979a),
albeit with some rearrangements and amendments. One such rearrangement concerns
the two criticisms from section IV of Patinkin (1979a). Patinkin (1982a) now discusses
the inconsistencyconcerning Dthat profits are not maximised at the point of inter-
section with Zfirst and indicates that it can be removed when Dis reinterpreted as
representing actual instead of expected expenditure (Patinkin 1982a, 143144). It will
be remembered that this redefinition was the first step in his proof of the
inconsistencyconcerning Din Patinkin (1979a, 172173). The inconsistencyarose
because Patinkin assumed that the entrepreneurs as a unitcould perceive and move
on D
w
¼
2
f(N) in Figure 4. If, however, the aggregate demand curve is not perceived
by entrepreneurs(Patinkin 1982a, 143, italics in original) so that D
w
¼
2
f(N) repre-
sents the total consumption and investment expenditures, and if D
w
¼
1
f(N) represents
aggregate demand as expected by the entrepreneurs, then at employment level N
1
actual demand is higher than expected demand. So the entrepreneurs have an incentive
to expand output. This triggers a quantity reaction just like an upward shift of the
demand curve in the Keynesian cross would which continues until the economy
reaches an equilibrium at point Rin Figure 4,where, for the representative competi-
tive firm, market price equals marginal cost. Thus, from the viewpoint of such a firm,
Ris a point of maximum profits in the sense that the firm has no incentive to depart
from it(Patinkin 1982a).
So with respect to D, Patinkin eases his criticism vis-
a-vis Patinkin (1979a) some-
what. He maintains, however, that Keynes did not distinguish properly between prop-
ositions which are valid for the representative firm operating under conditions of
perfect competition and those valid for firms as a whole, operating as one unit
(Patinkin 1982a, 144).
The second inconsistency”–the footnotesstatement that /0(N) ¼1–“is a
much more serious one(Patinkin 1982a, 144). Patinkin offers a new insight, how this
statement might be explained. He argues that Keynes simply confounds the aggregate
supply function /(N) with the production function w(N) in the footnote. For it fol-
lows from the first-order condition (Equation 2 above) that p
ww0N
ðÞ
¼1:That is, the
slope of the production function (Equation 1) in money termsand deflated by the
wage-unit (w) equals 1. Was Keynesimplicit, erroneous identification of the produc-
tion and supply functions transitory or permanent?, Patinkin asks. Was it a chance
error of this footnote or a systematic component of his thinking? The evidence is not
clear, but I think the latter alternative is closer to the truth(Patinkin 1982a, 145).
Which leads Patinkin to his final verdict on Keynestheory of effective demand: And
27
Victoria Chick was right to point out that (e)ffective demand is an unfortunate term, for it really refers to
the output that will be supplied; in general there is no assurance that it will also be demanded(Chick
1983, 65).
518 J. HARTWIG
this is my main point: that the obscurity with which the aggregate supply curve is pre-
sented in the General Theory is a sign not of profundity, but of obscurity(Patinkin
1982a, 150).
5. Conclusion
The evolution of Patinkins interpretation of Keynestheory of effective demand made
some turns. Patinkin started out supplementing the then-dominant way of representing
Keynesian theory the Keynesian cross with an aggregate supply function. His initial
version of that function, in Patinkin (1949), was nearly horizontal; later on, in Money,
Interest, and Prices, Patinkin opted for a vertical version of the aggregate supply func-
tion. Failure to include aggregate supply in the Keynesian cross let Keynesian econom-
ics, in Patinkins view, to neglect that an excess of supply over demand would
generate a deflation of money wages and prices that would restore full employment
through the interest-rate and real-balance channels.
After the publication of volumes XIII and XIV of the Collected Writings of John
Maynard Keynes (in 1973) Patinkin refocused from Keynesian economicsto the
economics of Keynes. The drafts of KeynesGeneral Theory as well as the correspond-
ence between Keynes and his colleagues published in these volumes were instrumental
for Patinkin in recognising the importance of Chapter 3 of the published version of
Keynesbook titled The Principle of Effective Demand. However, Patinkin struggled
for several more years with identifying the true meaning of this most important and
most obscure chapter in the General Theory(Patinkin 1979a, 155). His main inter-
pretative problem was with Keynesaggregate supply function Z. Chiefly based on a
footnote from pp. 5556 of the General Theory, in which Keynes states that the slope
of the aggregate supply function in wage-units (Z
w
) equals 1, Patinkin identified the
latter as the total-variable-cost curve in his book KeynesMonetary Thought (Patinkin
1976). He was well aware, however, that several passages of the General Theory, for
instance Keynesinsistence that profits are maximised at the point of effective demand
which is the point of intersection of the aggregate supply function Zand the aggre-
gate demand function Dwere at odds with this interpretation. Therefore, in 1979, he
revisited his interpretation, integrating the first-order condition in Z. The slope of the
aggregate supply function in wage-units (Z
w
) in the Z
w
/N-space is consequently greater
than 1, and the distance between Z
w
and the 45-line measures profits (in wage-units).
This interpretation, Patinkin was convinced, was the correct version of the aggregate
supply function. This implies that the version in Patinkin (1976) is wrong.
28
I agree
with Patinkin on this point. Patinkin attributes the wrong version the KMT version
to Keynes, however.
29
His main evidence: the footnotefrom pp. 55-56 of the General
Theory. I tend to disagree with Patinkin on this second point because the interpretation
of Keynesprinciple of effective demand developed in Patinkin (1979a) and reaffirmed
28
The chapter is a further development and in part a correction of the critique of Keynestheory of effect-
ive demand which appears in chapter 9 of KMT(Patinkin 1982a, 123).
29
The analysis of section 3 above not only demonstrates the invalidity of Keynesdescription of the supply
curve as having a constant unitary slope, but also suggests that the immediate cause of Keyneserror was his
failure to distinguish between the supply function and the production function(Patinkin 1982a, 145).
THE EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT 519
in Patinkin (1982a) is perfectly in line with the passage on p. 25 of the General Theory
quoted above in section III.
There must be something wrong with the footnote, however, since it makes con-
flicting claims about the slope of Z
w
, namely that the latter equals at the same time 1
and the reciprocal of the money wage. I already mentioned Ambrosis(2011) proposal
to rectify the last sentence of the footnote by inserting the word shareat the very end
and Patinkins(1982a) suggestion that it should read p
ww0N
ðÞ
¼1 instead of /0(N) ¼1
in the upper part of the footnote. Another suggestion can be made. Keynes [1936]
1973, 283) writes that if the elasticity of output is unity, no part of the increased effect-
ive demand is expected to accrue as profit. In this special case of zero marginal profits,
the slope of the aggregate supply function in wage-units (Z
w
) equals 1. So the statement
/0(N) ¼1 is correct, but only for the special case of an output elasticity and hence a
wage share of 1.
30
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Harald Hagemann, Fritz Helmedag and two anonymous reviewers for this
journal for helpful comments on an earlier draft. The usual disclaimer applies. This research
did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-
profit sectors.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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Article
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This paper analyses Patinkin's appraisal of Keynes’ concept of involuntary unemployment while focusing on his reading of the General Theory Chapter 19. On several critical issues, Patinkin departs from Keynes’ original matters of concerns. He leans against an individual criterion for unemployment and implicitly endorses Wicksell's understanding of voluntary unemployment as chosen leisure. His appraisal of involuntary unemployment as a disequilibrium phenomenon ultimately relies on nominal rigidities and assumes the existence of a competitive adjustment process. On all these three critical points, Patinkin departs from Keynes but also initiates the contemporary New Keynesian programme that went even further from Keynes.
Book
This book was originally published by Macmillan in 1936. It was voted the top Academic Book that Shaped Modern Britain by Academic Book Week (UK) in 2017, and in 2011 was placed on Time Magazine's top 100 non-fiction books written in English since 1923. Reissued with a fresh Introduction by the Nobel-prize winner Paul Krugman and a new Afterword by Keynes’ biographer Robert Skidelsky, this important work is made available to a new generation. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money transformed economics and changed the face of modern macroeconomics. Keynes’ argument is based on the idea that the level of employment is not determined by the price of labour, but by the spending of money. It gave way to an entirely new approach where employment, inflation and the market economy are concerned. Highly provocative at its time of publication, this book and Keynes’ theories continue to remain the subject of much support and praise, criticism and debate. Economists at any stage in their career will enjoy revisiting this treatise and observing the relevance of Keynes’ work in today’s contemporary climate.
Article
Keynes introduces the term ‘effective demand’ in Chapter 3 of the General Theory as designating the point of intersection of two functions: the ‘aggregate demand function’ (D) and the ‘aggregate supply function’ (Z). For the first time in the literature, I here use specific functional forms for the D and Z functions and run numerical simulations which allow study of the comparative statics of the model in the face of various ‘shocks’. The demonstration of how the D/Z model actually works will hopefully prove useful for future students of the economics of Keynes.