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General Theorizing and Historical Specificity in the 'Keynes Versus the Classics' Dispute
1Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche, School of Management and Economics, University of Turin, Corso Unione Sovietica, 218 Bis, 10134 Turin, Italy.
Abstract:
This paper addresses the issues of general theorizing and historical specificity in the 'Keynes versus the Classics' dispute and puts forward two main arguments. First, the current macroeconomic orthodoxy wins the 'relative' generality contest because it implies that institutions influence outcomes, such as the natural rate of unemployment, in contrast with Keynes's 'internalist' approach, which neglects historical specificity. Secondly, mainstream macro is not truly general in an 'absolute' sense since it only makes sense under very special real-world institutional conditions.
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