ABSTRACT

Post Keynesian economics (PKE), as part of heterodox economics, holds presuppositions that emphasise realism, holism, reasonable rationality, production and instability instead of instrumentalism, atomism, absolute rationality, scarcity and market equilibrium. It extends and generalises the seminal ideas that were developed by John Maynard Keynes, Michal Kalecki and their heirs, notably Nicholas Kaldor and Joan Robinson. However, during the early 1970s several American economists—in particular Alfred Eichner, Edward Nell and Paul Davidson—contributed in their own way to this tradition and helped to institutionalise PKE, which can be viewed as a comprehensive alternative to the prevailing neoclassical paradigm.