Beyond Microfoundations: Post Walrasian Economics

Beyond Microfoundations discusses the foundations for a post-Walrasian macroeconomics and, in doing so, carries the work of Robert Clower and Axel Leijonhufvud to the present. This book spells out both why an alternative approach to macro is needed, and what the essence of the approach will be. This post-Walrasian approach to macro is neither Keynesian nor Classical, both of which have Walrasian foundations, but it offers an approach to macro in which Walrasian economics is turned on its head. Specifically, it rejects the Walrasian ad hoc assumptions of the existence of a unique equilibrium and of simple dynamics. That rejection leads one to a fundamentally different conception of macro than most macroeconomics have implicit in their formal model. Post-Walrasian macroeconomics offers a vision of macro in which micro foundations devoid of an explicit macro context have no place, but one in which institutions have a fundamental role. Post-Walrasian macroeconomics provides a foundation for an alternative macroeconomics for the twenty-first century built on the edges of chaos.

Table of Contents:
About the authors; Preface; 1. Overview David Colander; Part I. The Post-Walrasian Macroeconomic Vision: 2. Taking markets seriously: groundwork for a post-Walrasian macroeconomics Robert Clower and Peter Howitt; 3. Towards a not-too-rational macroeconomics Axel Leijonhufvud; 4. The macrofoundations of micro David Colander; Part II. The Underpinnings of Post-Walrasian Macroeconomics: 5. The evolution of macroeconomics: the origins of post-Walrasian economics Perry Mehrling; 6. Chaos theory and post-Walrasian macroeconomics J. Barkley Rosser Jr; 7. Marshallian general equilibrium analysis David Colander; Part III. Modelling a Post-Walrasian Economy: 8. Heterogeneity, aggregation and a meaningful macroeconomics Robert J. Martel; 9. Walras, complexity and post-Walrasian macroeconomics David M. Reaume; 10. Team coordination problems and macroeconomic models John Bryant; 11. 'Competitive' market disequilibrium: a post-Walrasian analysis of investment John Bryant; Part IV. New Structuralist Macroeconomics vs. Post-Walrasian Macroeconomics: 12. Endogenizing the natural rate of unemployment: Phelps's structural slumps and the post-Walrasian framework Hans van Ees and Harry Garretsen; 13. Post-Walrasian macroeconomic policy David Colander and Hans van Ees; Part V. Appendix: Literature Survey: An annotated bibliography on the (macro)foundation of Post-Walrasian economics Hans van Ees and Harry Garretsen; Name index; Subject index.