Excursus in Economics: Locating a Marxian to Understand the Keynesian Macroeconomics

Abstract

The paper is on one of the best Macroeconomics teachers and a finest Marxists of our time, who is none other than Professor Patnaik. The reading is neither decisive nor trivial to understand the contribution of a behemoth personality, nonetheless, presents a humble perception of some of his work spanning from early 1970s to 2010s. Of his over 40 years of writing, the reading of Patnaik broadly compartmentalized his work as two – a variety of Marxian critique of social issues, and a variety of Keynes-Kalecki approach on economic issues. With regard to the macroeconomic issues in India, he has two strategies to deal with the problem: 1) the dynamics of mixed economy in the “pre and post structural adjustment” economy; and 2) the impact of imperialism in the socio-economic and political life of India(ns) in particular and the world at large. This classification is neither a foolproof nor have a claim of “correctness” but for the convenience of presenting Patnaik in a simplest possible way to the readers. The schema of the paper is hence placed under the Marxian and Keynes-Kaleckian view of Patnaik and his original contributions on these traditions.

Keywords: Prabhat Patnaik, Neoliberalism, Capitalists, Accumulation, Macroeconomics, Keynes, Kalecki, Marx, Marxist, Money, Inflation, Core-Periphery

JEL Classification: A11, A13, B14, B22, B24, E11, E12, P12