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Capital controversy in the birth of macrotheory: the Keynes-Hayek exchange in retrospect

A close historical inspection shows that many theoretical issues occupying contemporary macroeconomists surfaced in the Keynes-Hayek debate in the early 1930s. This paper, however, focuses only upon some capital-theoretic issues involved in that debate, this being done with a view to tentatively evaluate to what extent some theoretical conclusions advanced in Keynes' Treatise on Money are undermined by Hayek's capital-theoretic objections. It is submitted that a major source of disagreement between them regards the role played by monetary factors in the process through which eventual disequilibria between investment and saving lead to changes in the price level. Keynes argued that such disequilibria may lead to changes in the price level even if the amount of money in circulation remains constant, whereas Hayek claimed that changes in the price level arising from such disequilibria will be necessarily accompanied by proportional changes in the amount of money in circulation.

investment; saving; monetary circulation; capital; price level


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