A Polish economist who independently discovered many of the key concepts of Keynesian theory After studying engineering at the Polytechnics of Warsaw and Gdansk, he became a freelance economic journalist and analyst at the Polish Research Institute for Business Cycles and Prices from 1929 to 1937. At the Oxford Institute of Statistics, from 1940 to 1955, he worked on wartime rationing schemes and refined his study of economic dynamics and cycles. From 1955 to 1970 he was economic adviser to the Polish government and then Polish representative at the United Nations. His major contribution to macroeconomics was late in being acknowledged (the translation from Polish was delayed) despite Joan ROBINSON’S frequent praise. With MARX as his starting point, he developed a long-run model of equilibrium growth integrating it with his business cycle theory He believed that FULL EMPLOYMENT was a short-lived phenomenon. He has been a great inspiration for the POST-KEYNESIANS.
He provided an account of the microfoundations for macroeconomics in his theory of MARK-UP pricing (the mark-up reflecting the relative power of an oligopolistic firm in an industry). This pricing theory is then applied to both the distribution and level of the national income as the prices of oligopolists will have a crucial effect on cyclical movements of national output. His model of the economy combines Marx’s scheme of REPRODUCTION and the MULTIPLIER.
References
Feiwel, G.R. (1975) The Intellectual Capital of Michal Kalecki, Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press.
Kalecki, M. (1954) Theory of Economic Dynamics: An Essay on Cyclical and Long-run Changes in the Capitalist Economy, London: Allen & Unwin.
——(1969) Introduction to the Theory of Growth in a Socialist Economy, trans. from 2nd Polish edn by Z.Sadowski, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
——(1987) Selected Essays on Economic Planning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Osiatinsky, J. (1990 onwards) The Collected Works of M.Kalecki, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sawyer, M.C. (1985) The Economics of Michal Kalecki, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
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