Foundations of International Economics: Post-Keynesian Perspectives

These essays treat a number of international trade related issues from the standard Post Keynesian perspective.Problems of the international balance of payments[countries with very large surpluses(for instance,Japan and China) and/or deficits(the United States)]and the effect of such imbalances on other countries economic growth and development,international trade and exchange rates(fixed or free floating),international monetary policy,the effects of the mobility of highly liquid financial capital on the relative values of national currencies ,standards of living and economic growth and development over time,the transfer of technology,macroeconomic modeling,globalization and trade lioberalization policies.I will concentrate my review on essay four by Deprez and his misspecification of the D-Z analysis presented by Keynes in chapters 20 and 21 of his 1936 The General Theory(1936;GT).Deprez specifies that Z=f(N)= pQ,where p is the price and Q is the output (p.96)or that Z equals Z=pQ=(1/ALPHA) WN,where W is the money wage and N is the amount of employment(p.97).It is a simple matter to integrate Keynes's derivatives on pp.55-56,ft.2 or pp.282-286 of the GT to see that Z=WN+P,where P is expected economic profit.Deprez is correct only in the case of constant returns to labor where expected economic profit equals 0.Likewise,Fig.4.1 on Page 97 is incorrect.The full employment amount of labor is obtained at N-max in the diagram.The aggregate supply curve,a locus of all D=Z intersections,would have to become completely vertical at N-max.Since in this special case,D and Z are coincident,Deprez's Z curve would have to become vertical at Z max.Instead,it is modeled as a 45 degree line.