Keynesian Circular-Flow Analysis(Labor-Based Macroeconomics)

The Inherent Instability of a Wholly Private Economy(according to John Maynard Keynes)

Roger W. Garrison 2010

Keynes’s vision of the economy suggests a circular-flow framework—in which earning and spending are brought into balance by changes in the level of employment.

The Keynesian Vision

Graphically, the circular flow appears as the Keynesian cross, the cross’s intersection identifying the particular state of the economy in which income and expenditures are in balance.

The Income-Expenditure Framework

BUSINESSORGANIZATIONS

WORKERS

FACTOROWNERS

CONSUMERS

LABOR AND OTHERFACTOR SERVICES

INCOME

THECIRCULAR-FLOW

FRAMEWORK

BUSINESSORGANIZATIONS

WORKERS

FACTOROWNERS

CONSUMERS

LABOR AND OTHERFACTOR SERVICES

INCOME

GOODS ANDSERRVICES

EXPENDITURES

Let the speed of rotation indicate the strength (fast) or weakness (slow) of

the economy.

BUSINESSORGANIZATIONS

WORKERS

FACTOROWNERS

CONSUMERS

INCOME

EXPENDITURES

BUSINESSORGANIZATIONS

WORKERS

FACTOROWNERS

CONSUMERS

In Keynesian equilibrium,INCOME equals EXPENDITURES.

Y = EY = C + I + G

What counts as income?

RENTS

WAGES

INTEREST

PROFITS

What counts as Spending?

SPENDING BY CONSUMERS

SPENDING BY BUSINESSES

SPENDING BY GOVERNMENT

C + I + G Y

BUSINESSORGANIZATIONS

WORKERS

FACTOROWNERS

CONSUMERS

INCOME

EXPENDITURES

For a wholly private economy,

Y = C + I

In Keynesian equilibrium,INCOME equals EXPENDITURES.

45o

E = Y

EX

PE

ND

ITU

RE

S

INCOME

The circular character of the flow suggests an equality of left-half flow and right-half flow---as represented by a forty-five degree line passing through the origin.

EXPENDITURES, which constitute the left half of the circular flow, is represented on the vertical axis.

INCOME, which constitutes the right half of the circular flow, is represented on the horizontal axis.

The economy is in a Keynesian equilibrium somewhere along the 45o line—the line itself identifying all possible income-expenditure equilibrium points.

As taught at all levels, the consumption function is an essential component of the Keynesian framework. The presumed stability of this function underlies Keynesian thinking.

EX

PE

ND

ITU

RE

S

INCOME

CONSUMPTION

INVESTMENT

INCOME

C = a + bY

C + I

45oa

b

1

Consumption and Investment (as well as Government Spending) are portrayed as additive components of total spending. The three components are distinguished largely in terms of their stability characteristics: stable (C ), unstable (I), and stabilizing (G).

A wholly private macroeconomy achieves an income-expenditure equilibrium when Y = C + I. Note that income itself (rather than prices, wages, or the interest rate) is the equilibrating variable.

Investment depends neither on (current) income nor on the rate of interest. It depends only on profit expectations, which themselves are not well-anchored in economic reality.

Keynes would say the investors are moved by the “animal spirits.”

Labor income (Y = WN) is fully representative of total income, such that changes in labor income stand in direct proportion to changes in total income.

Yfe

Full employment implies that the economy is operating on its production possibility frontier, the PPF itself being defined in terms of sustainable output levels of consumption and investment goods.

EX

PE

ND

ITU

RE

S

INCOME

C = a + bY

N

W

S

D

C + I

INVESTMENT

CO

NS

UM

PTI

ON

In Keynesian macroeconomics, full employment implies that the labor market clears at the going wage rate, the going wage itself having emerged during a period in which the economy was experiencing no macroeconomic problems.

LABOR INCOME

According to Keynes, it is only by “accident or design” that the economy is actually performing at its full-employment potential.

We assume here that, initially, full employment conditions prevail—if only by accident.

ΔY

According to Keynes, a collapse of investment activity (the collapse being attributed to a waning of “animal spirits”) is the primary cause economic downturns. In response to reduced investment and hence reduced employment opportunities, the economy spirals downward into recession and possibly into deep depression.

E < Y

EX

PE

ND

ITU

RE

S

INCOME

N

W

S

D

EXCESS INVENTORIESC + I

C = a + bY

ΔI

Note that the going wage keeps “going”—even after the market conditions that gave rise to it are gone.

Yfe

E = Y

INCOME

CONSUMPTION

INVESTMENT

ΔC

CONSUMPTION

INVESTMENT

INCOME

EX

PE

ND

ITU

RE

S

INCOME

N

S

D

W

C = a + bY

C + I

In the Keynesian construction, prices and the wage rate are sticky downward.

But note that they’re not stuck too high. They’re stuck just right. The going wage rate will clear the labor market once again—as soon as spending and hence labor demand recover to their full-employment levels.

A further loss of confidence on the part of the business community will send the economy even further from its full-employment potential.

Yfe

Recovery may be self-initiating. Waning animal spirits may become waxing animal spirits. In due time, a pressing need to maintain or replace depreciating capital may account for the lower turning point of a bust-and-recovery sequence.

(Keynes, of course, preferred not to wait it out. He advocated make-work projects, deficit spending, and monetary stimulation to get the economy turned around.)

EX

PE

ND

ITU

RE

S

INCOME

C = a + bYC + I

N

S

D

W

Yfe

DEFICIENCY OF INVENTORIES

INCOME

CONSUMPTION

INVESTMENT

Yfe

Recovery may continue as further investment activity drives labor-demand back to its full-employment level...

EX

PE

ND

ITU

RE

S

INCOME

C + I

C = a + bY

N

S

D

W

but there is nothing about “animal spirits” that will bring the recovery process to an end at full employment.

Over-optimism may push the economy beyond its full-employment level.

Recovery may continue as further investment activity drives labor-demand back to its full-employment level...

EX

PE

ND

ITU

RE

S

INCOME

C + I

C = a + bY

N

S

D

W

From full-employment onward, there is upward pressure on both prices and wage rates. And since prices and wage rates are not sticky upwards, the economy experiences a spiraling inflation.

The equilibrium points in the labor market traced out during the recovery and inflationary spiral constitute the so-called L-shaped supply curve.

Yfe

BUSINESSORGANIZATIONS

WORKERS

FACTOROWNERS

CONSUMERS

INCOME

EXPENDITURES

Dealing with the inherent instability of the economy, according to Keynes, requires policy activism. Well-gauged and well-timed fiscal policy (changes in government spending and the level

of taxation) can counter the recessionary and inflationary forces that are deeply rooted in capitalism.

Keynesian Circular-Flow Analysis(Labor-Based Macroeconomics)

The Inherent Instability of a Wholly Private Economy(according to John Maynard Keynes)

Roger W. Garrison 2010