Keynes, John Maynard (1883–1946)

Summary

This article is devoted to the economic thought of Keynes himself, and only to a very secondary extent considers subsequent developments in “Keynesian” economics. Following an opening section providing a brief biographical sketch, three sections successively examine Keynes’s contributions to economic theory, with respect to the determination of aggregate economic activity levels, interest rates, and then some other theoretical aspects. The latter, in turn, concerns three dimensions of monetary economics: inflation, international monetary economics, and financial instability. A fourth and final section examines Keynes’s views on economic policy, with particular reference to fiscal policy, monetary policy, and Keynes’s politics.