Paul Davidson (1930-2024) and the founding of Post-Keynesian economics

Abstract:

Paul Davidson was a critical figure in the preservation of John Maynard Keynes’s ideas, sticking with them when they were out of fashion. He was also key to the survival of the Post Keynesian school. Davidson endorsed Keynes’s liquidity preference theory of interest, and he emphasized fundamental uncertainty as a central feature of economic reality, essential to making sense of a monetary economy. His greatest legacy is the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, the intellectual home for a generation of Post Keynesian economists. Without his efforts, the heterodox economics community would be significantly smaller than it is now.

Conclusion as Found in Working Paper: Paul Davidson (1930-2024) and the founding of Post-Keynesian economics, Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK) in the Hans Boeckler Foundation

Paul Davidson will be remembered for his persistent emphasis of the importance of fundamental uncertainty, a central feature of economic reality and a critical idea for understanding the role of money in the real world. However, his greatest legacy is associated with his institution building. Without his teaching, his organizing activities, his support of younger scholars, and his cofounding and editorship of the JPKE, the heterodox economics community would be significantly smaller than it is now.

Davidson was combative and forceful in his discussions, particularly about Keynes’ legacy. In retrospect, he was a key figure in the preservation of Keynesian ideas, sticking with them when they had fallen out of fashion and when the economics profession had mistakenly moved away from them. Since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 there has been a considerable rehabilitation of Keynes’ ideas, prompting talk about “the return of the master.” Paul Davidson never abandoned the master, and he was right