This volume of intellectual biography takes the Polish economist Micha Kalecki (1899-1970) from the shattering of his prosperous childhood, in Tsarist Łódź in the 1905 Revolution, to Cambridge and the failure of his co-operative research with John Maynard Keynes's supporters in Cambridge.

Michael Kalecki was a Polish economist who independently discovered many of the key concepts of what is now identified as Keynesian theory. His contribution to macroeconomics was late in being acknowledged, but his work can be seen to have resounding influence on some of today's economic problems. The analyses presented in this book serve to scruti

This volume of intellectual biography records the work of Michał Kalecki’s maturity: his work on monetary economics and the theory of profits; his work on the problems of socialism and developing countries; and the extension of his theory of capitalism to define his work in relation to Keynes and previous political economic principles. Kalecki had, by 1939, laid out the essential elements of his theory of the business cycle in capitalism. This book begins at Oxford where, at the Institute of Statistics, he worked on the economic planning and financing of World War Two, as well as extending and detailing the particulars of his theory and examining the conditions for full employment in the post-War international monetary and financial system. Kalecki would then work for the United Nations on full employment, inflation, and developing countries. He departed from the United Nations in 1955, and returned to Poland to extend two new directions of his ideas – on the economics of developing countries and his theory of growth in the socialist economy, alongside further work on business cycles. This book is essential reading for all those who want to understand Kalecki’s lasting contribution to economic theory and policy.

This book helps in pushing forward a Kaleckian research agenda that is even more urgent given the 2007-2009 financial crisis and the current post-COVID recovery. Michał Kalecki was a leading heterodox economist, whose influence in the field perhaps even surpasses that of Keynes. Kalecki’s insights are even more relevant today, and scholars are encouraged to apply his conclusions to ensure the sustainability of our economic systems. This edited volume, honouring the work of Michał Kalecki, includes chapters contributed by celebrated Kaleckian economists. In honour of the 50th anniversary of his demise, the Review of Political Economy (ROPE) and Edward Lipiński Foundation hosted a conference in September 2020 to celebrate his contribution to heterodox economics and his lasting legacy. These chapters, honouring the work of Michał Kalecki, span a panoply of topics and include a personal note from one of his former students and friend, and cover topics such as Kalecki’s relationship with the Cantabrigians, labour economics, fiscal policy, income distribution, gender, finance, debt, and democracy. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Review of Political Economy.

In the first part of the book, Eckhard Hein presents a comprehensive overview of the main approaches towards distribution and growth including the contributions of Harrod and Domar, old and new neoclassical theories including the fundamental capital controversy critique, the post-Keynesian contributions of Kaldor, Pasinetti, Thirlwall and Robinson, and finally the approaches by Kalecki and Steindl. In the second part of the book neo- and post-Kaleckian models are gradually developed, introducing saving from wages, international trade, technological progress, interest and credit. Issues of 'financialisation' are also explored and empirical results related to the different models are presented.