Econ 508: Controversial Issues in Recent Economic Literature: The Contributions of Hyman P. Minsky
Professor Wray Winter 2007
Class Meets: Wed 4-6:45pm, FH 338
Office Hours: M,W 10-11:30am, W 2-3pm Or by Appointment
Office: Manheim 202c, 235-5687 (don’t leave message)
Best way to reach Wray: wrayr@umkc.edu
TA: Yeva Nersisyan, ysnz72@umkc.edu
Description: This course will examine the contributions made by Hyman Minsky, beginning with his early work on investment and business cycles. We next examine Minsky’s research on employment and poverty, his critique of President Johnson’s War on Poverty, and Minsky’s employer of last resort proposal. We then explore Minsky’s better-known reinterpretation of Keynes’s General Theory, Minsky’s development and extension of the financial instability hypothesis, and his policy proposals in Stabilizing an Unstable Economy. Finally, we conclude with an assessment of his work at the Levy Economics Institute.
Readings: The readings will consist of a number of journal articles (mostly available through J-Stor), published and unpublished work from his archives at the Levy Institute, Levy Working Papers, and his two major books, John Maynard Keynes and Stabilizing an Unstable Economy. There will also be limited reading of some of the secondary literature.
Evaluation: Several shorter essays that will be presented in class (40%), participation (5%), community service (5%), and a term paper on an approved topic (50%). Late work is devalued by 10%.
Outline (timing is approximate; partial list of readings):
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Longer Waves in Financial Relations: Financial Factors in the More Severe Depressions Hyman P. Minsky, |
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e) Working Paper No. 64 | November 1991, Levy Institute (www.levy.org) Market Processes and Thwarting Systems, Minsky and Ferri |
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Review:
Employment, Growth and Price Levels: A Review Article
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b) Minsky, H. P. Undated. Draft manuscript on Poverty and Policy.
c) ———. 1965. “The Role of Employment Policy.” In Margaret S. Gordon, ed. Poverty in America. San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Company.
d) ———. 1968. “Effects of Shifts of Aggregate Demand upon Income Distribution.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 50: 2:328–339.
e) ———. 1973. “The Strategy of Economic Policy and Income Distribution.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political andSocial Science 409 (September): 92–101.
f) ———. 1975. “The Poverty of Economic Policy.” Unpublished paper,
presented at the Graduate Institute of Cooperative Leadership, July 14.
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g) Public Policy Brief No. 78, 2004 | June 2004, Levy Institute (www.levy.org), The War on Poverty after 40 Years: A Minskyan Assessment, by Bell and Wray |
a) Minsky, 1975: John Maynard Keynes: Columbia University Press
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b) |
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Review:
[untitled], Author(s) of Review:
Hyman P. Minsky |
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Review: [untitled], Author(s)
of Review:
Sidney Weintraub |
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Comments on Friedman's and Schwartz'
Money and the Business Cycles |
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Review: [untitled], Author(s) of Review:
G. C. Harcourt |
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a) “The financial instability hypothesis: a restatement”, in Arestis and Skouras, Post Keynesian Economic Theory, 1985
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b) Working Paper No. 74 | May 1992, Levy Institute (www.levy.org), The Financial Instability Hypothesis, Hyman Minsky |
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c) Working Paper No. 93 | May 1993, Levy Institute (www.levy.org), Finance and Stability: The Limits of Capitalism, Hyman Minsky |
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Review:
[untitled] |
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e) |
Review: [untitled] |
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f) Working Paper No. 275 | July 1999, Levy Institute (www.levy.org), Minsky's Analysis of Financial Capitalism, Papadimitriou and Wray |
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a) Minsky, H.P. 1986. Stabilizing an Unstable Economy, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.
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b) Working Paper No. 155 | April 1996, Levy Institute (www.levy.org), Uncertainty and the Institutional Structure of Capitalist Economies, Hyman Minsky |
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c) Working Paper No. 217 | December 1997, Levy Institute (www.levy.org), The Economic Contributions of Hyman Minsky: Varieties of Capitalism and Institutional Reform, Papadimitriou and Wray |
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d) Working Paper No. 165 | May 1996, Levy Institute (www.levy.org), Economic Insecurity and the Institutional Prerequisites for Successful Capitalism, Minsky and Whalen |
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e) Working Paper No. 69 | January 1992, Levy Institute (www.levy.org), Reconstituting the United States's Financial Structure: Some Fundamental Issues, Hyman Minsky |
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f) Public Policy Brief No. 3, 1993 | January 1993, Levy Institute (www.levy.org), Community Development Banking: A Proposal to Establish a Nationwide System of Community, Minsky, Phillips, Papadimitriou, and Wray |
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g) |
Review: [untitled] |