DISEQUILIBRIUM MACROECONOMICS: AN EPISODE IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF MODERN MACROECONOMICS

The paper investigates the rise and fall of the disequilibrium approach in macroeconomics between the mid 1960s and the late 1970s. During that period macroeconomists became attracted to the interpretation of unemployment phenomena based on the notion that markets are not in equilibrium. It was believed that such an approach could result in supply and demand functions distinct from those of conventional theory. However, by the late 1980s disequilibrium macroeconomics had largely disappeared from view, while approaches influenced by New Classical Macroeconomics and New Keynesian Economics became dominant. The present paper examines the contributions of the main authors - Patinkin, Clower, Leijonhufvud, Barro, Grossman, Solow, Stiglitz and Malinvaud - in order to offer a new pwerspective on the reasons for its sudden disappearance.