Microfoundations of macroeconomics. Post-Keynesian contributions on the theory of the firm

Looking through contributions about microeconomic theory, from classics to modern theory, it is possible to identify various attitudes on the role that firms play in the market. To simplify the existing multiplicity of opinion, two distinct positions can be recognized: 1) the first one considers the theory of the firm, its choices about price and production as ruled by consumer sovereignty, assuming that it is the eagerness to buy that drives the market. The entrepreneur’s and consumer’s interests converge thanks to automatic mechanisms leading to equilibrium. It is well-known that neoclassical economists can be ascribed to this trend of study. 2) the second position, on the other hand, considers the side of production as having a higher incidence in the identification of market equilibrium, as firms are able to set prices and co-ordinate demand behaviour. This turn-round in causality defines a market where the demand-supply relationship does not follow the rules of competitive-marginalist equilibrium, but alternative principles. The aim of this study is to analyse the contribution of Post-Keynesian scholars about this theme in the belief that the fundamental assumptions and conclusions they have drawn represent an alternative to the traditional theory, and are worth being considered carefully. However, in the identification of the theoretical foundations of Post-Keynesian microeconomics theory, one can run into the difficulty of reducing to few unification principles the content of very different contributions, which often stand out for their critical positions vis-à-vis orthodox theory rather than for setting up the parts of a single alternative paradigm . Besides, Post-Keynesians have a strong taste for macroeconomics themes, rather than for microeconomics ones, since they believe that the macro aggregates determine the behaviour of small decision-making units. In fact, looking at this literature, one can find a lot of contributions on this subject: the most reputed (Kalecki 1954, and, for an expansion of ...