Clower's Volte Face regarding the "Keynesian Revolution"
Robert W. Clower's article "The Keynesian Counter Revolution: A Theoretical Appraisal" (1965) was central to the transformation of Keynesian macroeconomics since it contributed to the emergence of fixed price models, in the 1970s. Despite this influence, no scholar has proposed to explain its origins. My paper aims to fill this gap. It is argued that Clower came to build his disequilibrium program of microfoundations after changing radically his views about the meaning and the nature of the 'Keynesian Revolution' During a first research phase (19491957) Clower considered that Keynesian macroeconomics was compatible with market clearing and with Walrasian microfoundations. But he eventually moved away from these equilibrium and synthesis perspectives. During a second research phase (1958 1962) he came to conclude that Keynesian macroeconomics had to be rooted in a disequilibrium framework and could not be based on Walrasian microfoundations. Hence the existence of a volte face. This volte face is explained by putting the invariants of Clower's thought (i.e. his search for microfoundations adapted to Keynesian macroeconomics, and his concerns with unstable dynamics) in perspective with the contemporary developments in the disequilibrium macroeconomics of Don Patinkin, and in the non tatonnement economics of Frank Hahn and Takashi Negishi. JEL Codes: B2, D5 Keywords: microfoundations of macroeconomics, disequilibrium theory, instability of the full employment equilibrium, Clower, Patinkin. University of Lille, LEM CNRS (UMR 9221) plassardromain@gmail.com. I am grateful to Roger E. Backhouse, Harald Hagemann, Kevin D. Hoover, Goulven Rubin, Michel de Vroey, and an anonymous referee for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article. I am also grateful to the staff of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Duke University for their help with the Robert Clower Papers.