The Bielefeld School of economics, Post Keynesian economics, and dynamic complexity

Abstract

The Bielefeld School of economics emerged in the 1990s, led by economists located at/or regularly visiting the University of Bielefeld in that period and the following decades, with Peter Flaschel as arguably its central leading figure based at that university. This school drew especially on the work of Richard Goodwin and his nonlinear dynamical models of macroeconomic growth and fluctuations. His work, in turn, drew on both Keynes and Marx as well as Schumpeter. Besides these influences, the school would also eventually add inventory adjustment models due to Lloyd Metzler to model endogenous fluctuations with associated income distribution dynamics with economic growth. While drawing on both classical and Keynesian sources, these models differ from modern New Keynesian models by eschewing rational expectations as well as equilibrium, emphasizing instead ongoing disequilibrium adjustment. While they have some similarities to Post Keynesian models, there has been relatively little interchange or interaction between the two schools. Several in the Bielefeld group appeared to be sometimes critical of Post Keynesians for a perceived lack of rigor in a number of their models. At the same time though there are several sub-schools of Post Keynesian economics similar to the Bielefeld School in approach than others. Probably the clearest area of overlap and similarity involves models exhibiting dynamic complexity, irregular endogenous fluctuations. Indeed one Post Keynesian tradition derives from nonlinear dynamical models due to Kaldor, which resemble those of Goodwin, the main foundation for the Bielefeld School models.