The epistemology of macroeconomic reality: The Keynesian Revolution from an accounting point of view

Abstract

Despite the fact that the concept of the “macroeconomy” first emerged after the 1930s, only becoming prevalent after the 1950s, macroeconomic terms are ubiquitous today. Historians refer to the Keynesian Revolution as the origin of the macroeconomic revolution. This paper addresses the revolution from an accounting point of view, and argues that the prevalence of the notion of the macroeconomy and the widespread of economic management of modern society originate partly from the movement of accounting expressionism that is the social construction of official economic reality in an accounting framework. The development history of British national accounting is of central importance to the development of macroeconomics. This paper integrates the abstract theme of social constructivism with concrete evidence from recently available archives of Keynes, Stone, Meade and Bray.