Prueba

The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money
By John Maynard Keynes
Feburary 1936

Table of Contents
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PREFACE

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PREFACE TO THE GERMAN EDITION

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PREFACE TO THE JAPANESE EDITION

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PREFACE TO THE FRENCH EDITION

Introduction
1. THE GENERAL THEORY
2. THE POSTULATES OF THE CLASSICAL ECONOMICS
3. THE PRINCIPLE OF EFFECTIVE DEMAND

Definitions and Ideas
4. THECHOICE OF UNITS
5. EXPECTATION AS DETERMINING OUTPUT AND EMPLOYMENT
6. THE DEFINITION OF INCOME, SAVING AND INVESTMENT
7. THE MEANING OF SAVING AND INVESTMENT FURTHER CONSIDERED

The Propensity to Consume
8. THE PROPENSITY TO CONSUME:
I. THE OBJECTIVE FACTORS
9. THE PROPENSITY TO CONSUME:
II. THE SUBJECTIVE FACTORS
10. THE MARGINAL PROPENSITY TO CONSUME AND THE MULTIPLIER

TheInducement to Invest
11. THE MARGINAL EFFICIENCY OF CAPITAL
12. THE STATE OF LONG-TERM EXPECTATION
13. THE GENERAL THEORY OF THE RATE OF INTEREST

14. THE CLASSICAL THEORY OF THE RATE OF INTEREST
o

APPENDIX ON THE RATE OF INTEREST IN MARSHALL'S PRINCIPLES OF
ECONOMICS, RICARDO'S PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, AND
ELSEWHERE

2. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AND BUSINESS INCENTIVES TO LIQUIDITY
3.SUNDRY OBSERVATIONS ON THE NATURE OF CAPITAL
4. THE ESSENTIAL PROPERTIES OF INTEREST AND MONEY
5. THE GENERAL THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT RE-STATED

Money-wages and Prices
6. CHANGES IN MONEY-WAGES
o

PROFESSOR PIGOU'S 'THEORY OF UNEMPLOYMENT'

7. THE EMPLOYMENT FUNCTION
8. THE THEORY OF PRICES

Short Notes Suggested by the General Theory
9. NOTES ON THE TRADE CYCLE
10. NOTES ON MERCANTILISM,THE USURY LAWS, STAMPED MONEY AND THEORIES OF
UNDER-CONSUMPTION
11. CONCLUDING NOTES ON THE SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY TOWARDS WHICH THE GENERAL
THEORY MIGHT LEAD
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Appendix 1

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Appendix 2

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Appendix 3

2

PREFACE
This book is chiefly addressed to my fellow economists. I hope that it will be intelligible to others.
But its main purpose is to deal with difficult questions oftheory, and only in the second place with
the applications of this theory to practice. For if orthodox economics is at fault, the error is to be
found not in the superstructure, which has been erected with great care for logical consistency, but
in a lack of clearness and of generality in the pre misses. Thus I cannot achieve my object of
persuading economists to re-examine critically certain oftheir basic assumptions except by a highly
abstract argument and also by much controversy. I wish there could have been less of the latter. But
I have thought it important, not only to explain my own point of view, but also to show in what
respects it departs from the prevailing theory. Those, who are strongly wedded to what I shall call
'the classical theory', will fluctuate, I expect, betweena belief that I am quite wrong and a belief that
I am saying nothing new. It is for others to determine if either of these or the third alternative is
right. My controversial passages are aimed at providing some material for an answer; and I must
ask forgiveness If, in the pursuit of sharp distinctions, my controversy is itself too keen. I myself
held with conviction for many years thetheories which I now attack, and I am not, I think, ignorant
of their strong points.
The matters at issue are of an importance which cannot be exaggerated. But, if my explanations are
right, it is my fellow economists, not the general public, whom I must first convince. At this stage
of the argument the general public, though welcome at the debate, are only eavesdroppers at an
attempt by aneconomist to bring to an issue the deep divergences of opinion between fellow
economists which have for the time being almost destroyed the practical influence of economic
theory, and will, until they are resolved, continue to do so.
The relation between this book and my Treatise on Money [JMK vols. v and vi], which I published
five years ago, is probably clearer to myself than it will be to others;...