The road to The General Theory: J. M. Keynes, F. A. Hayek, and the Genealogy of Macroeconomics

Abstract

The criticism made by Friedrich A. Hayek to A Treatise on Money by John
Maynard Keynes, and the subsequent controversy that followed with the involvement of
members of the Cambridge Circus, sustained important elements to Keynes’ abandonment
of his earlier ideas and to his way to General Theory. The figure and position of Hayek
operated to clarify the underlying differences and the new theoretical routes for Keynes,
one that was more explicitly opposite to critical authors drawing from Knut Wicksell. To
some degree, the road to General Theory was paved in the famous 1931 controversy – in
particular the rejection of the Wicksell connection.

JEL Classification: B22; B31; E12; E30.