Liquidity preference in the Walrasian framework

Icefield, William (2020): Liquidity preference in the Walrasian framework.

Abstract

John Hicks argued that liquidity preference theory and loanable funds theory are equivalent, because in general equilibrium, Walras law dictates that one (for example, money) market is redundant when other markets (bond, commodities) are in equilibrium. While there are many other well-known criticisms of this point, I take a route that is rarely invoked - that liquidity preference can encode agent's reactions against risk of disequilibrium in a general equilibrium model. In such a case, money market may be in equilibrium, especially due to endogenous money, while other markets are in disequilibrium. In such a case, liquidity preference theory - or theory of money demand - determines rate of interest, as John Maynard Keynes asserted in General Theory, instead of loanable funds theory.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: liquidity preference; loanable funds theory; disequilibrium; general equilibrium; Keynes; Walras law
• Subjects: B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B2 - History of Economic Thought since 1925 > B22 - Macroeconomics; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B4 - Economic Methodology > B41 - Economic Methodology; D - Microeconomics > D5 - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium > D59 - Other; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E1 - General Aggregative Models > E12 - Keynes ; Keynesian ; Post-Keynesian; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E2 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy > E20 - General; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E4 - Money and Interest Rates > E43 - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects

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