“When people without serious knowledge of economics proclaim themselves to be followers of Keynes or Hayek, they are likely just picking a macroeconomist based on their ideological commitments.”

April 26th, 2012

Michael Dorf postulates.

Hayekianism provides the most sophisticated source of anti-Keynesian thinking.  Hayekians say that stimulus at most promotes an artificial boom, which then leads to a bigger bust, and so in the end the economy is less distorted–and the boom/bust swings are less severe–when the government does not attempt to manipulate matters through fiscal policy.  The case for and the case against Hayekianism are more complicated, so I won’t go into them, and in any event, I’m not really interested in drawing economic conclusions here; I’m more interested in giving a causal explanation for the views that people appear to hold.  I am sure that there are plenty of economists who choose between Keynes and Hayek based on their assessment of the theory and evidence