The Economic Contributions of John Kenneth Galbraith

Abstract

Galbraith's principal theoretical contribution is foreshadowed in American capitalism and unfolds more clearly into view in his trilogy The Affluent Society, The New Industrial State and Economics and the Public Purpose. His thesis is that the economic ideas that once explained a world of poverty have not adjusted to a world of affluence dominated by the modern corporation. His main themes are the concentration of economic power in the large corporation and the social and environmental imbalance that results from the large corporation. Galbraith attempts to tease out the implications of the uneven development of modern affluence and outlines an emancipatory case for social change.

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“…The poor are living in a deprived community without proper education, health care and other public services. They are unable to improve their skills, economic and political positions or their social mobility, thus they stay trapped in vicious circle of poverty for generations (Galbraith 1958;Stephen P. Dunn and Pressman 2005).…”

John Kenneth Galbraith

“…Most likely Pressman (2005 and had it right in concluding that Galbraith went a long way toward integrating the approaches of the institutionalists and Post Keynesians, as well as Kalecki, and in so doing laid the cornerstones for a new edifice of political economy. Keller (1983) had pointed out the complementarity of Post Keynesian and institutionalist economics and called for a synthesis.…”

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“…Galbraith's approach, called the Galbraithgil with his focus on the relationship between the firm, the state and power, enters into the comparative political economy as a combination of Institutional, Keynesian, Post Keynesian and Radical Economic Approaches. This combination has apparently different characteristics (Dunn and Pressman, 2005;Canterbury, 1984;Galbraith, 1973):…”