Athanasios Asimakopulos

Athanasios Asimakopulos (1930-1990) was the "William Dow Professor of Political Economy" in the Department of Economics, McGill University (Montreal) and became an important "Post-Keynesian economist. His monograph, Keynes's General Theory and Accumulation , reviews important areas of Keynes's General Theory and the theories of accumulation of two of his most distinguished followers, Roy Harrod and Joan Robinson . This book makes Keynes's writing on his General Theory accessible to any student by presenting this theory in a careful, consistent manner that is faithful to the original.

Biography

Asimakopulos was born in Montreal in 1930. He was educated at McGill University earning a B.A. in 1951 and an M.A. in 1953, and in Cambridge obtaining his Ph.D. in 1959. Athanasios Asimakopulos was a Lecturer in Economics and Political Science from 1956 to 1957 at McGill. From 1957 to 1959 he worked as an Assistant Professor at the Royal Military College. In 1959 he returned to McGill and became an assistant professor. Promoted to the position of associate professor in 1963, he became a full professor in 1966. In 1988 he was appointed "William Dow Professor of Political Economy". He served as Chairman of the Department of Economics from 1974 to 1978. He wrote extensively on the work of such economic theorists as J.M. Keynes, Joan Robinson , and Michal Kalecki . He was active in many professional associations and organizations. He held numerous fellowships and was a Visiting Professor and a Fellow at universities in the United States, England and Australia. From 1976 to 1990 he was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Athanasios Asimakopulos died in 1990.

Contributions to Economic Theory

Asimakopulos was a Post Keynesian "Kaleckian" scholar, who elaborated upon Michal Kalecki theories . Kalecki stresses on determinants of income distribution, determinants of economic activity, determinants of profits, long-run growth, prospects of economy, or impact of imperfect competition on growth of income has been an important inspiration to many economists we call Post Keynesians . An advantage of theories that originate from Kalecki is that they are closer to what can be called "normal" theories. Kalecki's papers are acceptably formalized, not extensively open to various interpretations as the Keynes' General theory of Employment, Interest and Money (Keynes (1936)).

When Post Keynesians treat production side of the economy in their models, they usually inhabit their models with firms, which operate within neither perfectly competitive environment, nor within perfect monopoly setting. Post Keynesian firms usually set their prices as mark-ups above their prime costs. Profits of those firms usually, along with "animal spirits and expectations", have pronounced impact on investment decisions and therefore determine profits in the future. This double-sided relationship between profits and investment is clearly in spirit of Asimakopulos (1971)

"Tom Asimakopulos was a great Kaleckian scholar. His knowledge of the nuances and innuendos of Kalecki's approach to macroeconomics had no equal." Paul Davidson, Journal of Economic Issues

"This book (Keynes's General Theory and Accumulation) is the legacy of a dedicated and tough-minded scholar who did his heroes the compliment of taking their work seriously, rather than just praising it." Robert W. Dimand, History of Political Economy

Major works published

Major works by Athanasios Asimakopulos:

• Keynes's General Theory and Accumulation (Modern Cambridge Economics Series) (Print on Demand). Cambridge University Press, 2004. ISBN 0521368154

• Economic Theory, Welfare, and the State: Essays in Honour of John C. Weldon, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1991. ISBN 0773508538

• Investment, Employment, and Income Distribution (Aspects of Political Economy). Westview Pr (Short Disc), 1988. ISBN 0813307899

• A Synoptic View of Some Simple Models of Growth, with J.C. Weldon, 1965, Canadian JE and PS

• A Robinsonian Growth Model in One-Sector Notation, 1969, Australian EP

• The Determination of Investment in Keynes's Model, 1971, Canadian JE

• "A Kaleckian Theory of Income Distribution", 1975, Canadian JE

• An Introduction to Economic Theory: Microeconomics, Oxford University Press, 1978. ISBN 0195402812

• Keynes's Theory of Effective Demand Revisited, 1982, Australian EP

• Kalecki and Keynes on Finance, Investment and Saving, 1983, Cambridge JE

• Finance, Saving and Investment, 1986, JPKE

• La Signification theorique de la Theorie generale de Keynes, 1987, in Boismenu and Dostaler, La Theorie generale et le keynesianisme

• Investment, Employment and Income Distribution, 1988