Modern Monetary Theory: Criticisms Through the Lenses of the Original Institutional Economics and the Non-Mainstream Macroeconomic Debate
Abstract
This paper aims at entering the contemporary debate around the propositions advanced by the Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and the criticisms arising from the non-mainstream field of Economics. The main proposition of the article is that the MMT can earn more robustness and theoretical consistency against these criticisms through the recovery and incorporation of ideas of the Radical Institutional Economics found in the works of Karl Polanyi and Thorstein Veblen. Therefore, after a brief introduction, the paper performs a theoretical synthesis of some of the main concepts of these authors, followed by a presentation of the general ideas of MMT. In sequence, some criticisms to the MMT propositions, which exemplify the absence of a treatment of the impact of institutions in the configuration of macroeconomic states and trajectories, are addressed. In this sense, refocusing on this important dimension of the original institutionalism can contribute to the shaping of a research agenda that is fruitful for the MMT.
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