In"The House of the Spirits": Toward a Post Keynesian Theory of the Household?

It is perhaps surprising that Post Keynesians have paid little attention to the household as an economic institution. Once people move out of the public sphere and into the household, their actions as economic agents are neglected by Post Keynesian economics. Households house the "spirits" of Post Keynesian economic agents, spirits of the actors who have such a real presence in the macroeconomy. In this paper a preliminary attempt is made to rectify the neglect of the household by Post Keynesian economics by constructing a Post Keynesian explanation of the economic dynamics of households. This paper does not claim to have uncovered new aspects of household behavior. The ideas presented have been developed by a range of economists over the last few years, although their application to the household has been piecemeal. However, by assembling these ideas and organizing them in a manner consistent with Post Keynesian economic analysis, this paper has opened up the possibility of a substantive research agenda rooted in economic analysis. It is suggested that the agenda is crucial to the development of the Post Keynesian paradigm.