Athanasios "Tom" Asimakopulos () (May 28, 1930 – May 25, 1990) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

, who was the "William Dow Professor of Political Economy" in the Department of Economics,

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

Montreal, Quebec Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada. 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 followers,

Roy Harrod Sir Henry Roy Forbes Harrod (13 February 1900 – 8 March 1978) was an English economist. He is best known for writing '' The Life of John Maynard Keynes'' (1951) and for the development of the Harrod–Domar model, which he and Evsey Domar de ...

and

Joan Robinson Joan Violet Robinson ( Maurice; 31 October 1903 – 5 August 1983) was a British economist known for her wide-ranging contributions to economic theory. One of the most prominent economists of the century, Robinson incarnated the "Cambridge Sc ...

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

Biography

Asimakopulos was born in Montreal in 1930. He was educated at

earning a B.A. in 1951 and an M.A. in 1953. In September 1953 Tom went to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

; his research topic was a three-commodity, three-country study in international trade theory entitled ''Productivity Changes, the Trade Balance and the Terms of Trade''.Asimakopulos, A
''A Note on Productivity Changes and the Terms of Trade''
Oxford Economic Papers, New Series, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Jun., 1957), pp. 225–233. With his classmate Keith Frearson, the Australian economist, Tom went to Joan Robinson's lectures on what would become ''The Accumulation of Capital''Robinson, Joan
''The Accumulation of Capital''
London: Macmillan Company, 1965. First published 1956. – Robinson's ''magnum opus'', which sought to extend Keynes's theory to account for long-run issues of growth and

capital accumulation Capital accumulation is the dynamic that motivates the pursuit of profit, involving the investment of money or any financial asset with the goal of increasing the initial monetary value of said asset as a financial return whether in the form ...

. Initially Asimakopulos was irritated by Robinson's criticisms of the orthodox theories of value and distribution and neoclassical methodology on which he had been brought up. Asimakopulos also went regularly to research students's seminars run by

Piero Sraffa Piero Sraffa Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (5 August 1898 – 3 September 1983) was an influential Italian Political economy, political economist who served as lecturer of economics at the University of Cambridge. His book ''Production of Co ...

, Robin Marris, and

Nicholas Kaldor Nicholas Kaldor, Baron Kaldor (12 May 1908 – 30 September 1986), born Káldor Miklós, was a Hungarian-born British economist. He developed the "compensation" criteria called Kaldor–Hicks efficiency for welfare spending, welfare comparisons ...

. 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, working close to J.C. Weldon. 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"'' on Weldon's vacancy. He served as Chairman of the Department of Economics from 1974 to 1978. Teaching was his top priority; Asimakopulos loved teaching the microeconomics course to the Honours Students at McGill. Even though he had an assistant, Asimakopulos made sure that, from time to time, he gave tutorials himself, on which he would emphasize, ''ad nauseam'' the importance of the ''assumptions'' of the analysis and its implications on the results of the theoretical model studied. He wrote extensively on the work of such economic theorists as J. M. Keynes, Joan Robinson, and

Michał Kalecki Michał Kalecki (; 22 June 1899 – 18 April 1970) was a Polish Marxian economist. Over the course of his life, Kalecki worked at the London School of Economics, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and Warsaw School of Economics, ...

. 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 The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

. Athanasios Asimakopulos died of leukemia in 1990.

Contributions to economic theory

Asimakopulos was a

Post Keynesian Post-Keynesian economics is a school of economic thought with its origins in ''The General Theory'' of John Maynard Keynes, with subsequent development influenced to a large degree by Michał Kalecki, Joan Robinson, Nicholas Kaldor, Sidney We ...

/ " Kaleckian" scholar, who elaborated upon Michał Kalecki's theories.Lavoie, Marc
''The Kaleckian model of growth and distribution and its neo-Ricardian and neo-Marxian critiques''
Cambridge Journal of Economics 19 (6), 1993, pp. 789–81. Asimakopulos wrote mainly around and on Keynesian themes and on growth, distribution and technical progress (the latter often with Weldon). Kalecki stress nondeterminants of

income distribution In economics, income distribution covers how a country's total GDP is distributed amongst its population. Economic theory and economic policy have long seen income and its distribution as a central concern. Unequal distribution of income causes e ...

, 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

economists s, including Asimakopulos.Nuti, D. M
''Michal Kalecki – excerpts from a paper entitled Michal Kalecki's Contributions to the Theory and Practice of Socialist Planning''
Monthly Review, Oct. 1987.
He viewed himself as a

mainstream Mainstream may refer to: Film * ''Mainstream'' (film), a 2020 American film Literature * ''Mainstream'' (fanzine), a science fiction fanzine * Mainstream Publishing, a Scottish publisher * ''Mainstream'', a 1943 book by Hamilton Basso * ...

economist and declined an invitation to be included in the first edition of Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer's ''A Biographical Dictionary of Dissenting Economists'',.Arestis, Philip and Sawyer, Malcolm
''A Biographical Dictionary of Dissenting Economists''
Edward Elgar Publishing, 2000, pp. 7–11. First published 1992. He was included in the second edition.Harcourt, G. C
''The Structure of Post-Keynesian Economics: The Core Contributions of the Pioneers''
Jesus College, Cambridge Adobe eBook Reader.

Critique of Keynes' ''Marginal Efficiency of Investment''

In his ''General Theory'', John Maynard Keynes proposed an investment function of the sort < I = I0 + I(r) > where the relationship between investment and interest rate was of a rather naive form. Firms were presumed to "rank" various investment projects depending on their ''"

internal rate of return Internal rate of return (IRR) is a method of calculating an investment's rate of return. The term ''internal'' refers to the fact that the calculation excludes external factors, such as the risk-free rate, inflation, the cost of capital, or fin ...

"'' (or ''"marginal efficiency of investment"'') and thereafter, faced with a given rate of interest, chose those projects whose internal rate of return exceeded the rate of interest. With an infinite number of projects available, this amounted to arguing that firms would invest until their marginal efficiency of investment was equal to the rate of interest, i.e. < MEI = r >. Asimakopulos (1971, 1991), Piero Garegnani (1978) and several Post Keynesians offered a critique of Keynes' original formulation. Asimakopulos et al. questioned the possibility of a downward-sloping ''Marginal Efficiency of Investment (MEI)'' function in the presence of unemployment.Asimakopulos et al.
''J. M. Keynes's Internal Rate of Return''
, at HET website.

Major works published

Major works by Athanasios Asimakopulos (partial list): * ''Determination of Investment in Keynes's Model, The'', 1971, Canadian JE
''Economic Theory, Welfare, and the State: Essays in Honour of John C. Weldon'', McGill-Queen's University Press, 1991.
* ''Finance, Saving and Investment'', 1986, JPKE * ''Introduction to Economic Theory: Microeconomics, An'', Oxford University Press, 1978. * ''Investment, Employment, and Income Distribution (Aspects of Political Economy)''. Westview Pr (Short Disc), 1988. * ''Kalecki and Keynes on Finance, Investment and Saving'', 1983, Cambridge JE * ''Kaleckian Theory of Income Distribution, A'', 1975, Canadian JE
''Keynes's General Theory and Accumulation'' (Modern Cambridge Economics Series) (Print on Demand). Cambridge University Press, 2004.
* ''Keynes's Theory of Effective Demand Revisited'', 1982, Australian EP * ''Robinsonian Growth Model in One-Sector Notation, A'', 1969, Australian EP * ''Signification theorique de la Theorie generale de Keynes, La'', 1987, in Boismenu and Dostaler, La Theorie generale et le keynesianisme * ''Synoptic View of Some Simple Models of Growth, A'', with J.C. Weldon, 1965, Canadian JE and PS * ''Theories of Income Distribution'', Kluwer Academic Pub, 1988

Bibliography

Arestis, Philip and Sawyer, Malcolm. ''A Biographical Dictionary of Dissenting Economists''. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2000 pp. 7–11
* Asimakopulos, Athanasios. Joan Robinson and economic theory. Banca Nazionale Del Lavoro Quarterly, v.151, pp. 381–409, December 1984.
Asimakopulos, A. ''Finance, saving and investment in Keynes's economics: a comment''. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 1985; 9: 405–407.

Asimakopulos, A. ''Richardson on Asimakopulos on finance: a reply''. Cambridge Journal of Economics, June 1986; 10: 199–201.

Asimakopulos, A. ''Finance, investment and saving: a reply to Terzi''. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 1986; 10: 81–82.
* Asimakopulos, Athanasios. Introduction: Kalecki, Keynes and Joan Robinson. In Asimakopulos: ''Investment, employment and income distribution''. Aspects of Political Economy series. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press; Cambridge: Polity Press in association with Blackwell, 1988, pp. 1–22 * Asimakopulos, Athanasios. Joan Robinson and economic theory. In. Investment, employment and income distribution. Aspects of Political Economy series. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press; Cambridge: Polity Press in association with Blackwell, 1988, pp. 186–215 * Asimakopulos, Athanasios. Kalecki and Joan Robinson: An 'Outsider's Influence'. Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, v.11, pp. 261–78, Winter 1988–89. * Asimakopulos, Athanasios. Harrod and Robinson on the equilibrium rate of growth. Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, n.170, pp. 345–58, September 1989. * Asimakopulos, Athanasios: Kalecki and Robinson. In: SEBASTIANI, Mario (ed.) Kalecki's relevance today. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989, pp. 10–24. * Asimakopulos, Athanasios. Joan Robinson and the Americans. Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, v. 13, n.1, pp. 111–24, Autumn 1990. * Hein, Eckhard, Ochsen, Carsten
''Regimes of Interest Rates, Income Shares, Savings and Investment: A Kaleckian Model and Empirical Estimations for some Advanced OECD Economies''
Metroeconomica 54 (4), 2003, 404–433. * Cate, T., Colander, D., and Harcourt, G
''Encyclopedia of Keynesian Economics''
Cheltemham, UK and Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar, 1997. * Hein, Eckhard. ''Money, interest and capital accumulationin Karl Marx's economics: a monetary interpretation and some similarities to post-Keynesian approaches''. In: The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Volume 13, Issue 1 March 2006, pp. 113–140. * Henwood, Doug
''Wall Street: How it Works and for Whom''
New York and London: Verso, 1998. First published 1997. * Harcourt, G. C
''The Structure of Post-Keynesian Economics: The Core Contributions of the Pioneers''
Jesus College, Cambridge University Press * Kalecki, Michal. ''Collected Works of Michal Kalecki Vol. I : Capitalism: Business Cycles and Full Employment''. Oxford University Press. * Kalecki, Michal. ''Collected Works of Michal Kalecki Vol. III: Socialism, – Functioning and Long-Run Planning''. Edited by Jerzy Osiatynski. Oxford at the Clarendon Press. Oxford, 1992 * Kalecki, Michal. ''Collected Works of Michal Kalecki Vol. V : Developing Economies''. Editor: Osiatynski, Jerzy. Translator: Kisiel, Chester A. Oxford at the Clarendon Press. Oxford, 1993. * Kalecki, Michal. ''Collected Works of Michal Kalecki Volume VI''. Oxford University Press. * Kalecki, Michal. ''Collected Works of Michal Kalecki. Volume VII: Studies in Applied Economics, 1940–1967; Miscellanea''. Oxford at the Clarendon Press. Oxford, 1997. * Kalecki, Michal. ''Theory of Economic Dynamics: An Essay on Cyclical and Long-Run Changes in Capitalist Economy''. New York, NY: Augustus M. Kelley, Publishers, 1969. * Kalecki, Michal. ''The Last Phase in the Transformation of Capitalism''. New York. 1972. Introduction by George R. Feiwel. Reprint. * Kalecki, Michal. ''Studies in the theory of business cycles, 1933–1939''. Translated by Ada Kalecka. Oxford: Basil Blackwell/ Warszawa: Polish Scientific Publishers, 1966. First Edition in English (1st Polish ed., 1962). * Kalecki, Michal, Zofia Dobrska, Ignacy Sachs & Jerzy Tepicht. ''Essays on Planning and Economic Development''. Center of Research on Underdeveloped Economies Research Papers. Vol.1; Warsaw 1963. * Kalecki, Michal. ''Selected Essays on the Dynmaics of the Capitalist Economy 1933–1970''. Cambridge University Press, 1971. * Kalecki, Michal. ''Introduction to the Theory of Growth in a Socialist Economy''. Blackwell Publishers; 1970. . * Kalecki, Michal. ''Essays in the Theory of Economic Fluctuations''. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1939. * Kalecki, Michal. ''Selected Essays on the Economic Growth of the Socialist and the Mixed Economy'. Cambridge: University Press, 1972. * Kalecki, Michal. ''Essays on Developing Economics''. Humanities/Harvester Press, Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey/Hassocks, Sussex, 1979. * O'Hara, Phillip Anthony
''The Revival of Political Economy and its Main Protagonists: 1960s to the Present''
History of Economics Review pp. 140–151. * Rowley, J. C. R. ''Athanasios Asimakopulos, 1930–1990'', Canadian Journal of Economics, Vol. 24 (1991), 234–5. * Rowley, J. C. R. ''Athanasios Asimakopulos, 1930–1990'', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada, Vol. 4 (1994), 7–10.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asimakopulos, Athanasios 1930 births 1990 deaths Academics from Montreal Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Post-Keynesian economists 20th-century Canadian economists McGill University alumni