Table Of ContentEvolutionary Economics and Social Complexity Science 29
Hiroyasu Uemura
Japanese
Institutionalist
Post-Keynesians
Revisited
Inheritance from Marx, Keynes and
Institutionalism
Evolutionary Economics and Social
Complexity Science
Volume 29
Editors-in-Chief
TakahiroFujimoto,WasedaUniversity,Tokyo,Japan
YujiAruka,InstituteofEconomicResearch,ChuoUniversity,Hachioji-shi,Japan
Hiroyasu Uemura
Japanese Institutionalist
Post-Keynesians Revisited
Inheritance from Marx, Keynes and
Institutionalism
HiroyasuUemura
GraduateSchoolofInternationalSocialSciences
YokohamaNationalUniversity
YokohamaCity,Kanagawa,Japan
ISSN2198-4204 ISSN2198-4212 (electronic)
EvolutionaryEconomicsandSocialComplexityScience
ISBN978-981-19-8687-1 ISBN978-981-19-8688-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8688-8
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Preface
This book elucidates the academic contribution made by Japanese institutionalist
post-Keynesiansin thehistorical contextof contemporary capitalism inthe second
halfofthetwentiethcenturyanddiscussesthepossibledevelopmentofinstitutional
economicsinthetwenty-firstcentury.
EiichiSugimoto,whocoinedtheterm,“ModernEconomics(Kindaikeizaigaku)”
inJapanese,liststhreetypesofthehistoryofeconomicsinhisbook,TheHistoryof
Modern Economics, (Iwanami Zensho, Iwanami-shoten, 1953). The first is the
history of economics as a culmination of the study of academic materials related
to economic theories, and it provides chronological explanations for each school.
The second isthe self-developing history of economictheory, which considers the
historyofeconomicstodevelopamoreappropriateeconomictheory.Thethirdisthe
historyofeconomicsasareflectionofthehistoricaldevelopmentofcapitalism.Itis
believedthatvariouseconomictheoriesareproducedinspecifichistoricalcontexts.
Sugimotoargues,“Thehistoryofeconomicsinitsoriginalsenserequiresthestudy
of the first type as a preparatory step and the appropriate integration of the second
andthirdtypes”(Sugimoto1953,p12).Furthermore,heexplains:
Insuchahistoryofeconomics,forthefirsttime,onecanjudgewhetheralltheeconomic
theories, including the major theories representing each stage of economic and social
development,understandthemovementoftheeconomyandsocietycorrectlyorincorrectly,
whetheritismerelyapartialperceptionoftheeconomyandsocietyasawhole,oritreaches
thelevelofatotalperception,andwhetherthetheoryisprogressingorretrogressinginthe
properhistoryofthedevelopmentofeconomics.(Sugimoto1953,p.12)
Various economictheoriesdevelopedinpostwar Japan, butwe needtoinvestigate
their theoretical validity by asking whether they were based on the realities of
postwar contemporary capitalism. Various policy proposals were also made, but it
isnecessarytoverifywhethertheyreallyrespondedtotheneedsproposedbypeople
intheeconomyandsociety.Thistypeofreflexivethinkingisimportantinthestudy
of the history of economics. There has been a great progress in economic theories
and their analytical tools, but unfortunately, there has also been a serious
v
vi Preface
retrogressioninthefieldofeconomicsinthehistoricalcontextofthetransformation
ofcapitalismsincethe1980s.
Basedonthisrecognitionofthetrend,welearnfromtheacademiccontributionof
Japaneseeconomistsinthesecondhalfofthetwentiethcentury.Theeconomistswe
examine here inherited from Marx, Keynes, and Institutionalism and analyzed the
institutionalstructuresofpostwarcontemporarycapitalism.Forthisreason,theycan
becalled“Japaneseinstitutionalistpost-Keynesians.”Theydidnotformaschoolof
economics butdevelopedproductiveacademiccommunication withtheir “creative
rivalry”(Sugimoto).
InChap.1,weexplainthisbook’sperspectiveandaim.Inparticular,weexplain
“institutionalisminthebroadsense”(Tsuru)asthefundamentalpointofviewinthis
book.InChap.2,wereaffirmtheimportanceof“moderneconomics”and“creative
rivalry” among different schools proposed by Eiichi Sugimoto, in contrast to the
stagnationofeconomicscausedbythedominanceof“theWalrasianparadigm”after
the 1980s. In Chap. 3, we remember Shigeto Tsuru, Yoshihiro Takasuka, and
Shigenobu Kishimoto, who conducted a political-economic analysis of the institu-
tional structures and dynamics of postwar cotemporary capitalism, particularly
focusing on the issues of environmental disruption, inflation, and social welfare.
Chap.4introducesYoshikazuMiyazakiandMitsuharaItoh,whostudiedKeynes’s
TheGeneralTheoryaswellasthehistoricaldevelopmentofmoderneconomicsafter
Keynes and analyzed the institutional structures and dynamics of postwar contem-
porarycapitalismandtheJapaneseeconomy.Furthermore,inChap.5,welearnfrom
Hirofumi Uzawa, who developed macroeconomic dynamics based on the institu-
tionalist analysis of capitalism and proposed the idea of “social common capital.”
WealsostudyTsuneoIshikawa’stheoreticalresearchonthemacrodynamicsofthe
capitalisteconomyandhisanalysisofincomeandwealthinJapan.InChap.6, we
discussSamuelBowles’ssocialthoughtof“themoraleconomy”andRobertBoyer’s
régulation theory, focusing on social preference and civil society. Samuel Bowles
had productive academic communication with Uzawa and Ishikawa, and Robert
BoyerhasinfluencedJapaneseinstitutionaleconomicssincethe1990s.InChap.7,
whilelearningagreatdealfromstudiesofJapaneseinstitutionalistpost-Keynesians
and identifying the recent development of research conducted by Post-Keynesian
andPost-Marxianeconomists,weconsiderthepossibledevelopmentofinstitutional
economicsinthetwenty-firstcentury.
Economicglobalizationhasprogressedextensivelyinthetwenty-firstcentury.In
particular, international finance and production networks are developing rapidly
worldwide, influencing the patterns of regional economic integration in the EU
andEastAsia.Moreover,socio-economicdisparitiestendtowidenineverycountry,
and environmental problems become more serious. Therefore, the importance of
social welfare and the global environment has been recognized in the study of
economics. Institutional economics in the twenty-first century must develop in
theoryandpractice tosolvethese real-worldproblems. Weremember JoanRobin-
son issued the warning, “The Second Crisis of Economic Theory,” which was a
response to socio-economic instability and stagflation in the 1970s. The current
situationineconomicscouldbecalled“TheThirdCrisisofEconomicTheory,”and
Preface vii
the situation in the real world is even worse due to imbalances in international
economic relations, increasing social inequality, the spread of the pandemic, and
global environmental disruption and climate change. These problems cannot be
analyzed sufficiently by the economics with rational agents and the equilibrium
framework. The challenges for the political economy of evolution and institutions
based on civil society and social common capital have become much greater since
theCovid-19crisisinthetwenty-firstcentury.
Since the 1980s, we have studied Post-Keynesian theories and the régulation
theory and analyzed the diversity and transformations of contemporary capitalism.
We have held many international conferences and developed academic communi-
cationwithinternationalscholars.TheJapanAssociationforEvolutionaryEconom-
ics was established in 1997 and has been a solid platform for academic
communicationandcollaboration.
On many occasions, including international conferences in Paris, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, Grenoble, Rome, and many cities in Japan, I have received useful
comments and helpful suggestions from prominent scholars. Above all, I am very
grateful to Robert Boyer (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales), Robert
Rowthorn(TheUniversityofCambridge),SamuelBowles(SantaFeInstitute),and
MarcLavoie(TheUniversityofOttawa).
Furthermore,IamtrulygratefulforthesupportIreceivedinmyacademicstudy
and economics research from the following professors: Yoshihiro Takasuka
(Hitotsubashi University), Shigenobu Kishimoto (Yokohama National University),
and Yoshikazu Miyazaki (Kyoto University). I would also like to thank my col-
leagues who have contributed to our collaborative research on the régulation and
post-Keynesiantheories andtheevolvingdiversityandinterdependenceofcapital-
isms in the EU and East Asia: Toshio Yamada, Tatsuhiko Aoki, Fumitaka
Wakamori,MitsuharuMiyamoto,AkinoriIsogai,HiroyukiUni,HironoriTohyama,
Lei Song, Yuji Harada, Kazuhiro Okuma, Hiroshi Nishi, Kengo Uchihashi, and
ShinjiTahara.Iwishthisbookwouldserveasthestartingpointfornewinternational
collaborativeresearch.
I would also like to thank the editorial board of Evolutionary Economics and
SocialComplexityScience,especiallyYoshinoriShiozawa,KiichiroYagi,andYuji
Aruka, as well as the project managers of Springer, Yutaka Hirachi, Kavitha
Jayakumar,andRekhaKumarJayakumar.
Tokyo,Japan HiroyasuUemura
October10,2022
Contents
1 Introduction:InheritancefromMarx,Keynes,and
Institutionalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 PerspectiveandAimoftheBook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 InstitutionalismintheBroadSense. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 MainContentsoftheBook. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2 EiichiSugimoto’sCreativeRivalryin“ModernEconomics”and
thePresentStateofEconomics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Sugimoto’sResearchPlanandAcademicDevelopment
byCreativeRivalry. . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. 12
2.2.1 Sugimoto’s“ModernEconomics”intheHistory
ofEconomicThought. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2.2 Marshall’sEconomicTheorywithMulti-layeredTime
andSpace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2.3 Marx,Keynes,andInstitutionalisminSugimoto. . . . . . . . 13
2.2.4 Sugimoto’sConceptof“CreativeRivalry”. . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3 TheStagnationofEconomicTheoryCausedbytheDominance
oftheWalrasianParadigm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3.1 TheTheoreticallyClosedNatureoftheWalrasian
ParadigmandtheDevelopmentofMicroeconomics. . . . . . 15
2.3.2 TheIsolationofEconomyfromPoliticsandSociety,
orPolitical-EconomicAnalysis?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3.3 TheoreticalCharacteristicsoftheWalrasianParadigm. . .. 18
2.4 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
ix
x Contents
3 ShigetoTsuru’s“InstitutionalismintheBroadSense”andTheories
ofContemporaryCapitalismConstructedbyYoshihiroTakasuka
andShigenobuKishimoto. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2 ShigetoTsuru’sStudyonContemporaryCapitalismwith
InstitutionalismintheBroaderSense. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.2.1 Tsuru’sQuestion:“HasCapitalismChanged?”. . . . . . . .. 22
3.2.2 ThePoliticalEconomyofEnvironmentalDisruption. . . .. 24
3.2.3 ThePoliticalEconomyofSystemReform. . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.2.4 InstitutionalEconomicsRevisited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.3 YoshihiroTakasuka’sTheoryofContemporaryCapitalism:
AStructuralAnalysisofInflationandCapitalAccumulation. . . . . 28
3.3.1 Takasuka’sPreludetotheTheoryoftheContemporary
PriceSystemandProductivityDifferentialInflation. . . . . . 28
3.3.2 Takasuka’sAnalysisofStagflationinthe1970s. . . . . . . . . 31
3.4 ShigenobuKishimoto’sTheTheoryoftheCapitalistEconomic
SystemandAnalysesoftheJapaneseEconomyandSociety.. . . .. 32
3.4.1 Kishimoto’sTheTheoryoftheCapitalistEconomic
SystemasCitizens’Economics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.4.2 KishimotoCriticized“The100MillionAllintheMiddle
Class”asanIllusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.5 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4 YoshikazuMiyazakiandMitsuharuItoh:ResearchonKeynes
andContemporaryCapitalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.2 MiyazakiandItohonKeynesandMiyazaki’sTheHistorical
DevelopmentofModernEconomics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.2.1 ComprehensiveUnderstandingofKeynes’sTheoryin
Commentary:Keynes,TheGeneralTheory. . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.2.2 Miyazaki:TheHistoricalDevelopmentofModern
Economics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.3 AnalysesofContemporaryCapitalismbyMiyazakiandItoh. . . . . 46
4.3.1 Itoh’sStudyofModernPriceTheories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.3.2 Itoh’sInstitutionalAnalysisofContemporary
Capitalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.3.3 Miyazaki’sStudyofContemporaryCapitalism:Company
Groups,HighEconomicGrowth,andMultinational
Corporations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.4 TheJapaneseEconomyin“theComplexDepression”and
“TransnationalCivilSociety”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.5 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
References..... ...... ..... ...... ..... ..... ...... ..... .. 54
Contents xi
5 HirofumiUzawaandTsuneoIshikawa:Institutionalism,
MacroeconomicAnalysis,andSocialCommonCapital. . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.2 HirofumiUzawa’sMacroeconomicDynamicsand“Social
CommonCapital”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5.2.1 Uzawa’sTurningPoint,TheRe-examinationofModern
Economics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.2.2 Uzawa’sTheoryofDisequilibriumDynamics. . . . . . . . . . 61
5.2.3 TheEconomicThoughtof“SocialCommonCapital”
andInstitutionalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.2.4 MarketImbalanceandSocialImbalance:The
MacroeconomicEffectofSocialCommonCapital. . . . . . . 64
5.3 TsuneoIshikawa’s“EconomicsofDistribution”andDynamic
AnalysisofContemporaryCapitalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.3.1 BasicTypesofDynamicsinContemporaryCapitalism. . .. 66
5.3.2 IncomeandWealthintheJapaneseEconomy. . . . . . . . . . 68
5.3.3 TheDualLaborMarketinJapan. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . 68
5.4 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
6 SocialPreferenceandCivilSocietyintheInstitutionalAnalysisof
Capitalisms:IntegratingSamuelBowles’TheMoralEconomyand
RobertBoyer’sRégulationTheory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
6.2 Bowles’TheMoralEconomyandCivicSocialPreference. . . . . . . 75
6.2.1 Bowles’EconomicThought:SocialPreferencesandthe
MoralEconomy. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 76
6.2.2 TheInseparabilityofIncentivesandSocialPreferences
BasedonBehavioralSciences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6.2.3 CivicSocialPreferencesin“LiberalSociety”:
“Crowdingin”or“Crowdingout”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
6.2.4 TheLaborMarketTheoryBasedonIncomplete
Contracts. . .. . . .. . . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. 80
6.2.5 TheRoleofLegislators:PromotingLegislationandCivic
Mentality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6.3 Boyer’s“CivilSociety”andCivicSocialDemocracy. . . . . . . . . . 82
6.3.1 DomainsofCoordination:Market,Firm,State,
Community,andCivilSociety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.3.2 DynamicInteractionsbetweentheEconomicandPolitical
Domains. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
6.3.3 “EconomicPolicyRegime”intheRégulationTheory:
TheGrowthRegimeandtheCompromiseofSocial
Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
6.3.4 Boyer’s“CivilSociety(societécivile)”andNewSocial
Democracy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
