ABSTRACT
Introduction While rational expectations are the ruling paradigm in macroeconomic theory, expectations in the real world are far more diffuse and do not only concern just one variable such as typically the rate of inflation. Apart from that, expectations are not homogeneous as they are in these models where everything boils down to the representative agent. Insofar as expectations enter the agents' economic decisions, a more appropriate concept appears to be that of an aggregate climate index, which still allows the individual agents to have different attitudes and make different decisions. If here the microeconomic basis is made explicit and a procedure is given of how to derive a macroeconomic adjustment equation for the climate variable, then from the viewpoint of heterodox theory this would be a more satisfactory approach to the micro foundations of macroeconomics and the treatment of expectations than the optimizing framework where all agents are blessed with the same rational expectations.
