ABSTRACT

The terminology of the ‘multiplier’ did not feature heavily in Kalecki’s writings. In his review of Keynes’s General Theory (Kalecki, 1990, pp. 223-2) and in a paper published shortly afterwards in 1937 using very similar material (ibid., pp. 529-571), Kalecki did discuss ‘the Keynesian multiplier’. In some of his early work, Kalecki presented formulae which (as will be seen below) could readily be given a multiplier-type interpretation though Kalecki himself did not do so at the time. But, as will also be seen below, Kalecki did discuss the effects of an expansion of investment on output and other sectors of the economy in ways which are consistent with a ‘multiplier view’. That means there are direct and indirect effects of an expansion of investment on output and employment in the economy.