Keynes and cambridge keynesians on employment and income multipliers: the input-output linkages were there?

Abstract

The paper deals with the misconception according to which Keynesian employment and income multipliers completely ignore linkage effects between economic activities because they have an aggregative character. To achieve that end, textual records of Keynes and Cambridge Keynesians on employment and income multipliers are gathered together, showing that, since its inception, these multipliers are dimensionless constructs and were gestated considering the typical linkages of input-output analysis – i.e., the multipliers should be computed from vertically integrated magnitudes. The paper also connects some Cambridge Keynesian literature with suggested input-output representations for employment and income multipliers.