A Note on Savings and Investment
i. in his recent book Keynesian Revolution, a significant contribution to current literature, Lawrence Klein says (p. 91 ) that there are two Keyneses in the matter of the savingsinvestment equation. This statement has frequently been made before and while much has been written about it, perhaps something useful can still be added. In Klein's exposition, savings and investment as observables are always equal, being the point of intersection of the schedules of savings and investment. There is, of course, as Klein points out, no inconsistency between (i) the definition which makes actual or observable savings and investment always equal, and (2) the concept of savings and investment as intersecting schedules. Nevertheless the question remains whether these schedules are to be regarded as (a) very short run schedules which might at times shift about violently and capriciously in response to temporary conditions, or (b) longerrun schedules determined by fairly stable factors involving the behavior pattern of a community with respect to the ratio of savings to income at different income levels. 2. A related, but distinct, terminological matter should be mentioned. While the Keynesian theory of income determination can indeed be formulated in terms of savings and investment schedules, I am increasingly convinced that the presentation as given in the General Theory is more useful. In the General Theory, Keynes, in fact, did not explicitly work with savings and investment schedules,' even though it is perfectly true that his analysis can be put in these terms. General Theory, however, makes (i) actual investment and (2) the consumption function, the determinants of income. The propensity to consume and the rate of new investment determine between them the volume of employment. . (General Theory