Don Patinkin

International audiencePatinkin was the author of Money, Interest and Prices (1956, 1965, 1989), a book that has often been considered as the epitome if not the apex of the “neoclassical synthesis” (d’Autume, 2000; Backhouse, 2002; Lucas, 1981; Weintraub, 1979). Money, Interest and Prices was important because of Patinkin’s attempt to integrate fiat money to the general equilibrium theory. But Patinkin’s book was also the source of the disequilibrium interpretation of the Keynesian theory. This approach, taken up by Robert Clower (1965), opened the way to the disequilibrium theories that developed around the 1970s in the works of Axel Leijonhufvud (1968), Robert Barro and Herschel Grossman (1971) or Jean-Pascal Benassy (1975). It also oriented Patinkin’s scholarly reading of John Maynard Keynes’ works presented in Keynes Monetary Theory (1976) or Anticipation of the General Theory? And other Essays on Keynes (1982), works that established Patinkin’s reputation as a major interpreter of Keynes’ thought