Malinvaud’s lectures on unemployment given at the University of California in October 1983, continuing his ‘critique of the classical tradition in economics, which essentially assumes away the phenomenon of involuntary unemployment. The book goes on to extend his earlier discussions of the distinction between Keynesian and classical unemployment and considers the role of profitability in economic growth, arguing that unemployment is often associated with profitability in both the short and the long term. This line of reasoning represents a significant departure from the Keynesian view that insufficient aggregate demand is the main cause of mass unemployment. Malinvaud argues instead that rising costs and decreased profitability cause insufficient capital formation and therefore mass unemployment is possible even when capacity utilization is high’ (An Encyclopedia of Keynesian Economics, p. 430).
