Macro as Coordination Failures

Updated: 2025.10.17 5D ago 1 sources
Instead of blaming recessions on slowly adjusting wages and a single 'labor market,' Peter Howitt (after Clower and Leijonhufvud) models economies as many interlinked markets where trading happens out of equilibrium and expectations must coordinate across time. Busts emerge when coordination breaks down, not because prices are sticky in one representative‑agent world. This view fits episodes like the deflationary 1930s better than wage‑stickiness stories and asks for models that track multi‑market search, rationing, and networked spillovers. — It redirects policy and modeling away from sticky‑price fixes toward restoring coordination and expectations across numerous markets during crises.

Sources

Peter Howitt on Coordination
Arnold Kling 2025.10.17 100% relevant
Kling’s summary of Howitt and Hendrickson: Great Depression deflation undercuts sticky‑wage stories; advocacy for multi‑market, out‑of‑equilibrium trading models; critique of representative‑agent macro’s 'lamp‑post' tractability.
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