Keynesian and monetarist theories of the monetary transmission process: Doctrinal aspects

This paper investigates the doctrinal link underlying differences between Keynesian and monetarist approaches regarding the transmission mechanism of monetary policy. Consideration of the post-General Theory literature reveals that a key aspect of that link concerns the velocity of circulation of money. The Keynesian emphasis on compartmentalizing the demand for money into active and idle components resulted in a mechanical interpretation of velocity and the associated view that money does not matter. The monetarist tradition illustrates the behavioral perspective adduced to velocity via adaptive price expectations by earlier quantity theorists leading to a capital-theoretic reformulation of the quantity theory in terms of a stable demand function for money.