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This view determines the kind of questions asked, the methods used, and points to the underlying purpose of economics as a means of employing policy to improve economic performance. It is important that there be alternatives to the single, formal method of neo-classical economics and that these alternatives can be fully justified by philosophical and methodological foundations. Post Keynesian economics provides such an alternative. The approach is also practical because Post Keynesian thought is well suited for applying economics to policy issues.

Various answers can be advanced. First, aggregate studies may fail to pick up the pro-cyclical pattern of real wages because, in the upswing, the proportion of well-paid overhead labor is likely to fall while less-skilled labor enters the workforce. Since the latter workers earn relatively lower wages, aggregate data would erroneously give the impression that real wages have fallen or that markups have risen (Lavoie, 1996/97). Another possible answer is that the manufacturing sector, the subject of most studies at the microeconomic level, is more unionized than other sectors.

In particular, he emphasized that a methodology emphasizing 14 Sheila Dow historical time will have to be applied to industrial structures that are not perfectly competitive. This means that the conditions for orthodox supply and demand analysis will not be met. ) In the UK, Victoria Chick (1983) drew attention to the distinctive methodological aspects of The General Theory, and argued that understanding the methodology of The General Theory was necessary for understanding its economics. Keynes focused on a monetary production economy, rather than a real exchange economy, because he was trying to understand such an economic system.