Showdown of the theory to the classic Keynesian on the labor market: the case of Colombia

Abstract

The article presents an analysis in relation to employment by contrasting two economic theories: classical and Keynesian, by placing the study in the particular case of the Colombian labor market. The pretension exposed in this text arises from the interest to supplement the reection advanced in the article: “Some elements on the classical theory of employment and the Keynesian version” published in the journal Trends in the second half of 2012, where are embodied the basic elements of the theoretical framework of the two schools of economic thought that are intended to confront the national reality. In the accomplishment of this purpose, there is a reference to the fundamental principles of the two schools, to continue with a presentation on the importance of the labor market, and the employment situation in the world, placing the analysis toward the Latin American countries and in particular to Colombia. This analysis is approached from a documentary review in secondary and tertiary sources that illustrate the problems to collate these diagnostics with the theories of employment, specically the Classical and Keynesian. It is concluded that, despite referring to dierent historical contexts, the diagnostics on the unemployment in the present, are more in line with the Keynesian version, to being a forced and structural unemployment, which does not depend on the exibility of wages, but rather on the lack of sources of employment opportunities that are created through investment.