Alain Barrère, 1910-1995.

French Post-Keynesian economist of the "circuitiste" school.

Having read Keynes's General Theory while a prisoner-of-war during World War II, Barrère went on to develop a distinctive approach to Keynesian theory -- what was later known as the "circuit" or "circulationist" approach -- quite separately from  Neo-Keynesian developments in  the U.S.  In particular, and  from the outset, Barrère identified Keynes's "monetary theory of production" as the critical vision part of his system, which was distinct and irreconcilable with the Neoclassical.  In his theory, Barrère notes, it is impossible to do away with the role of endogenous money and Knightian uncertainty, as many post-war Neo-Keynesians did, thus presaging many of the developments of the later Post Keynesiacan school.  In extending his system from the short-run to the long-run, Barrère's followed a similar route taken by the Cambridge Keynesians, albeit keeping money in the story throughout.

Barrere was professor at Toulouse from 1946 to 1957, when he developed much of the early part of his theory.  From 1957, he has been in Paris, first at Paris University, then at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes and finally, at Paris I-Sorbonne.

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