Keynesian economics is named after John Maynard Keynes, whose father, J. N. Keynes, was an important economist in his own right.
The son’s accomplishments quickly eclipsed his father’s, however.
In this and in several other ways J. M. Keynes’s life is like that of J. S. Mill.
Both had fathers who were contemporaries and friends of brilliant economists: James Mill was a friend of David Ricardo, and J. N. Keynes was a friend of Alfred Marshall. Both the younger Keynes and the younger Mill received the high-quality education typically provided to children of intellectuals, an education that equipped their innately brilliant minds to break new ground and to persuade others through the force of their writing.
Both Mill and Keynes rejected the policy implications of their fathers’ economics and proceeded in new directions.
But here the similarities end, for J. S. Mill was unable to break completely with the theoretical structure of his father and Ricardo; ultimately, he constructed a halfway house between classical and neoclassical theory.
Keynes’s break with the past—that is, with the laissez-faire tradition running from Smith through Ricardo, J. S. Mill, and Marshall— was more complete.
Although he was familiar with the basic Marshallian partial equilibrium analysis, he constructed a new theoretical structure to address the aggregate economy that had significant effects on both economic theory and policy.