Nicholas Kaldor, 1908-1986, was a Hungarian born, British economist. He graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1930, and was there where he taught until 1947. Keynesianism influenced many of his ideas, especially those concerning welfare economics, the field of economics where his contributions became more popular.
During the 1930s, and following the example of his colleagues Hayek and Hicks, Kaldor contributed to enlarge mainstream neoclassical theory. In his “Welfare Propositions of Economics and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility”, 1939, he made his own contribution to compensation criteria, developing what is nowadays known as Kaldor’s criterion. According to this principle a reallocation in the distribution of income can be more efficient when those that are better off, can compensate those who are worse off.
Kaldor contributions also include “A Classificatory Note on the Determinateness of Equilibrium”, 1934, where he analysed cobweb models, and which tries to explain the reason of periodic price fluctuations in certain types of products, taking into account supply, demand and price formation. In agreement with keynesianists, he referred to economic growth based on speculation as being undesired as it will provoke, in a medium-long run, a fast and sharp economic fall.