Despite reports that Keynes is dead and that Jimmy Carter cannot turn the economic stove higher than simmer, those future business executives across the river continue to reap the rewards of the increasing corporate demand for elite technocrats. The median starting salary of last June's Harvard Business School graduates was $22,000, ten per cent higher than the Class of '76, according to a report recently released by the Office of Career Development.

The starting salaries ranged from a low of $2650, for work with a charitable institution, to a high of $53,153. Those who said they worked for a family-operated outfit or for themselves were excluded from the survey. The mean salary would be $175 lower if these graduates were included.

Professors and administrators at the Business School said yesterday that median starting salaries for Harvard MBAs could be expected to rise as competition to get into the school mounts and the cumulative work experience of the business students increases.

Applications to the school have doubled over the past decade and the number of accepted students entering directly from college has dropped from 30 per cent to 18 per cent this fall, Dean Currie '69, assistant dean for educational affairs at the Business School, said yesterday.

Ed Samp, a first-year Business student, said the increase in previous experience would tend to reflect higher starting salaries at graduation. Samp said he made more than $22,000 during the first eight months of this year.

In 1967 there were 7000 degrees awarded nationwide, while last year 35,000 students graduated with a masters in business administration, Currie said.