This book gives a comprehensive account of traditional and more recent developments in macroeconomic theory. It is written primarily for students at the intermediate level. The book differs from the customary expositions in that the authors do not discuss topic by topic but orthodoxy by orthodoxy. Thus, the main approaches, like Classical theory, Keynesian theory, theory of portfolio selection, Monetarism, Rational Expectations theory, and Neokeynesian "disequilibrium" theory are presented in historical order. Each of these approaches is substantiated and criticized in a self-contained chapter, and the authors have taken great pains to bring out the relations and differences between them. A mathematical appendix reviews those mathematical facts which are especially important for macroeconomic models and serves to make the text easy to read.

A textbook that approaches modern macroeconomics through its microeconomic foundations, with an emphasis on financial market connections and policy applications. The modern study and analysis of macroeconomics begins by considering how microeconomic units—consumers and firms—make decisions, and then investigates how these choices interact to yield economy-wide outcomes. This innovative textbook takes this “modern” approach, teaching macroeconomics through its microeconomic foundations. It does so by adopting the representative agent paradigm. By modeling the representative consumer and the representative firm, students will learn to describe macroeconomic outcomes and consider the effects of macroeconomic policies. Unique in its coverage of monopolistic competition, financial markets, and the interaction of fiscal and monetary policy, Modern Macroeconomics is suitable for use in intermediate undergraduate, advanced undergraduate, and graduate level courses. The book first introduces the building blocks of macroeconomics, the heart of which is the representative consumer. It goes on to offer a brief history of macroeconomic thought, including supply-side economics, the Phillips curve, and the New Keynesian framework. It then covers two policy applications, monetary policy and the interaction of monetary and fiscal policy; optimal policy analysis for both the flexible price and the rigid price case; long-run steady states, treating the Solow growth framework and the neoclassical growth model; a search-and-matching framework for the analysis of unemployment; and the application of the tools of modern macroeconomics to “open economy,” or international macroeconomics. End-of-chapter problem sets enable students to apply the concepts they have learned. A separate Solutions Manual will be available for students to purchase. Teaching materials, including complete solutions and slides, will be available to qualified instructors.

Snowdon and Vane s book is extremely welcome. Indeed the authors examine, compare, and evaluate the evolution of the major rival stories comprising contemporary macroeconomic thought, but they also trace the development and interaction of key events and ideas as they occurred in the last century. Interviews with leading economists, one or two at the end of each chapter, also greatly help to shed light on this complexity. . . In sum, this is book which is very difficult to put down. Alessio Moneta, Journal of the History of Economic Thought It is not difficult to understand why this volume commands high praise from macroeconomic theorists, practitioners and teachers. It contains many interesting features that make it an excellent companion for both students and teachers of tertiary level macroeconomics. . . The authors present the material in a way that conveys to readers that macroeconomics is a living science , continually developing and still open to debate, controversy and competing policy prescriptions. In this respect it is a book that ought to be required reading for all teachers of the subject. It is also a valuable source of background reading for professional economists involved with economic policy making. Economic Outlook and Business Review . . . a wonderful history of macroeconomic thought from Keynes to the present, with an outstanding bibliography. It should be useful to undergraduates and graduate students as well as professional economists. Highly recommended. Steven Pressman, Choice Brian Snowdon and Howard Vane are well-known for their astute understanding of the main macroeconomic schools of thought and their skilled use of interviews with major figures. Here, they deploy a depth of scholarship in explaining the different schools and their key points of departure from one another. This book will be particularly useful to students looking for a clear, non-technical explanation of the main approaches to macroeconomics. Patrick Minford, Cardiff University, UK There are two steps to learning macroeconomics. First, to see it as it is today. Second, to understand how it got there: to understand the right and the wrong turns, the hypotheses that proved false, the insights that proved true, and the interaction of events and ideas. Only then, does one truly understand macroeconomics. This book is about step two. It does a marvellous job of it. The presentation is transparent, the interviews fascinating. You will enjoy, and you will learn. Olivier Blanchard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US In 40 years of teaching macroeconomics, there has been just one textbook that I have assigned year after year after year, namely, A Modern Guide to Macroeconomics by Snowdon, Vane and Wynarczyk. That altogether admirable book made clear to students what were, and are, the main intellectual issues in macroeconomics and did so with just enough formal modeling to avoid distortion by over-simplification. That book is now ten years old and the debate in macro has moved on. So there is good reason to welcome Snowdon and Vane back with this superb updated version. Axel Leijonhufvud, University of Trento, Italy This outstanding book avoids the narrow scope of most textbooks and provides an excellent guide to an unusually broad range of ideas. Thomas Mayer, University of California, Davis, US More than a decade after the publication of the critically acclaimed A Modern Guide to Macroeconomics, Brian Snowdon and Howard Vane have produced a worthy successor in the form of Modern Macroeconomics. Thoroughly extended, revised and updated, it will become the indispensable text for students and teachers of macroeconomics in the new millennium. The authors skilfully trace the origins, development and current state of modern macroeconomics from an historical perspective. They do so by thoroughly appraising the central tenets underlying the main competing schools of macroeconomic thought as well as their diverse policy imp

In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the wall of Wittenberg church. He argued that the Church’s internally consistent but absurd doctrines had pickled into a dogmatic structure of untruth. It was time for a Reformation. Half a millennium later, Steve Keen argues that economics needs its own Reformation. In Debunking Economics, he eviscerated an intellectual church – neoclassical economics – that systematically ignores its own empirical untruths and logical fallacies, and yet is still mysteriously worshipped by its scholarly high priests. In this book, he presents his Reformation: a New Economics, which tackles serious issues that today's economic priesthood ignores, such as money, energy and ecological sustainability. It gives us hope that we can save our economies from collapse and the planet from ecological catastrophe. Performing this task with his usual panache and wit, Steve Keen’s new book is unmissable to anyone who has noticed that the economics Emperor is naked and would like him to put on some clothes.

Macroeconomic policy is one of the most important policy domains, and the tools of macroeconomics are among the most valuable for policy makers. Yet there has been, up to now, a wide gulf between the level at which macroeconomics is taught at the undergraduate level and the level at which it is practiced. At the same time, doctoral-level textbooks are usually not targeted at a policy audience, making advanced macroeconomics less accessible to current and aspiring practitioners. This book, born out of the Masters course the authors taught for many years at the Harvard Kennedy School, fills this gap. It introduces the tools of dynamic optimization in the context of economic growth, and then applies them to a wide range of policy questions – ranging from pensions, consumption, investment and finance, to the most recent developments in fiscal and monetary policy. It does so with the requisite rigor, but also with a light touch, and an unyielding focus on their application to policy-making, as befits the authors’ own practical experience. Advanced Macroeconomics: An Easy Guide is bound to become a great resource for graduate and advanced undergraduate students, and practitioners alike.

In the early 1980s, rational expectations and new classical economics dominated macroeconomic theory. This essay evolved from theauthors' profound disagreement with that trend. It demonstrates notonly how the new classical view got macroeconomics wrong, but also howto go about doing macroeconomics the right way.

This book examines new classical macroeconomics from a comparative and critical point of view that confronts the original texts and later comments as a first dimension of comparison. The second dimension appears in a historical context, since none of the new classical doctrines can be analyzed ignoring the parallelism and discrepancies with the theory of Keynes, Friedman or Phelps. Radicalism of new classical macroeconomics has brought fundamental changes in economic thought, but the doctrines got vulgarized and distorted thanks to the mass of followers. Nowadays, economic theory and policy, trying to find their ways, have a less clear relationship than ever. Therefore, this volume is aimed at mapping and reconsidering the policy instruments and transmission mechanisms offered by the new classicals. Its central question points to the real nature of new classical macroeconomics: what consequences are grounded by the assumptions new classicals used. Moreover, issues raised by automatic fiscal stabilizers and fiscal reforms are analyzed as well, even if they were out of the range of classical texts. The book draws a picture of new classical macroeconomics stressing the analogies with Keynesian countercyclical policies, instead of the discrepancies commonly held.

Latin American neo-structuralism is a cutting-edge, regionally focused economic theory with broad implications for macroeconomics and development economics. Roberto Frenkel has spent five decades developing the theory's core arguments and expanding their application throughout the discipline, revolutionizing our understanding of high inflation and hyperinflation, disinflation programs, and the behavior of foreign exchange markets as well as financial and currency crises in emerging economies. The essays in this collection assess Latin American neo-structuralism's theoretical contributions and viability as the world's economies evolve. The authors discuss Frenkel's work in relation to pricing decisions, inflation and stabilization policy, development and income distribution in Latin America, and macroeconomic policy for economic growth. An entire section focuses on finance and crisis, and the volume concludes with a neo-structuralist analysis of general aspects of economic development. For those seeking a comprehensive introduction to contemporary Latin American economic thought, this collection not only explicates the intricate work of one of its greatest practitioners but also demonstrates its impact on the growth of economics.

Since the 1950s, macroeconomics has been transformed. This book is about one of the most important aspects of that transformation: the attempt, through the end of the twenty-first century and beyond, to construct macroeconomic models rigorously derived from models of individual firms and households.