The distinctive feature of this book is that it provides a unified framework for the analysis of short- and medium-run macroeconomics. This gives students a model that they can use themselves to understand a wide range of real-world macroeconomic behaviour and policy issues. The authors introduce a new graphical model (IS/PC/MR) based on the 3-equation New Keynesian model used in modern macroeconomics. The three equations are
BL the IS curve
BL the Phillips curve and
BL an interest rate-based monetary policy rule.
The use of a common framework throughout for closed and open economies helps readers develop the economic intuition with which to address a diversity of macroeconomic problems. Applied chapters show how the models can be used to analyse performance in OECD economies over the past twenty-five years. The chapters on growth present an in-depth coverage of the Solow-Swan, endogenous and Schumpeterian models that allow the reader to understand how these approaches can be used to answer the big questions of growth: why some countries are rich and others, poor; why some catch up and others do not.
Since the book is based on the mainstream 3-equation model used at the research frontier, the book gives students the economics background necessary for accessing advanced macroeconomics. It is also designed to appeal to graduate students, non-specialists in macroeconomics, professional economists and those from related disciplines who want a guide to the complexities of modern macroeconomics and to understand contemporary policy debates.
Online Resource Centre
For lecturers: password-protected solutions and diagrams from the text.
For students: exercises and checklist questions.
Macroeconomics makes modern macroeconomics with its focus on imperfect competition, interest-rate setting central banks, and knowledge - based growth accesible to undergraduates. It provides micro-foundations for the Philips curve, for persistent involuntary unemployment, for aggregate consumption and investment behaviour, and for inflation-targetting. It is based on the mainstream monetary macro model now used widely by academics and policy makers and showsstudents how to use it to understand a broad range of real-world macroeconomic behaviour and policy issues. It is also designed to appeal to graduate students, non-specialists in macroeconomics, professional economists and those from related disciplines who want a guide to the complexities of modernmacroeconomics and to understand contemporary policy debates.
Macroeconomics needs to be exciting and contemporary. Too often it becomes an area of difficulty and confusion for students. This book is to be welcomed for its very clear vision of what contemporary macroeconomics is about and its careful exposition leading the student to this. Dr Mary Gregory, Oxford University