Macroeconomics: A European Perspective

by Olivier J. Blanchard, Alessia Amighini (Contributor), Francesco Giavazzi (Contributor)

“This is a truly outstanding textbook that beautifully marries theory, empirics and policy. It is surely destined to become the gold standard against which all other texts must be measured” Charles Bean, Deputy Governor, Bank of England. This book gives students a thorough understanding of macroeconomics by taking a unified view of the subject, allowing connections to be made between the short, medium and long run. Re-written almost from scratch in light of the experience of the Great Recession, this text is essential reading for anyone studying macroeconomics in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The book has been re-written almost from scratch after a thorough re-think of how macroeconomics should be taught after the financial crisis. Among the new · The text recognizes that modern central banks set interest rates, not the quantity of this gets rid of the LM curve greatly simplifying the discussion of financial markets · Ii presents the Medium Run starting directly from the Phillips curve, thus avoiding the intermediate AS-AD step which was clunky, and, for good reasons, undergraduates find it difficult to understand. Output above potential, or unemployment below the natural rate put upward pressure on inflation. The nature of the pressure depends on the formation of expectations, an issue central to current developments · The yield curve now incorporates a risk premium, whose fluctuations have been central to the crisis, especially since Quantitative Easing policies have shown that monetary policy can affect this premium Olivier Blanchard studied at the University of Paris, Nanterre, and has taught at MIT since 1983. He was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund from 2008 to 2015. He is now a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Francesco Giavazzi is Professor of Economics at Bocconi University in Milan, and has been a regular Visiting Professor at MIT Alessia Amighini is Assistant Professor of Economics at Universita’ del Piemonte Orientale (Novara)

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Business, School, Finance, Education

592 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1991

About the author

Olivier Jean Blanchard is currently the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, a post he has held since September 1, 2008. He is also the Class of 1941 Professor of Economics at MIT, though he is currently on leave. Blanchard is one of the most cited economists in the world, according to IDEAS/RePEc.

Blanchard earned his Ph.D. in Economics in 1977 at MIT. He taught at Harvard University between 1977 and 1983, after which he returned to MIT as a professor. Between 1998 and 2003 Blanchard served as the Chairman of the Economics Department at MIT. He is also an advisor for the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston (since 1995) and New York (since 2004).

Blanchard has published numerous research papers in the field of macroeconomics, as well as undergraduate and graduate macroeconomics textbooks (including his extremely popular Macroeconomics).

Reviews

[Lucca Powers Bates]

Ain’t no way I’m crying myself to sleep over this book and not counting it towards my reading goal.

Objectively speaking: 4 stars - it’s a good textbook.

Emotionally speaking: 0 stars - gave me multiple breakdowns.

[Not-otter Otter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The rating of 3/5 is a bit due to personal taste, as someone with an engineering background.

This textbook has been a wonderful introduction to the commonly used IS/LM and AS/AD models so far (I'm only halfway through as of writing this review), and its text explains lucidly the minutiae workings of the model. In turn, the model provides a textual framework with which to understand the economy.

With a background in engineering however, I shudder when I see such a technical topic dealt with almost entirely without serious mathematical formulations. The lack of mathematicization of especially Chapter 10, which deals with the AS/AD (Aggregate supply/Aggregate demand) model makes the explanation feel tenuous at best, and at worst it raised suspicions in me that it could just be a chapter of hand-waving.

Good introductory textbook, but don't expect a rigorous, mathematicized treatment of the topic at hand.

[Anna J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le meilleur livre d'économie que j'ai eu l'occasion de lire! Le seul qui a réussi à me faire comprendre et à m'intéresser à la matière.

Je le recommande à tous! Très facile d'accès : les graphiques aident beaucoup et sont bien expliqués et annotés.

Parfait!

[Rebekka · Rating 4 out of 5]

perfekte lektüre wenn man sich abends in den schlaf heulen möchte (aber war trotzdem interessant und gut geschrieben)

[Eline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over 600 pages???? Why????

[Greg]

Very good text. Anticipates my questions quite well, probably from having them asked by lots of students. In the preface, Prof Blanchard says he had groups of students work through the book section by section - this seems to have helped quite bit.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

When markets are in equilibrium 😩

[arbuz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Плюсом этой книги является её ясная логическая структура. Бланшар делит экономику на три периода, для каждого из которых существуют свои истины и закономерности. Каждое уравнение выводится математически и обычно проверяется эмпирически с помощью эконометрических методов (чаще всего это линейная регрессия). Автор постоянно возвращает нас к центральным макроэкономическим моделям (которые как бы являются "ядром" теории) и разрабатывает их на разных уровнях, постепенно усложняя их, делает более реалистичными. Огромное внимание уделяется ожиданиям. В общем, изложение ясное и систематическое.

Лично для меня, большими достоинствами являются привлечение основ финансовой теории и темы, посвященные фондовому рынку. Очень интересные параграфы про Великую депрессию, падение Nikkei, паритет процентных ставок и гиперинфляцию.

Особо глубоких познаний в математике эта книга не требует, но базовое знание статистики не помешает. Конечно, необходимо знать и базовые принципы экономикс.

Принесет ли эта книга пользу в практической деятельности экономиста? Несомненно.

[Amos Tai · Rating 5 out of 5]

A canonical textbook that is probably one of the best out there on the subject. The author elucidates all relevant concepts with a clarity that makes the materials so transparent to beginners, but also with insights that really help readers connect theories and concepts to what they read in the news every day.

[Gabriele Arena]

Leggero. Da leggere l'estate sotto l'ombrellone per rinfrescarsi.
Ripassare la domanda di moneta a scopo transattivo fa sempre bene tra l'altro

[Dmitry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good intermediate level book on macro. Contains lots of real-world data that supports models of inflation, growth, monetary and fiscal policies etc. Numerous examples from the recent crises.
Sometimes I had a feeling that the 500 pages of the book could actually be fit into 100-150 pages. For example, the author spends several pages explaining optimal consumption/investment problems – something that could be easily described in several sentences by using dynamic programming (or by referring to a graduate textbook on microeconomics). Blanchard also puts a lot of effort emphasizing the role of expectations on inflation targeting and generally on monetary policy. To do this, he discusses two common use-cases of such inflationary expectations, i.e., constant expectations and a martingale-like process. However, the general model of formation of these expectations is clearly missing. Consequently, the optimal control problem of managing the interest rate that is faced by central banks is not formally presented but just briefly mentioned.
Overall, I’d recommend this book to someone who already has a little bit of knowledge/intuition of how the economy works on the macro level but who is not willing to look at the economy through a prism of game theory and more elaborate formal methods.

[Jasmin · Rating 3 out of 5]

All in all a well written book about macroeconomics for beginners. The author refers to current and major events which makes the concepts clearer.

A major downside is the necessity to buy the (expensive) book or an (even more expensive) access code in order to get the solutions for the questions at the end of each chapter.

[Lynn Beyrouthy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I might actually end up with a very bad final grade on this course but this is a pretty good textbook (compared to my previous experience with Krugman).

And yes, unfortunately, I am reading nothing but my textbooks this semester. Tough times.

[Kos froux · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Book does a good Job, explaining Microoeconomics on a bigger stage. My Review is some what biased. If your Uni teaches the IS-LM-model, its a must buy. I can only emphasize how much this book helped me.
Topics of the Book is: shortterm(IS-LM), midterm( Phillipscurve),longterm Solow-model and much more. Furthermore the book has a big variety of task and does also provide the solutions of those.
If your looking for a good-night story or a brief overview of macrooecnomics, I must warn you that this book can´t provide this. This is clearly University stuff and its writen in such a way. Unless you want to understand how the whole Maths behind the theory works, avoid it. Otherwise I can only recommend you to buy it.

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for beginners. Everything is explained simply and the book is full of real-world examples on the different hot topics. I also like that the book doesn't merely explained the ideas, but also provides readers with their origins and history. I haven't noticed many unfounded oversimplifications, though the topic on money creation is still taught in terms of money multipliers, as opposed to the modern view. I expect Blanchard will add at least a brief note about modern view in the next revision.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Wilde Amazone
quote

Clear and Concise

If you're a beginner in macroeconomics, then this is the book.
Concepts have been explained very precisely.
Even if you have little or no knowledge of macroeconomics, you can still go for this.
Preferred by students who are preparing for MA economics entrances.

[Max DT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit neoclassical heavy but no other general macro textbook seems to stand up to it, particularly no heterodox alternatives to balance and/or merge schools of thought (that I'm aware of at least).
Oh and its material is quite 'elegant', I guess :)

[John Moran · Rating 3 out of 5]

It saved my ass for the exam so I’m counting it I also spent about 90% of the year so far reading and rereading the fucking thing so its going towards my reading goal purely due to the stress and anxiety

[Von_feng · Rating 5 out of 5]

clear and consistent analysis framework

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to understand and excellently organized.

[Petek Şeyma Başar]

Can I block a book? Please, I do not want to see this book again :/

[Paolo Ardesi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una bella rivisitazione di temi di politica economica

[akkarawin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dont buy it

So dis organized and there’s no proper flow in the language use. Just makes the subject itself even mor hard than it should.

[Samuel Cao · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not finish

[micòl · Rating 3 out of 5]

devo dire che è piuttosto chiaro, è stata una lettura pazza, disperata ma piacevole dopo tutto

[Mina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Correct, concise, but not precise in explaining. The metaphors used are weak, they gloss over 'simple' things that do not immediately make sense, they encourage broad generalization without addressing their more general weaknesses, not even in the exercises.

Well, five pages of apple pie economies later, Chapter 3 started making sense.

Supplied the piemaker a quarter, invested 1/5, 10% income tax, put the apple core in savings and ate the rest

Don't get me wrong, it is a great book for beginners, especially if you don't have a mathematical base, but shit happens when you start asking questions like "which ass did you pull this equation out of?!" and "I get the IS-LM and the AD-AS, but where does reality come into this nice story?". Finish this book, do the exercises, then find an online set of exercises and try and try again. If I had had a paperback, it would have gathered more air miles than a Ryanair Boeing.

[Melissa Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a book that needs an Explanatory Note to start things off. I also love it when an "expert" in economics admits, "I just don't know very much about the field of economics." Yet what kept me going, was the need to find out just how Levitt and Dubner were going to answer the following questions:
1. What do schoolteachers and Sumo wrestlers have in common? (I'm personally invested in this one)
2. How is the KKK like a group of real-estate agents?
3. Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?
4. Where have all the criminals gone?
5. What makes a perfect parent? (who wouldn't want to find out this magical answer?)
6. Would a Roshanda by any other name smell as sweet? (Parenting part II - makes you wonder if you screwed up before your kids were even born...)
A great read - can't wait to jump into Super Freakonomics!

[Cahyo Edi · Rating 4 out of 5]

semester kemaren dapet kuliah dengan bahan dari buku ini..
terimakasih saya ucapkan kepada bapak Prof. Lepi Tan yang sudah dengan sabar memberikan kuliah makroekonomi dengan sabar dan teliti, meskipun anak2 sekelas suka ribut sendiri dan agak bandel2 dengan secara sengaja keluar masuk kelas..
salut buat beliau yang sudah memberikan catatan dengan detail sehingga kami bisa mengikuti UTS maupun UAS dengan lebih mudah..
semoga pelajaran dari bapak lepi bisa kami amalkan dengan baik tanpa kurang suatu apa..
(ini review buku apa review dosen ya..???)
salam buat anak2 kelas pak Lepi (baik anak akun maupun anak mene) FE ekstensi Salemba angkatan 2008.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

The recent editions of this textbook have been great in explaining intricacies and providing economic insight through conversational approach. I felt as if the author was inside my room, giving a lecture, while I wrote down insight after insight. It's an easy textbook to follow and apply which is all you can ask for from a textbook on applied mathematics and economics. Language and example levels are on the easy side, but the depth of information is undeniably high. That is an achievement in itself.

Consider yourself lucky if you're professor elects to go this route, because it will make the semester that much more fun--plus it's economics.

[Betül · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an explanatory book about the basics of Macroeconomics. The readers can find the research topics in 3-layer: the short, medium and long run. The IS-LM Model and AS-AD Curves are well explained and summarized with more graphs ( even though fewer maths).
At the end of every chapter, the reader can find a summary of the topic which is very helpful. (considered a huge amount of repetitions in the book)