Offering a uniquely modern presentation of macroeconomics, this brand-new text makes it easy for instructors to emphasize a solid microfoundations, real-business cycle approach. In the all-new MACROECONOMICS: A MODERN APPROACH, leading economist and proven author Robert J. Barro couples his extraordinary command of growth, equilibrium, and business cycles with a focus on microfoundations to create a groundbreaking new macroeconomics textbook steeped in real-world application. Accessibly written and extremely student friendly, the book is packed with current policy and data examples, reflecting the author's extensive research in the field. The book also includes captivating boxed features, challenging exercises, and innovative online resources like CengageNOW, which enables students to create personalized learning paths and equips instructors with tools to easily assign, grade, and record homework and quizzes. Covering growth theory more completely than any other text, MACROECONOMICS delivers a unified model of macroeconomics that serves well for economics majors and nonmajors alike.
Stephen's Macroeconomics is a better alternative to Mankiv's in its method of relating and examining different macroeconomics topics in a modern curriculum. The book requires readers to think on a level of abstraction higher than most undergrad econ textbooks, and many models later in the book are simply modifications or alternative versions of each other where "imperfections are introduced".
The book could improve by taking stylized facts to instruct by case studies, rather than writing about them in description boxes like Varian's Intermediate Mirco. Though most of the maths are high school algebra, do expect professors to come up with Lagrangean optimization problems if you're taking this in uni, thanks to its mathematical appendix.
Firstly, it is one of the most non-intuitive I've read on Macroeconomics. If I rate simply on the basis on intuitiveness, I would rate it below 1/10, whereas Mankiw's version would get a 9/10 score. Facts are simply stated without any explanation, graphs have almost non-existent descriptions, overall it's been a real slog trying to read any and all chapters.
I guess it is because of the confusing nature of the subject matter per se that makes this a very confusing book. I still do not understand macroeconomics AT ALL. Not even a goddamn bit..