Lectures on Macroeconomics

by Olivier J. Blanchard

The main purpose of Lectures on Macroeconomics is to characterize and explain fluctuations in output, unemployment and movement in prices. Lectures on Macroeconomics provides the first comprehensive description and evaluation of macroeconomic theory in many years. While the authors' perspective is broad, they clearly state their assessment of what is important and what is not as they present the essence of macroeconomic theory today.The main purpose of Lectures on Macroeconomics is to characterize and explain fluctuations in output, unemployment and movement in prices. The most important fact of modern economic history is persistent long term growth, but as the book makes clear, this growth is far from steady. The authors analyze and explore these fluctuations. Topics include consumption and investment; the Overlapping Generations Model; money; multiple equilibria, bubbles, and stability; the role of nominal rigidities; competitive equilibrium business cycles, nominal rigidities and economic fluctuations, goods, labor and credit markets; and monetary and fiscal policy issues. Each of chapters 2 through 9 discusses models appropriate to the topic. Chapter 10 then draws on the previous chapters, asks which models are the workhorses of macroeconomics, and sets the models out in convenient form. A concluding chapter analyzes the goals of economic policy, monetary policy, fiscal policy, and dynamic inconsistency. Written as a text for graduate students with some background in macroeconomics, statistics, and econometrics, Lectures on Macroeconomics also presents topics in a self contained way that makes it a suitable reference for professional economists.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Textbooks

664 pages, Hardcover

First published March 21, 1989

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

[Nick Black]

Eeek, I don't know anything about macroeconomic theory save a smattering of qualitative-type economic philosophy and the two days spent preparing for a quick annihilation of the AP Macroeconomics exam back in 1998 (offered for free with registration for the AP Microeconomics exam and, hey, why not get out of one more college class? Who needs an actual syllabus or teacher? A fine plan, if one never intends to feel embarrassed when neo-Keynesian fiscal or monetary policy comes up in the lab). I've read Paul Samuelson's Foundations of Economic Analysis, which was great, but all micro for sure. Fischer and Blanchard ran and run the IMF respectively, and MIT Press rarely lets me down. Should be a winner.

Time to replace more cretinous ignorance with delicious domain-specific knowledge: Everyman, go with me and be my guide...