Interpreting Macroeconomics: Explorations in the History of Macroeconomic Thought

by Roger E. Backhouse

Intepreting Macroeconomics explores the different ways in which the history of macroeconomic thought can be written. This valuable text includes three historiographical chapters which critique both relativism and constructivism, and argues instead for an eclectic, pluralistic approach to macroeconomic thought. The remaining chapters demonstrate the advantages of this approach.

Interpreting Macroeconomics analyzes the ideas of pre-Keynesian economists informed by the perspective of modern theory. The story of macroeconomics since Keynes is told in three ways: a history innocent of methodology; a methodological appraisal of Keynesian economics; and a Lakatosian rational reconstruction in which monetarism and Keynesianism are viewed as part of the same research program. Rhetorical analysis is applied to the work of Milton Friedman, John Muth and Axel Leijonhufvud, demonstrating that these very different perspectives all have something to contribute--that the history of economic thought has many dimensions and that different methods are needed to uncover them.

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 4, 1995