Lectures on Macroeconomics

by Olivier J. Blanchard, Stanley Fischer

The text provides the first comprehensive description and evaluation of macroeconomic theory in many yea The main purpose of the book is to characterize and explain fluctuations in output, unemployment, and movement in prices. Topics include consumption and investment, the implications of finite horizons, goals of economic policy, fiscal policy, and dynamic inconsistency. Written as a text for postgraduate students, the book also presents topics in a self-contained way that makes it a suitable reference for professional economists. A background in macroeconomics, statistics and econometrics is the prerequisite for studying the text. Table of Contents Preface ? Introduction ? Consumption and Investment: Basic Infinite Horizon Models ? The Overlapping Generations Model ? Money ? Multiple Equilibria, Bubbles, and Stability ? Optimal ? Consumption, Investment, and Inventory Behavior ? Competitive Equilibrium Business Cycles ? Nominal Rigidities and Economic Fluctuations ? Goods, Labor, and Credit Markets ? Some Useful Models ? Monetary and Fiscal Policy Issues ? Name Index ?Subject Index

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Textbooks

664 pages, Paperback

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...