Critical Essay on Modern Macroeconomic - Softcover

Hahn, Frank

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0631209891 ISBN 13: 9780631209898

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 1998

Synopsis

In the early 1980s, rational expectations and new classical economics dominated macroeconomic theory. This essay evolved from the authors' profound disagreement with that trend. It demonstrates not only how the new classical view got macroeconomics wrong, but also how to go about doing macroeconomics the right way.Hahn and Solow argue that what was originally offered as a normative model based on perfect foresight and universal perfect competition has been almost casually transformed into a model for interpreting real macroeconomic behavior. After explaining microeconomic foundations, the authors introduce a better macro model, one that can say useful things about the fluctuation of employment, the correlation between wages and employment, and the role for corrective monetary policy.

About this title

Review

"Like the great debate between Einstein and Bohr on quantum physics,the debate between Hahn-Solow and Lucas's rational expectationismis a must for all serious students of macro. This is how scientificprogress should be done--by sober analysis rather than cleverrhetoric or frenzied ideology." Paul A. Samuelson, Professor of Economics, M.I.T. "Professors Hahn and Solow pick up the simple general equilibrium models of new classical macroeconomics and run with them. Of course, they head off in directions that are theirs alone. Critics of these models, and enthusiasts, will want to read this book and see how far they get." Paul M. Romer, Professor of Economics, University of Californiaat Berkeley

About the Author

Frank Hahn is Professor Ordinario, University of Siena, Professor Emeritus of Cambridge University, and Fellow of Churchill College. Robert Solow is Institute Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received the Nobel Prize in economics in 1987 for his macroeconomic research linking technology and growth.

About this edition

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0631209891
• ISBN 13: 9780631209898
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 172