Macroeconomic Fluctuations and Individual Behaviour

Part 1 On the theory of the economy as a whole - purpose and outline of this study: Keynes' economics and general equilibrium theory; the neoclassical synthesis; the microfoundations debate; new classical and new Keynesian economics; purpose and outline of this study. Part 2 Flexprice models of economic fluctuations: the principles of flexprice equilibrium theory; macroeconomic flexprice equilibrium theory and the explanation of cyclical variations; introduction; monetary business cycle theory; some critical observations; real business cycle models; some final observations. Part 3 Fixprice models and economic fluctuations: the concepts on non-Walrasian general equilibrium theory; fixprice macroeconomics; more dynamics; physical capital accumulation; expectations; conclusions. Part 4 Trade without an auctioneer and economic fluctuations: real wage rigidities; implicit contract theory; efficiency wage theory; commodity price rigidities; stocks; menu costs and near-rational behaviour; imperfect information; more markets; conjectural equilibria; macroeconomic approaches; coordination failures and indeterminacies; some final observations. Part 5 Unemployment equilibria, efficiency wages and kinked demand curves: household behaviour; the behaviour of firms; the effectiveness of policy; the effectiveness of policy with rigid prices; some final observations. Part 6 A macroeconomic model of adjustment: the introduction of time in the analysis; transactions and other characteristics; household behaviour; introduction; the households' decision problem; household behaviour in the absence of demand constraints in previous periods; household behaviour in a situation of excess commodity demand in the preceding period; firm behaviour; introduction; firms' expectations concerning the demand for goods; constraints on production and sales; producers' current-period decisions on employment and commodity supply; firms' investment behaviour; the behaviour of banks and the government sector; the government sector; the banking system; transactions in the commodity and labour market. Part 7 A macroeconomic model of adjustment - some illustrative processes: the bench-mark simulation; a bench -mark projection; the impact of different tax policies and expenditure policy; tax policies; expenditure policy; the impact of expected inflation; some final observations. Part 8 Summary and conclusions.