Introduction to Macroeconomic Theory

"Introduction to Macroeconomic Theory" gives the fundamental knowledge which is necessary to understand the economic political debate about unemployment, inflation, budget deficits and growth. Pedagogical figures and diagrams support the text. There is only little use of mathematics. The main aim is to give the reader the needed tools to understand the political economic debate concerning:

Unemployment and public sector budget balance - Inflation and the rate of interest - Balance of payments and the exchange rate - Growth and environment.

These relations are put into a macroeconomic framework which entails national as well as international perspectives. Although the world economy is becoming ever closer, the national states do still have political instruments to regulate the macroeconomic development. There are separate chapters on:

Fiscal policy and automatic budget stabilizers - Monetary policy and international financial flows - Exchange rate policy - fixed and floating - Structural policies, growth and unemployment.
The book finishes with a chapter on the history of economic ideas.

This is a textbook of macroeconomic theory and politics from a post-Keynesian perspective. The function of the macroeconomic system is explained in a straightforward way. The text is deliberately designed to be simple and pedagogical and is supported by a number of illustrative diagrams. Mathematics is reduced to an absolute minimum and put into separate text boxes. The main aim is to give the reader the needed tools to understand the political economic debate concerning:

- Unemployment and public sector budget balance
- Inflation and the rate of interest
- Balance of payments and the exchange rate
- Growth and environment

These relations are put into a macroeconomic framework which entails national as well as international perspectives. Although the world economy is becoming ever closer, the national states do still have political instruments to regulate the macroeconomic development. There are separate chapters on:

- Fiscal policy and automatic budget stabilizers
- Monetary policy and international financial flows
- Exchange rate policy - fixed and floating
- Structural policies, growth and unemployment

One final chapter gives the history of macroeconomic ideas from Adam Smith via Karl Marx to John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman.

A postscript points at further questions within political economy which have only been touched upon lightly: income distribution, sustainable development, developing countries and the welfare state.
Suggestions for supplementary readings are listed.