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This book retraces the history of macroeconomics from Keynes's General Theory to the present.
List of contents
Introduction; Part I. Keynes and Keynesian Macroeconomics: 1. Keynes's General Theory; 2. Keynesian macroeconomics; 3. The neoclassical synthesis program: Klein and Patinkin; 4. Monetarism; 5. Phelps and Friedman: the natural rate of unemployment; 6. Leijonhufvud and Clower; 7. Non-Walrasian equilibrium models; 8. Assessment; Part II. DSGE Macroeconomics: 9. Lucas and the emergence of DSGE macroeconomics; 10. A methodological breach; 11. Assessing Lucas; 12. Early reactions to Lucas; 13. Reacting to Lucas: first generation new Keynesians; 14. Reacting to Lucas: alternative research lines; 15. Real business cycle modeling: Kydland and Prescott's contribution; 16. Real business cycle modeling: critical reactions and further developments; 17. Real business cycle modeling: assessment; 18. Second generation new Keynesian modeling; Part III. A Broader Perspective: 19. The history of macroeconomics against the Marshall-Walras divide; 20. Standing up to DSGE macroeconomics; 21. Looking back, looking ahead.
About the author
Michel De Vroey is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Louvain and visiting professor at the Université Saint Louis, Brussels. He has published several books, including Involuntary Unemployment: The Elusive Quest for a Theory (2007) and Keynes, Lucas: D'une macroéconomie à l'autre (2009). He has also published extensively in scholarly journals.
Summary
This book retraces the history of macroeconomics from Keynes's General Theory to the present, especially the contrast between a Keynesian era and a Lucasian - or dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) - era. It also examines a few selected works aimed at presenting alternatives to Lucasian macroeconomics.
Report
'Michel De Vroey does not simply record what he finds. He has a vision of the kind of macroeconomics he would like to see, perhaps one he developed gradually over the years he has worked on this book. What makes this book enjoyable is that he has high hopes for economics, he flatters us that we are important, and he praises the progress we have achieved. In the end he has the integrity not to hide his disappointments, his conviction that while there is no turning back, there is still a long way to go.' Robert E. Lucas, Jr, John Dewey Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, University of Chicago
