This book pleads for a new orientation of government economic policy, as well as central bank policy, rejecting the traditional government stabilization policy that leads to a dead-end of economic instability and social inequality in the long run. Growing economic instability and increasing state stabilization characterize the development of the capitalist market economy since the major world economic crises of the last century. The book examines these crises and the measures states take to overcome them. Additionally, it addresses the effectiveness and consequences of state intervention. In presenting the main features of Keynes’ and Minsky’s macroeconomics, the book provides a conceptual basis for an outlook on government stabilization in a changing market economy. It thus also offers a suitable framework for current economic policy discussions. Finally, the book examines the wider context of economic history for lessons to be learned. This book is a must-read for scholars and students of economics, as well as policy-makers and practitioners, interested in a better understanding of macroeconomics, central bank policy, and the results of state intervention.

Recent developments in public economics have largely been in the direction of reaffirming the limits of the market and of establishing new ones. The possible existence of fundamental non-convexities, imperfect and asymmetric information, incentive compatibility, imperfect competition, strategic complementarity, and scale economies led to the conclusion that a large set of market failures exist; such situations also imply government failure. Acocella, considers this complicated picture and provides a discussion of the different approaches to establishing social 'rankings' of the possible situations and the underlying principles. The arguments for and against different institutions are then analysed at a micro and macroeconomic level. The market and the government are recognised as imperfect, and thus complementary, institutions. Specific policy targets and instruments are considered in the areas of micro and macro-economic policy. Special attention is devoted to questions of policy management in an open economy. Finally, problems of domestic and international policy co-ordination are considered.

In the age of globalisation both domestic and foreign economic policies play an important role in determining firms' strategies. Understanding such policies is an essential part of the cultural background of managers at all levels of a firm. At the same time, firms' choices have a greater impact on economic policymaking in a global economy, as the range of alternatives open to them expands. In this textbook, Professor Acocella analyses both sides of this relationship. Special emphasis is placed on current issues: in policymaking on the basis of social choice principles and the normative and positive theory of economic policy; and issues concerning the establishment of international public institutions that can match the global reach of the private institutions (markets and firms) that generate many of today's economic challenges. Broad in scope, this book is aimed at students who have completed an introductory course in both micro and macroeconomics.

A stabilization policy seeks to limit erratic swings in the economy's total output, as measured by the nation's gross domestic product (GDP), as well as controlling surges in inflation or deflation. Stabilization of these factors generally leads to healthy levels of employment. In this book, internationally renowned economist launches a massive attack against the conventional macroeconomic policies. He demasks the claim that macroeconomic policy is to stabilize the economy. He reveals that this claim implies the assumption that the market economy is inherently unstable, and asks: what if when it is not the market economy but politics which produces instability? What if when the policy managers fabricate the opposite of their claim? What if when they do not smoothen the business cycle but make it more extreme? What if monetary policy does not cure inflation but instigates the erosion of the purchasing power of money?