An important recent advance in macroeconomics is the development of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) macromodels. The use of DSGE models to study monetary policy, however, has led to paradoxical and puzzling results on a number of central monetary issues including price determinacy and liquidity effects. In Money, Interest, and Policy, Jean-Pascal Benassy argues that moving from the standard DSGE models - which he calls "Ricardian" because they have the famous "Ricardian equivalence" property-to another, "non-Ricardian" model would resolve many of these issues. A Ricardian model represents a household as a homogeneous family of infinitely lived individuals, and Benassy demonstrates that a single modification-the assumption that new agents are born over time (which makes the model non-Ricardian)-can bridge the current gap between monetary intuitions and facts, on one hand, and rigorous modeling, on the other. After comparing Ricardian and non-Ricardian models, Benassy introduces a model that synthesizes the two approaches, incorporating both infinite lives and the birth of new agents. Using this model, he considers a number of issues in monetary policy, including liquidity effects, interest rate rules and price determinacy, global determinacy, the Taylor principle, and the fiscal theory of the price level. Finally, using a simple overlapping generations model, he analyzes optimal monetary and fiscal policies, with a special emphasis on optimal interest rate rules

A collection of published papers in general equilibrium that explore the basic problems of extensive interdependence in models incorporating oligopoly, space, time and money. Robert E. Kuenne has also written "The Theory of General Economic Equilibrium".

Bridel (economics, U. of Lausanne, Switzerland) reconstructs the pioneering attempts of Leon Walras (1834-1910) and Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) to coordinate money and general equilibrium theory. He argues that the very logic of the original static general equilibrium model excludes the integration of monetary and value theory, shows how money is prevented from playing its essential role as a social institution in allowing monetary exchanges between individuals, and calls for some radical re- thinking about the theoretical construction on which much modern economic theory is based. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Contemporary general equilibrium theory is characteristically short-run, separated from monetary aspects of the economy, and as such does not deal with long-run problems such as capital accumulation, innovation, and the historical movement of the economy. These phenomena are discussed by growth theory, which assumes a given or shifting production function, and in turn cannot therefore deal with the fundamental problem of growth, namely how the production function is derived. Thus traditional theories have a common weakness in that they divorce real economic growth from the activities of the financial sector. This book provides a much-needed synthesis of growth theory and monetary theory. Professor Morishima draws on the work of Schumpeter, Keynes and the pre-war neoclassical economists to formulate a capital-theoretic general equilibrium theory.