IS-LM is perhaps the prime example of `cognitive dissonance' in economics, and is problematic to many economists. On the one hand, the IS-LM model is still taught by many academic economists or they use it to derive the AD-AS approach. On the other hand, the same economists realize the limitations of the basic IS-LM model and would not now use it for policy analysis, as they did in the past. The distinction between pedagogical and analytical efficacy is made by all the authors in this volume regarding the IS-LM model. Indeed, even those who would reject using the model for modern policy analysis still see the basic model as useful for teaching purposes. Moreover, in an augmented form, some of the authors in this volume would even see fit to use IS-LM for modern policy analysis. As will be seen, therefore, the IS-LM model is `not yet dead'. Rather, the model's `plasticity' has enabled it to undergo a metamorphosis into augmented form, enabling its continuing utilization in economics accordingly.

This book retraces the history of macroeconomics from Keynes's General Theory to the present. Central to it is the contrast between a Keynesian era and a Lucasian - or dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) - era, each ruled by distinct methodological standards. In the Keynesian era, the book studies the following theories: Keynesian macroeconomics, monetarism, disequilibrium macro (Patinkin, Leijongufvud, and Clower) non-Walrasian equilibrium models, and first-generation new Keynesian models. Three stages are identified in the DSGE era: new classical macro (Lucas), RBC modelling, and second-generation new Keynesian modeling. The book also examines a few selected works aimed at presenting alternatives to Lucasian macro. While not eschewing analytical content, Michel De Vroey focuses on substantive assessments, and the models studied are presented in a pedagogical and vivid yet critical way.

The world financial crisis of 2007–2008 dramatically showed the importance of credit and financial relations for the efficient working of the economy. For a long time mainstream macroeconomics ignored these aspects and concentrated only on the real sector or just took into account the most elementary picture of the financial side of the economy. This book aims at explaining why this happened through an historical excursion of 20th century mainstream macroeconomic theory.

For some twenty-five years after the end of the Second World War, the IS-LM model dominated macroeconomics. Inspired by the work of John Maynard Keynes, this model demonstrates the relationship among savings, income, investments, and interest rates, showing the point at which the interaction of these elements produces "equilibrium" in an economy. With the advent of the new classical macroeconomics in the early 1970s, the dominance of the IS-LM model was effectively challenged. While no longer central to the graduate training of most macroeconomists or to cutting-edge macroeconomic research, the IS-LM model continues to be a mainstay of undergraduate textbooks, to find wide use in applied macroeconomics, and to lie at the conceptual core of most government and commercial macroeconometric models. This volume, the annual supplement to History of Political Economy, explores the rise, the fall, and the persistence of the IS-LM model. In addition to presenting papers from the History of Political Economy conference held at Duke University in April 2003, the volume includes the text of an address delivered at the conference by Nobel laureate Robert E. Lucas Jr., one of the central players in the intellectual movement that dethroned the IS-LM model. Contributors. Roger E. Backhouse, Mauro Boianovsky, Michael Bordo, David Colander, William Darity Jr., Michel De Vroey, Robert W. Dimand, Kevin D. Hoover, David Laidler, Robert E. Lucas Jr., Edward Nelson, Goulven Rubin, Anna Schwartz, Scott Sumner, Warren Young

Snowdon and Vane s book is extremely welcome. Indeed the authors examine, compare, and evaluate the evolution of the major rival stories comprising contemporary macroeconomic thought, but they also trace the development and interaction of key events and ideas as they occurred in the last century. Interviews with leading economists, one or two at the end of each chapter, also greatly help to shed light on this complexity. . . In sum, this is book which is very difficult to put down. Alessio Moneta, Journal of the History of Economic Thought It is not difficult to understand why this volume commands high praise from macroeconomic theorists, practitioners and teachers. It contains many interesting features that make it an excellent companion for both students and teachers of tertiary level macroeconomics. . . The authors present the material in a way that conveys to readers that macroeconomics is a living science , continually developing and still open to debate, controversy and competing policy prescriptions. In this respect it is a book that ought to be required reading for all teachers of the subject. It is also a valuable source of background reading for professional economists involved with economic policy making. Economic Outlook and Business Review . . . a wonderful history of macroeconomic thought from Keynes to the present, with an outstanding bibliography. It should be useful to undergraduates and graduate students as well as professional economists. Highly recommended. Steven Pressman, Choice Brian Snowdon and Howard Vane are well-known for their astute understanding of the main macroeconomic schools of thought and their skilled use of interviews with major figures. Here, they deploy a depth of scholarship in explaining the different schools and their key points of departure from one another. This book will be particularly useful to students looking for a clear, non-technical explanation of the main approaches to macroeconomics. Patrick Minford, Cardiff University, UK There are two steps to learning macroeconomics. First, to see it as it is today. Second, to understand how it got there: to understand the right and the wrong turns, the hypotheses that proved false, the insights that proved true, and the interaction of events and ideas. Only then, does one truly understand macroeconomics. This book is about step two. It does a marvellous job of it. The presentation is transparent, the interviews fascinating. You will enjoy, and you will learn. Olivier Blanchard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US In 40 years of teaching macroeconomics, there has been just one textbook that I have assigned year after year after year, namely, A Modern Guide to Macroeconomics by Snowdon, Vane and Wynarczyk. That altogether admirable book made clear to students what were, and are, the main intellectual issues in macroeconomics and did so with just enough formal modeling to avoid distortion by over-simplification. That book is now ten years old and the debate in macro has moved on. So there is good reason to welcome Snowdon and Vane back with this superb updated version. Axel Leijonhufvud, University of Trento, Italy This outstanding book avoids the narrow scope of most textbooks and provides an excellent guide to an unusually broad range of ideas. Thomas Mayer, University of California, Davis, US More than a decade after the publication of the critically acclaimed A Modern Guide to Macroeconomics, Brian Snowdon and Howard Vane have produced a worthy successor in the form of Modern Macroeconomics. Thoroughly extended, revised and updated, it will become the indispensable text for students and teachers of macroeconomics in the new millennium. The authors skilfully trace the origins, development and current state of modern macroeconomics from an historical perspective. They do so by thoroughly appraising the central tenets underlying the main competing schools of macroeconomic thought as well as their diverse policy imp

John Maynard Keynes is the great British economist of the twentieth century whose hugely influential work The General Theory of Employment, Interest and * is undoubtedly the century's most important book on economics--strongly influencing economic theory and practice, particularly with regard to the role of government in stimulating and regulating a nation's economic life. Keynes's work has undergone significant revaluation in recent years, and "Keynesian" views which have been widely defended for so long are now perceived as at odds with Keynes's own thinking. Recent scholarship and research has demonstrated considerable rivalry and controversy concerning the proper interpretation of Keynes's works, such that recourse to the original text is all the more important. Although considered by a few critics that the sentence structures of the book are quite incomprehensible and almost unbearable to read, the book is an essential reading for all those who desire a basic education in economics. The key to understanding Keynes is the notion that at particular times in the business cycle, an economy can become over-productive (or under-consumptive) and thus, a vicious spiral is begun that results in massive layoffs and cuts in production as businesses attempt to equilibrate aggregate supply and demand. Thus, full employment is only one of many or multiple macro equilibria. If an economy reaches an underemployment equilibrium, something is necessary to boost or stimulate demand to produce full employment. This something could be business investment but because of the logic and individualist nature of investment decisions, it is unlikely to rapidly restore full employment. Keynes logically seizes upon the public budget and government expenditures as the quickest way to restore full employment. Borrowing the * to finance the deficit from private households and businesses is a quick, direct way to restore full employment while at the same time, redirecting or siphoning

This volume provides a unified framework for the analysis of short- and medium-run macroeconomics. It develops a core New Keynesian macro model based on imperfect competition and nominal rigidities and shows how this compares with alternatives.