Transforming modern macroeconomics
Subtitle: the search for disequilibrium microfoundations, 1956-2003
By: Roger E. Backhouse, Mauro Boianovsky
Contributors: Boianovsky, Mauro
Series: Historical perspectives on modern economics
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Cambridge
Language: eng
Number of pages: 215
ISBN-13: 9781107023192
Subjects: Macroeconomics; BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History; Equilibrium (Economics); History
Description: "This book tells the story of the search for non-Walrasian micro-foundations for macroeconomic theory, from the disequilibrium theories of Patinkin, Clower, and Leijonhufvud to recent dynamic stochaotic general equilibrium models with imperfect competition. Placing this search against the background of wider developments in macroeconomics, the authors contend that this was never a single research program, but involved economists with very different aims who developed the basic ideas about quantity constraints, spillover effects, and coordination failures in different ways. The authors contrast this with the equilibrium approach of Phelps and Lucas, arguing that equilibrium theories simply assumed away the problems that had motivated the disequilibrium literature. Although equilibrium Walrasian models came to dominate macroeconomics, non-Walrasian theories never went away and continue to exert an important influence on the subject. Although this book focuses on one strand in modern macroeconomics, it is crucial to understanding the origins of modern macroeconomic theory"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction; 2. Macroeconomics after Keynes; 3. Don Patinkin and the neoclassical synthesis; 4. Clower, Leijonhufvud and the re-appraisal of Keynesian economics; 5. Macroeconomics with slow price adjustment; 6. 'Equilibrium' microfoundations; 7. General equilibrium and imperfect competition; 8. Microeconomics and macroeconomics; 9. After the 1970s; 10. Conclusions; Bibliography.