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Macroeconomics

Macroeconomics

A Critical Companion

by Ben Fine and Ourania Dimakou

Series: IIPPE

A scholarly elaboration of the origins and the methods of macroeconomics

Macroeconomics is your guide to how economics shape how the world functions today. But too often our understanding is based on orthodox, dogmatic analysis. This distinctive book draws upon years of critical questioning and teaching and exposes how macroeconomic theory has evolved from its origins to its current impoverished and extreme state.

Moving from the Keynesian Revolution to the Monetarist Counter-Revolution, through to New Classical Economics and New Consensus Macroeconomics, the authors both elaborate and question the methods and content of macroeconomic theory at a level appropriate for both undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

Macroeconomics provides a unique alternative to the multitude of standard textbooks by locating macroeconomic theory in its own history. It will be perfect for those studying macroeconomics, as well as for those looking for a new way to understand our increasingly complicated economic system.

It is accompanied by a counterpart Microeconomics: A Critical Companion.

Ben Fine is Professor of Economics at SOAS, University of London. He is the author of the critical texts, Macroeconomics and Microeconomics (Pluto, 2016), co-author of Marx's 'Capital' (Pluto, 2016) and co-editor of Beyond the Developmental State (Pluto, 2013). He was awarded both the Deutscher and Myrdal Prizes in 2009.

Ourania Dimakou is Lecturer in Economics at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. She specialises in macroeconomic theory, policy and institutional design, particularly the central bank independence paradigm.

'A thorn in the side of mainstream economics'

- Steve Keen, author of Debunking Economics (Zed, 2011)

'An accessible and rich resource for those who appreciate critical and creative approaches. This and its companion macroeconomics volume contain numerous valuable insights for the serious student of economics'

- Jomo Kwame Sundaram, former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for economic analysis (2005-2015), recipient of Wassily Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought (2007).

'These wonderful volumes are what many teachers and students of economics have been waiting for - textbooks that are logical, critical, accessible and relevant'

- Professor Jayati Ghosh, Jawaharlal Nehru University

'An accessible and rich resource for those who appreciate critical and creative approaches. This and its companion microeconomics volume contain numerous valuable insights for the serious student of economics'

- Stuart Birks, head of the World Economics Association’s Textbook Commentaries Project, author of Rethinking economics: From Analogies to the Real World (Springer, 2015) and 40 Critical Pointers for Students of Economics (WEA Press, 2015)
List of Boxes
List of Diagrams
List of Abbreviations
Preface, Preliminaries and Acknowledgements
1. Macroeconomy versus Macroeconomics?
2. Accelerator-Multiplier: Stabbing the Knife-Edge in the Back?
3. Classical Dichotomies
4. Growth Theories: Old, New or More of the Same?
5. The Keynesian Revolutions
6. Post-Keynesian Dilemmas
7. Keynesian Revolution: What Keynes, What Revolution?
8. From Monetarist Counter-Revolution to Fundamentalism
9. Forging the Consensus: Monetary Policy and Real Business Cycle Theory
10. From New Classical Fundamentalism to New Nonsensus Macroeconomics
11. International Macro?
12. The Enigmas of Overshooting
13. Whither Macroeconomics?
References
Index
Published by Pluto Press in Apr 2016
Paperback ISBN: 9780745336824
eBook ISBN: 9781783718078

150mm x 230mm