Macroeconomic Theory

This textbook is the outcome of 40 years of work, during which the author worked on macroeconomics; teaching it, building tools for its study, particularly within the public service, or advising on policies. This activity took place in various environments and always led to reflect on the content of macroeconomic knowledge, as well as on research methods for improving or applying knowledge. Such a long maturation inevitably entails a perspective in which contributions made in the 1950s and 1960s find their place beside more modern ones, even when the latter may claim to encompass some of the former. But the book is not about the various macroeconomic schools, nor about the history of macroeconomic ideas. It rather aims at offering an organized treatment of present knowledge, occasionally exposing the contributions of famous authors or famous works, but only when unavoidable. Subjects covered include intertemporal "market failures", how economies should grow, and a discussion of Keynesian theory. The book is addressed mainly to students who are already acquainted with economics and its methods. No prerequisite is absolutely required; but the text is too dense for being directly accessible to those who would be ignorant of economic concepts, of economic phenomena or of the economics discipline. The author hopes that the book will be used in the first years of post-graduate teaching. Also that it will serve as a reference on particular macroeconomic issues of unfamiliar approaches to varying economists.