International Macroeconomics or The Economics of Time and Ignorance

International Macroeconomics: Theory and Policy

Author: Victor E Argy

International Macroeconomics is a comprehensive and sophisticated account of the current state of international macroeconomics. Victor Argy presents a completely up-to-date review of recent developments in theoretical modelling in open economy macroeconomics as well as international monetary economics. Covering theory, policy application and case studies, the book offers a clear introduction to international macroeconomics that requires only basic mathematical knowledge.

The book examines the evolution of global exchange rate regimes and describes their operation in various countries. Argy evaluates gold standard regimes, the I. M. F. system, the float and the E. M. S. The next section of the book introduces readers to a detailed and rigorous analysis of open economy models, including the Mundell-Fleming model and its many variants. Argy examines the New Classical contributions in detail and provides an extensive review of exchange rate models. He applies the model framework toaddress key policy issues: determining macro targets; assigning instruments to targets; the pros and cons of macro policy coordination; and evaluating global macro performance. The last section of the book reviews some country experiences with macro policy, notably Thatcherism, Reaganomics, and policies in Japan.

Table of Contents:

	List of figures
	List of tables
	Acknowledgements
	General introduction
Pt. I	Global exchange rate regimes	1
1	The gold standard regime	3
2	The International Monetary Fund system	12
3	The float	26
4	The European Monetary System	34
5	The increased financial interdependence in the world economy	43
Pt. II	Open economy models - comparative statics analysis	51
6	The Mundell-Fleming model	53
7	The Mundell-Fleming model - its strengths and limitations	73
8	The Mundell-Fleming model with wage and price adjustment	85
9	Disequilibrium models of product and labour markets	106
10	The portfolio balance model of the monetary sector	119
11	The Mundell-Fleming model with wealth	130
12	The classical elasticities approach to a devaluation	142
13	A two-country Mundell-Fleming type model	150
14	The two-country model with flexible wages and prices	175
15	Econometric evidence - the large-country case	181
16	A three-country model and the European Monetary System	186
17	A two-sector model of a small economy with flexible exchange rates	194
Pt. III	Open economy models - dynamic analysis	201
18	Dynamic effects of a monetary expansion under flexible rates - the Dornbusch 1976 model	203
19	Branson's portfolio balance model - monetary expansion under flexible rates	212
20	The dynamic adjustment to a fiscal deficit - a simple framework	224
21	An extended Mundell-Fleming model with J curves	231
22	Effects of a restrictive money growth policy on the path of inflation and unemployment	241
Pt. IV	New Classical themes	249
23	Macro policy impotence and the New Classical paradigm	251
24	The effects of anticipated monetary and fiscal policies in a small economy with flexible exchange rates	260
25	The equilibrium rate of inflation with discretion and some reputation	270
26	The Ricardian equivalence hypothesis	285
Pt. V	A general framework	293
27	Modelling goods and money markets	295
28	Modelling production and labour markets	303
29	Imposing medium- to long-run constraints on the model	317
30	The effects in the short and the long run of a monetary and fiscal expansion under flexible rates in a more general framework	321
Pt. VI	Models of exchange rates	327
31	Modelling exchange rates (1)	329
32	Modelling exchange rates (2)	339
33	Foreign exchange market efficiency and financial integration - concepts and evidence	347
Pt. VII	Policy design	355
34	Macro policy targets	357
35	The regulatory-institutional environment, the policy regime and macro performance	380
36	Choosing the exchange rate regime	392
37	Rules versus discretion	415
38	Assignment rules for internal and external balance	427
39	Theoretical evaluation of alternative simple policy regimes	439
40	Econometric evaluation of policy regimes	453
41	Issues raised by nominal income targeting	461
42	Global macro performance - 1972-91	467
43	The rise and fall of monetarism	481
44	Unemployment performance and policy	494
45	Macro policy coordination	507
Pt. VIII	Case studies of macro policy	525
46	A decade of Thatcherism: 1979-89 - Thatcherism and Reaganomics compared	527
47	Japan's macroeconomic performance (1960-90)	548
48	Macroeconomic policy and the regulatory environment: the Australian and New Zealand experience 1973-91	578
	Notes	599
	References	608
	Index	633

Look this: Policy Paradox or Washingtons Crossing

The Economics of Time and Ignorance

Author: Gerald P ODriscoll

The Economics of Time and Ignorance is one of the seminal works in the development of modern Austrian economics. Building on the work of Hayek, Lachman and Shackle, the authors engage in a powerful critique of neo-classical economics. O'Driscoll and Rizzo argue against neo-classical models which use inappropriate pretenses of knowledge and are overly deterministic. This key text has helped set the agenda for the remarkable revival of work on the Austrian economic tradition and has led to an even wider interest in the once heretical ideas of Austrian economists.

The Economics of Time and Ignorance is reprinted here with a substantial new introduction which outlines the major developments in the area since the books original publication a decade ago.

Booknews

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