Structuralist and Behavioral Macroeconomics

Critiques macroeconomic theories and presents empirically based alternatives rooted in behavioral, Keynesian and institutionalist traditions.

Peter Skott (Author)

9781009367325, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 September 2023

398 pages
25.1 x 17.6 x 2.7 cm, 0.84 kg

'What is unique is the catalogue of formalisations dealing with the issues Skott identifies and tackles in a formal way. … it certainly will stimulate Skott's stated objective of challenging macro theorists and modellers to re-examine their priors and conduct further research.' Cameron Gordon, The Economic Record

Mainstream macroeconomics is founded on the idea of perfectly rational representative agents. Yet there is a growing realization that economic theories based on such agents are inadequate guides to real-world decision making. The behavioural evidence has had significant impacts on microeconomics but the same cannot be said of macroeconomics. This book is part of the movement to do for macroeconomics what behavioural thinking has done for microeconomics. Using behavioural evidence and insights from Keynesian and institutionalist traditions, it presents an empirically grounded alternative to the paradigm that currently dominates macroeconomic theory. It highlights how dynamic interactions across markets can generate instability, endogenous cycles and secular stagnation. It fully engages with macroeconomic theory, provides a multi-faceted view that explains how and why it is time to rethink its foundations and offers a path forward.

1. Introduction: the state of macroeconomics
2. The Lucas critique and representative agents
3. Household consumption and saving
4. Saving in a corporate economy
5. Phillips curves and the natural rate of unemployment
6. Fairness, money illusion and path dependency
7. Earnings inequality, power bias and mismatch
8. Macroeconomic adjustment and Keynes' instability argument
9. Growth and cycles
10. Endogenous growth cycles with or without price flexibility
11. Secular stagnation and functional finance
12. Concluding comments: evidence-based macroeconomics and economic theory
Index.

Subject Areas: Macroeconomics [KCB]