Chapter 28

Controversies in Macroeconomics 1: Monetarism and the Policy Ineffectiveness Proposition

This chapter reviews the controversies of recent decades over the possibility of an effective government policy to offset recessions and booms and so stabilize the economy at a high level of employment.

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You Need To Know

This chapter emerges directly from the discussions in Ch. 27 and draws on many points in the previous chapters. It will be quite difficult to follow without knowledge of the topics of chapters 15-18 and 20-25, plus The Neoclassical Approach in Economics and The Supply and Demand Approach in Microeconomics

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Monetarism
  3. Rules Rather Than Discretion
  4. Lags in Macroeconomic Policy
  5. Rational Expectations
  6. The Policy Ineffectiveness Proposition
  7. Permanence
  8. Problems with the Policy Ineffectiveness Proposition
  9. Path Dependence
  10. A New Keynesian Interpretation
  11. Market Clearing
  12. Chapter Summary
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