Macroeconomics [Hardcover]

Olivier Blanchard (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0130671002 | ISBN-13: 978-0130671004 | Publication Date: August 13, 2002 | Edition: 3

This book provides readers with an integrated view of macroeconomics, and enables them to make close contact with current macroeconomic events. Theoretical material is always presented within the context of a real world application in three ways: in words, in graphs, and with algebra. Chapter topics include the goods market; financial markets; the labor market; the natural rate of unemployment and The Phillips Curve; inflation, activity, and money growth; saving, capital accumulation, and output; technological progress and growth; technological progress, wages, and unemployment; expectations, consumption, and investment; expectations, output, and policy; output, the interest rate, and the exchange rate; exchange rate regimes; slumps and depressions; high inflation; and a summing up of monetary and fiscal policies. For anyone with an awareness of how macroeconomics can be used to get a better understanding of world events.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This book provides readers with an integrated view of macroeconomics, and enables them to make close contact with current macroeconomic events. Theoretical material is always presented within the context of a real world application in three ways: in words, in graphs, and with algebra. Chapter topics include the goods market; financial markets; the labor market; the natural rate of unemployment and The Phillips Curve; inflation, activity, and money growth; saving, capital accumulation, and output; technological progress and growth; technological progress, wages, and unemployment; expectations, consumption, and investment; expectations, output, and policy; output, the interest rate, and the exchange rate; exchange rate regimes; slumps and depressions; high inflation; and a summing up of monetary and fiscal policies. For anyone with an awareness of how macroeconomics can be used to get a better understanding of world events.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 3 edition (August 13, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130671002
• ISBN-13: 978-0130671004
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #667,257 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the thresher, June 2, 2005

By 

Caraculiambro (La Mancha and environs) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macroeconomics (Hardcover)

Olivier Blanchard's handsome hardbound "Macroeconomics" (3rd Ed.) is a challenging and unfriendly freshman-level macroeconomics text that does a solid but daunting job.

This third outing was published in 2003, meaning it incorporates the Bushian twin deficits, the euro, the Argentinean retrieval, the rise and fall of the Asian tigers, etc. So that's nice.

Note that if you're teaching an economics class for the non-major, this book is most definitely inappropriate. For this purpose I would recommend either Stephen Slavin's "Macroeconomics" (8th Ed.), or, if you require more rigor, Mankiw's "Principles of Macroeconomics" (3rd Ed.), both of which are much easier on the math.

Olivier's juggernaut is more appropriate as a freshman level text for finance or economics majors who are slated to do some heavy-duty number-crunching later in their college career.

It is certainly NOT an intermediate text in macroeconomics (i.e., a junior-level text that incorporates integration and differentiation), so it would most profitably deployed in a rigorous or honors-level freshman-level class (in fact this is the standard text used in freshman econ at MIT -- its author is this brilliant French dude who sometimes teaches freshman econ there).

So be not deceived: this book assumes intermediate algebra, trigonometry, and even some (non-calculus) statistics. There's also some nasty addition and multiplication!

Though there's nothing in it beyond what a high school graduate ought to know, it would help to be clear on its demands. Many freshman books I have thumbed through seem to require only beginning algebra, if that. Not here: algebra is woven into the fiber of this book like a fingernail to the flesh, and any student unskilled in the equational arts will have a rotten time of things.

One good thing about the book: it comes with a cool CD on which you can manipulate the graphs, chapter by chapter, in a fun and instructive (and time-killing) way.

One bad thing about the book: although there are review questions and problem sets at the end of every chapter, there are no answers anywhere in the book. Sheesh! Presumably, given the math level required and the merciless tone of the text, we are meant to see this as a book for adult learners, so why are we being treated like children? Is Mr. Blanchard afraid I'm gonna copy the answers?

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Intermediate Macro Book, June 30, 2004

By 

thisismyname "myname" (nowheresville, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macroeconomics (Hardcover)

This book is an appropriate tool for an intermediate macroeconomics course-guess where I used it! The "Core" of the book is broken up into three sections: the short run (IS/LM), the medium run (IS/LM-AD/AS), and long run (Solow). This is very helpful and provides a natural progression.

Blanchard does skim over some of the more basic stuff, especially, as somebody mentioned, with the IS/LM model. For this reason I think it is very appropriate for an intermediate course where somebody probably has already learned some of the fundamentals in an introductory course. Unfortunately I felt that the Solow model was not in the depth that I would like, especially with respect to mathematics.

On that note, the book doesn't use a high level of mathematics, but the equations are there, and your algebra should definitely be up to par. This also provides a nice transition to those looking to take an advanced micro or macro course, as things tend to involve more and more mathematics as one goes on.

Overall, a good book, lacking in a spot or two, but a good textbook overall.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Look at Mankiw's text, June 16, 2003

By 

Alan D. Barbour (Fresno, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Macroeconomics (Hardcover)

The content of Blanchard (3rd edition) may be all very well, but the layout and typography are such a hodgepodge as to be quite distracting and intimidating. The CD is only Windows-compatible, and judging from the description strikes me as rather more a nuisance than an asset (it might have been put in a pocket iside the cover, but no such luck). For a clearer and altogether more pleasant presentation, take a look at Gregory Mankiw's Macroeconomics, 5th edition. A quick check indicated it was perhaps a bit less thorough (Mankiw doesn't mention the problems with non-performing loans in the Japanese banking system; Blanchard does), but one has to draw the line somewhere, and there is something to be said for allowing the instructor a bit more flexibility to introduce examples.