Customer Reviews

Macroeconomics

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
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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?

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.

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.

Keynesians and Austrians may battle to the death over what is the True Way to Avoid Boom and Bust, but your average undergrad or interested non-expert just wants an easy-to-understand explanation of why, for example, some people thought the Stimulus Package was a good idea, or why unemployment doesn't appear to be recovering as fast as 'the rest of the economy'. This book serves this latter function well. It uses real-world examples and relatively simple math, both in equation and graphical form, to describe classical macro. It breaks things into the short, medium, and long terms, emphasizing the effects of consumption in the short term, employment in the medium term, and productivity in the long term. Well organized and approachable. Not a bad option for introducing someone to the basic concepts of macro.

This publication is obviously a quite thought-out textbook and is well-organized in its content. However, I do _not_ recommend it as a review text for those somewhat <ahem> weak in mathematics. The book is loaded with graphs and equations that might thwart those former students wishing to review their macroeconomics or just desiring a good home reference for same.

For neophytes or those long out of college (30-years-plus in my case), I suggest a good basic "principles of economics" text (and maybe some remedial algebra books and/or classes) before taking on more (relatively) advanced works such as this.

However, the book is nevertheless interesting and actually has quite a few graphs, etc easily understandable by any reasonably intelligent person.

Unlike the graduate textbook (Lectures on Macroeconomics), this undergraduate textbook is full of economic intuitions, comparable to microeconomic textbooks of Varian's.
Especially, if you have an interest in Macroeconometic practices (books such as Ray Fair's...), Blanchard's is much better than Mankiw's, I believe.
First edition contained the exciting (but short...) section on identification problem and differentiation between causality and correlation. Those issues are of much more importance than they look when you actually "do" something with the macroeconmic issues.