Macroeconomics and the Wage Bargain: A Modern Approach to Employment, Inflation, and the Exchange Rate [Paperback]

Wendy Carlin (Author), David Soskice (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0198772440 | ISBN-13: 978-0198772446 | Publication Date: December 6, 1990

This intermediate-level text concentrates on new macroeconomic analysis and is one of the first to focus on labor markets. Presenting a neo-Keynesian treatment of macroeconomics, whose use of wage bargaining and price setting under imperfect conditions make product and labor assumptions closer to the real world, the authors look at important applied work on unemployment, inflation, and external balances. They make available for the first time to undergraduates and non-specialists current literature on major questions of economic policy and performance, especially in Western Europe.

Editorial Reviews

Review

`We ought to welcome this book. In The Netherlands it will be particularly suitable for doctoral students. After so many textbooks on this level assuming perfect competition, it is important to have this alternative. It presents a coherent view on macroeconomics, built on a clear-cut core.' De Economist

`a very clear and well integrated presentation ... I warmly welcome the book and applaud the aims that it seeks to achieve. Overall, I think Carlin and Soskice have succeeded in those aims' British Journal of Industrial Relations

`This is a very good text ... representative of the `new Keynesian' approach to macroeconomics ... to be welcomed.' Industrial Relations Journal

`A most lucid and effective macroeconomic setting of modern theories of unemployment and inflation - excellent teaching material.' Dr P. Ryan, Cambridge University

`good, clear sections with clear understandable explanations of theories, wth relevant applications' Ms L. Garley, Nene College

About the Author

Wendy Carlin is at University College London. David Soskice is at Wissenschraft Szentrum, Berlin.

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (December 6, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198772440
• ISBN-13: 978-0198772446
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,170,832 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book on relevant economic theory, March 17, 2000

By 

Jorge Ibarra Consejo (Mexico City, Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macroeconomics and the Wage Bargain: A Modern Approach to Employment, Inflation, and the Exchange Rate (Paperback)

One of the best macroeconomics textbooks in the market.First of all it contains an excellent chronological survey of models. But above all, its approach based on wage bargain and mark-up pricing has great relevance in terms of real world phenomena, in contrast to most mecroeconomic textbooks based in the unrealistic competitive model. The main contribution is to set an scenario for a feasible and intelligent social negotiation and for economic policy, instead of definitive "natural" outcomes of economic performance. I hope the authors keep on updating this book

Jorge Ibarra. National University of Mexico

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best macroeconomics book for open economies., September 20, 2001

By 

Josip Tica (Zagreb, Croatia, Europe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macroeconomics and the Wage Bargain: A Modern Approach to Employment, Inflation, and the Exchange Rate (Paperback)

Most of the textbooks in macroeconomics (Blanchard, Mankiew and Gordon) focus on basic IS-LM and AS-AD models which are useless in open economies. This book is perfect upgrade for everybody who has read basic macroeconomics textbooks and wants to go further. There is economic history review, everithing is based on imperfect labour markets and salter-swan diagram is perfectly implemented in standard macroeconomics tools together with IS-LM model.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the best book on (macro)economics I've ever read !, July 26, 2002

By 

"peter_vda" (Belgium) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macroeconomics and the Wage Bargain: A Modern Approach to Employment, Inflation, and the Exchange Rate (Paperback)

Ten years ago, by coincidence, I saw this book. I bought it, and since then I have recommended it to all my colleagues.
At that time, the book was new and contained all the most recent developments in the journals (it ends with hysteresis - well explained and at that moment a brand new topic in the journals).
But what I find more important is that this is the only book I read where all those journal-stuff was fitted into a coherent frame-work; for the first time I really understood what macro-economics (and their micro foundations) was all about.
Up till then, I had seen only fragmented pieces of macro theory and here these authors came with a coherent view, which would have taken myself years to fit together, and I was sorry that this was not the handbook I had at university.
I don't follow-up this field anymore, and the book has not been updated anymore since then (a pity I think) but I write this review out of gratitute for the insights the authors gave me: I finally realized that in this book all the pieces were fitted together and allowed me to really understand macro-economics.
Personally, I can only recommend it.