Foundations of Modern Macroeconomics

The study of macroeconomics can seem a daunting project. The field is complex and sometimes poorly defined and there are a variety of competing approaches. It is easy for the senior bachelor and starting master student to get lost in the forest of macroeconomics and the mathematics it uses extensively. Foundations of Modern Macroeconomics is a guide book for the interested and ambitious student. Non-partisan in its approach, it deals with all the major topics, summarising the important approaches and providing the reader with a coherent angle on all aspects of macroeconomic thought. Each chapter deals with a separate area of macroeconomics, and each contains a summary section of key points and a further reading list. Using nothing more than undergraduate mathematical skills, it takes the student from basic IS-LM style macro models to the state of the art literature on Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium, explaining the mathematical tricks used where they are first introduced.

Fully updated and substantially revised, this third edition of Foundations of Modern Macroeconomics now includes brand new chapters covering highly topical subjects such as dynamic programming, competitive risk sharing equilibria and the New Keynesian DSGE approach.

Ben J. Heijdra received his education in the Netherlands and in Canada. Before joinin the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Groningen in the Spring of 1998 he held academic positions at various universities in Australia and the Netherlands. His research focuses on policy-relevant (theoretical) macroeconomics. Topics include ageing and macroeconomic performance, annuitization and the macro-economy, and environmental macroeconomics. Heijdra is a Senior Researcher of Netspar, a network dedicated to the study of ageing and pension issues, and a Fellow of CESifo (Munich). He has been on the editorial board of De Economist since January 2005.