How to Think and Reason in Macroeconomics

Why do economic variables change? So what if they do, what happens next? How do the processes and institutions really work? This book remains an extremely popular university text, with positive feedback from students and practitioners. Completely up-to-date and comprehensive, this edition prepares you to analyze actual macroeconomic events and policy. It combines well-informed intuitive understanding with solid economic theory plus a concrete understanding of South African economic processes, institutions and data. The textbook encourages you to develop reasoning skills and construct logical sequences of macroeconomic events. It covers the main topics for a second-year or MBA course in macroeconomics, as well as for a third-year course on macroeconomic policy. The book provides insights into policy institutions and processes. It also highlights the development context of macroeconomic policy in South Africa as well as the broader African context. You can use the text at different levels of abstraction: either relatively modest theory, or intermediate level theory with or without mathematics, can be used. Any manager or practising economist will also find this a handy reference on 'how the economy works'. This edition provides: accessible analysis and theory; compact and crisp presentation; real-world economic reasoning skills, not lifeless theory; a thorough integration of intuitive understanding and solid, formal theory; a choice of different levels of difficulty and mathematics; explicit, continuous focus on the open economy with inflation; upgraded theory sections, new chapters on inflation and economic growth; all relevant mathematical derivations; rich institutional detail, freshly updated; a focus on social and economic realities in South Africa as a middle-income developing country in Africa; and, a thorough exposure to key South African data sources, with many useful data tips.

Table of Contents:
How does the economy work?: Why macroeconomics? An introduction to the issues; the basic model I - consumers, producers and government; the basic model II - financial institutions, money and interest rates; the basic model III - the foreign sector; national accounting identities and macroeconomic analysis: uses and abuses; a model for an inflationary economy - aggregate demand and supply; extending the model: inflation and policy reactions; macroeconomics in the very long run: growth theory. Macroeconomic policy, unemployment, inflation and growth in an open economy: Monetary policy: the role of the Reserve Bank; fiscal policy: the role of the government; policy problems: coordination, lags and schools of thought; inflation, unemployment and low growth: causes and remedies.

About the Author :
Frederick C. v. N. Fourie is a professor of economics at the University of the Free State. He has published works in many journals in South Africa and abroad. Philippe Burger is a professor of economics and the chairperson of the department of economics at the University of the Free State. He is the associate editor of the "South African Journal of Economics."