Modern Macroeconomics

Its Origins, Development and Current State

Brian Snowdon, Senior Teaching Fellow, Department of Economics and Finance, Durham University, UK and Howard R. Vane, Emeritus Professor of Economics, Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moores University, UK

Erudite, accessible and lucidly written, this book is both a stimulating introduction and excellent guide to the controversies and diversity of modern macroeconomic debates. It will prove invaluable for students on undergraduate and postgraduate courses who want to understand as well as simply learn about macroeconomics.

‘Snowdon and Vane’s book is extremely welcome. Indeed the authors examine, compare, and evaluate the evolution of the major rival stories comprising contemporary macroeconomic thought, but they also trace the development and interaction of key events and ideas as they occurred in the last century. Interviews with leading economists, one or two at the end of each chapter, also greatly help to shed light on this complexity. . . In sum, this is a book which is very difficult to put down.’
– Alessio Moneta, Journal of the History of Economic Thought

‘It is not difficult to understand why this volume commands high praise from macroeconomic theorists, practitioners and teachers. It contains many interesting features that make it an excellent companion for both students and teachers of tertiary level macroeconomics. . . The authors present the material in a way that conveys to readers that macroeconomics is a “living science”, continually developing and still open to debate, controversy and competing policy prescriptions. In this respect it is a book that ought to be required reading for all teachers of the subject. It is also a valuable source of background reading for professional economists involved with economic policy making.’
– Economic Outlook and Business Review

‘. . . a wonderful history of macroeconomic thought from Keynes to the present, with an outstanding bibliography. It should be useful to undergraduates and graduate students as well as professional economists. Highly recommended.’
– Steven Pressman, Choice

‘Brian Snowdon and Howard Vane are well-known for their astute understanding of the main macroeconomic schools of thought and their skilled use of interviews with major figures. Here, they deploy a depth of scholarship in explaining the different schools and their key points of departure from one another. This book will be particularly useful to students looking for a clear, non-technical explanation of the main approaches to macroeconomics.’
– Patrick Minford, Cardiff University, UK

‘There are two steps to learning macroeconomics. First, to see it as it is today. Second, to understand how it got there: to understand the right and the wrong turns, the hypotheses that proved false, the insights that proved true, and the interaction of events and ideas. Only then, does one truly understand macroeconomics. This book is about step two. It does a marvellous job of it. The presentation is transparent, the interviews fascinating. You will enjoy, and you will learn.’
– Olivier Blanchard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US

在40年的teaching macroeconomics, there has been just one textbook that I have assigned year after year after year, namely, A Modern Guide to Macroeconomics by Snowdon, Vane and Wynarczyk. That altogether admirable book made clear to students what were, and are, the main intellectual issues in macroeconomics and did so with just enough formal modeling to avoid distortion by over-simplification. That book is now ten years old and the debate in macro has moved on. So there is good reason to welcome Snowdon and Vane back with this superb updated version.’
– Axel Leijonhufvud, University of Trento, Italy

‘This outstanding book avoids the narrow scope of most textbooks and provides an excellent guide to an unusually broad range of ideas.’
– Thomas Mayer, University of California, Davis, US