Rational Expections and the New Macroeconomics 2e

This new edition of an established text represents a practical introduction to the principles and applications of Rational Expectations (RE) methods in macroeconomics for third-year undrgraduates and postgraduates. In his book, the author sets out to provide a basic working knowledge of the Rational Expectations Hypothesis (REH) by demonstrating in full various methods for solving RE models. The book then deals with policies and issues frequently encountered when applying these models including stabilization policy, fiscal policy, the political economy of democracy and the Phillips curve. Finally, the author turns to methods of testing the REH. By the end of the book, students should be able to apply RE models to any given economy they are concerned with. Professor Minford has updated the text extensively and has included new chapters on representative agent models (increasingly used in applied forecasting and policy analysis) and modelling the open economy. In the decade since the first edition was written, the REH has become much more influential in economics. The author's introductory and concluding chapters place the REH research programme in its historical context, assess the current state of the debate and look ahead to future research in this important subject.