Macroeconomics

This book provides just the right mix of mathematical rigour and practical examples to illuminate concepts of equilibrium in economics. The first three chapters provide a good starting point for first year graduate students, while the remaining chapters develop more advanced ideas.

The consumer revolution in China is a relatively recent phenomena with the former state controlled society slowly moving to a capitalist market where the individual is beginning to exercise choice in his/her consumption decisions. Chinese consumer behaviour is therefore a relatively unchartered area and this collection of studies by 14 authors provides a socio-political context for a range of consumer practices. The studies range from a semiotic analysis of advertising for luxury housing in Shanghai to an analysis of the social impications of the emerging trends of adopting Western bridal wear, purchasing greeting cards, and visiting discos. The book helps the reader get under the skin of an otherwise impenetrable consuming society with anecdotes and insights not available anywhere else. It makes for highly absorbing reading and I would recommend it to anyone interested in gaining an understanding of consumers in this unique market

Before reading this book I was not consciously aware that consumerism is a movement with a history of many centuries. I also did not realise that mass consumerism in Western Europe started in the 17th century. This book will give you real insight in what consumerism is all about unless you are a specialist in consumerism. The book combines a good historical perspective as well as the good analysis of the forces that drive consumerism. The book also shows that in all countries there has been and still is tension between those promoting consumerism as good and unavoidable and those that oppose it.
A few points of detail. The book contains almost no statistics other than anecdotal information like the sugar consumption in Paris in 1790 and similar interesting figures. The historical perspective is rather incomplete when it comes to Greece, India and classic Rome. Buddhism is not described quite correctly. Buddha was not opposed to wealth but only insisted that it should be earned honestly and used properly. It is correct that prominent Buddhists such as the Dalai Lama and a prominent monk scholar in Thailand Payutto oppose mindless consumerism and are very concerned about the impact on the environment. However consumerism is flourishing in Thailand even though it is a Buddhist country. It is a typical example of a society moving in one direction and spiritual leaders pulling in another direction. One great merit of the book is that it is only 142 pages long and very readable.

It was perhaps inevitable that the theory of chaotic dynamical systems would be applied to economics. In an intuitive, everyday sense, economic phenomena is usually perceived as being "chaotic", this notion being equated with a random behavior of sorts. Whether or not economic systems are really random (from a rigorous mathematical standpoint) is the subject of other books. This one addresses the question as to whether chaos does indeed exist in economic systems. Chaos and randomness are of course distinct concepts, and this is brought out clearly by the authors of the articles in the book, the specific theme of which is to shed light on the role of oscillatory dynamics in economic fluctuations. The oscillations are put in the context of chaotic dynamical systems, which, as is well known, have a very rich orbit structure. The emphasis is on theory, but there are some articles that discuss empirical validation of chaotic dynamical system models of time series. What is most interesting about the results in the book is that chaos is a deterministic explanation of the erratic behavior of economic behavior. This is to be contrasted with the situation in financial modeling, where randonmess is thought to be essential because of arbitrage opportunities. It is fascinating to compare the ideas in this book with the ones that are very entrenched in financial modeling. The authors of the articles have been heavily involved in the research of chaotic dynamical systems in economics. Space here permits only a limited review of the contents of the book.

. Before the advent of research in chaos in economics, the complexity of economic phenomena was modeled by linear equations subjected to exogenous shocks. The approach taken in one of the articles discusses to what extent aggregate fluctuations represent endogenous phenomena that are persistent even when there are no random shocks to the economy. Recognizing that chaotic dynamical systems can generate time series that appear irregular or random, discussion is given on the models based on chaos that exhibit the persistence phenomena. Since chaotic systems have countably many periodic orbits, it is natural to ask to what extent these orbits play in models of economic phenomena. One of these considered is the overlapping generations model. A class of robust utility functions, assumed to be constant from one generation to another, are shown to give the existence of bounded trajectories that do not converge to periodic orbits or fixed points, but are also, because of the time scales involved, indistinguishable from periodic orbits of arbitrarily long period, the latter also existing in the model. The existence of these trajectories is interesting, particularly when considering the mechanism by which the trades between generations occur. This mechanism involves the introduction of a central credit authority, and even when the nominal credit expands at a constant rate, the model still exhibits erratic trajectories in the real value of credit. These trajectories appear qualitatively to be very similar to trajectories generated from random processes, and so it is no surprise that statistical techniques and ergodic theory are employed to study their properties.

Another economic model considered in the book is a two-sector growth model that consists of an industry producing consumption goods and another producing capital goods. A dynamical system parametrized by the capital depreciation rate is used to describe the time evolution of the aggregate capital stock over time, and is shown to have chaotic orbits for certain values of the capital depreciation rate. These chaotic orbits exist, interestingly, when capital, but not labor, is very productive in both sectors. An analysis of the relative capital-labor intensities is done to shed light on the oscillatory behavior of the model, this behavior contrary to the expected one of following a smooth averaged path. The latter is expected because of the choice of a concave function for the consumption and investment processes. The model is not shown to be one that could reflect phenomena that exist in the real world. In particular, the time scales needed to observe the chaotic behavior are not discussed.

Another issue taken up in the book deals with the question as to why economic activity exhibits fluctuations, and subsequent attempts to stabilize this activity via fiscal policy. The Judd model, which deals with technical innovation, is adapted to study the economic instabilities that arise from investment activity in such innovation, and the value of fiscal policy in dampening these instabilities. The model is shown to exhibit chaotic dynamics, with this being a consequence of the noncompetitive nature of a market immediately after a new good is introduced into the market. The discussion is reminiscent of arbitrage arguments in finance, since the monopolistic prices charged by the patent holder are wiped out by new innovations. Interestingly, the model shows examples of situations where stabilizing policies are undesirable, and in particular a waste of resources would result.

Most grad students are taught to solve dynamic equilbrium problems using recursive methods. Two of the prominent books that I am familiar with are:
* Thomas Sargent's Dynamic Macroeconomics
* Lucas and Stokey's Recursive Methods in Economic Dynamics

(Note: I see that Sargent has another volume out, Recursive Macroeconomic Theory, with Lars Ljungqvist.)

Chow's book presents a Lagrangian method for dynamic optimization. This is a far easier approach than recursive methods, as anyone who is familiar with simple calculus will attest. Chow presents the method then --and this is the real value of this book-- systematically applies it to familiar market equilibrium, financial, business cycle, game theory, and growth models (all dynamic, of course).

BENEFITS:
* Chow's Lagrangian method removes mathematical obstacles to understanding important macroeconomic models
* Chow is a good writer, and this book is far easier to understand than the two books listed above
* This is a great reference for grad students looking for foundations for your own research

I would recommend keeping this book and use it as a reference. It's very thorough and articulate. It's a must read if you're learning about Macro Economics.

This book is a very learned overview of the macro-economic factors affecting the WWII war economies of major combatants. A certain degree of acquaintance with economic monetary theory is advisable. The fact that it includes all the major players is valuable (any article on Italy's war efforts is always welcome!), but the emphasis some of the articles give to econometric treatment is, frankly, irrelevant to understanding most of the war effort, especially when one is talking of survival. The book also tries to analyse how wartime experience helped shape the post war economy, a field in which it it quite successful. It is worth noting, by the way, that generally speaking all the authors seem to agree that wartime investment in capital formation and technical training schemes paid off for the vanquished, whilst in the case of the USSR, the amount of war destruction and the political predominance of the "industrial-military complex" led, ultimately, to economic stagnation.

Advisable for anyone with a serious interest in wartime economics.

This book is excellent for an introductory rendition of micro/macro-economics. It is easy to read and the work may be supplemented with outside lectures. Students can achieve a good understanding of the subject in a short period of time. This work could be updated to reflect the technological innovations of the internet etc. In addition, the work could contain an appendix referencing the area of mathematical economics. Lastly, the author should provide more notes on classical economists.

Beyond the technical analisys, the FX trader must understand the macro movers of a country exchange rate. The economic movers are very important on the medium-long term investing. This book help you to understand those indicators.

Hinkle and Montiel have written a very good book. The book is very comprehensive and detailed. Understanding exchange rate issues is not an easy task, but dealing with exchange rate issues in developing countries is more daunting. In this connection, the authors do a very good job in trying to explain the various concepts of exchange rate misalignment in these emerging countries. One particular important aspect of the book is that it lays before the reader the various methodological approaches to measuring exchange rate misalignment in developing countries, and thus makes it easier for the reader to compare the relative merits and demerits of each methodology. In this wise, the reader is saved the trouble and time of having to glean through a slew of literature (very large indeed) in this subject area. The books thus becomes a mini-library of exchange rate related issues in developing countries. The book couldn't have come out in a more opportune time than this when issues of exchange rate crises in developing countries have assumed a center stage in international finance. It is a very good book for graduates students and other researchers interested in exchange rates issues in developing countries.