MACROECONOMIC THEORY

This book is the product of some fourteen years of teaching a semester course– ‘‘The National Income”–at the University of Michigan. It is hard to say at what point the author began writing this book, but mimeographed parts of it have been used in the course. The course is elected, in about equal proportions, by advanced undergraduates and first-year graduate students, and the text is therefore aimed at this group. However, considerable flexibility of student level is provided in that many more specialized and difficult portions are placed in chapter appendices which may be omitted without damage to continuity. Also, the last three chapters, which contain the most advanced material, can be eliminated in a purely undergraduate course. Some instructors might prefer to omit Chapters IV and XI, which can be done without interfering with the argument. Flexibility is further allowed by the use of related readings. Students, in my course, purchase J.M. Keynes, General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, of which all chapters except 4, 6, 14, 16, 22, and 23 are assigned. A considerable selection from the vast post-Keynesian literature is also assigned or given as additional reference. My strong view is that, although Keynes’ classic is quite unsatisfactory as a textbook, it should be carefully read by every serious student of economics. The author has tried to make his course, and therefore this book, primarily theoretical. To be sure, in teaching one attempts to develop the relevance of the theory to the diagnosis of current economic conditions and to current discussions of public policy. It is possible that this book could be used in a course which focusses primary attention upon such applications. Although this book is primarily theoretical, there has been no hesitation at some points to introduce empirical matters.

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