Selected Product:
| Macroeconomics
Hardcover
Edition: 5th
Author: N. Gregory Mankiw
Publisher: Worth Publishers
Release Date: 2002-06-15
ISBN-10: 0716752379
ISBN-13: 9780716752370
List Price: $137.63
Average Customer Rating:
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Microeconomics (7th Edition)
ISBN-10: 0132080230
ISBN-13: 9780132080231
List Price:$173.33
Principles of Microeconomics (with Xtra!)
ISBN-10: 0324171889
ISBN-13: 9780324171884
List Price:$148.95
Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach, Seventh Edition
ISBN-10: 0393927024
ISBN-13: 9780393927023
List Price:$135.00
Advanced Macroeconomics
ISBN-10: 0072877308
ISBN-13: 9780072877304
List Price:$53.40
Student Guide and Workbook
ISBN-10: 0716753979
ISBN-13: 9780716753971
List Price:$35.50
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
O.K. For Basics
| Customer Rating: | I read this book in preparation for a graduate course in macroeconomics. While it does provide a good overview, I found it went only slightly deeper into economic models than the basic text I used as an undergraduate. This book provided little in the way of the advanced math required for my graduate course where we used Advanced Macroeconomics by David Romer.
I would expect an intermediate text, as this is marketed, to better illustrate the mathematics required for economics, given the heavy reliance on math in the field today. |
dissatisfied
| Customer Rating: | | i am a second year economics student from New Zealand. I ordered the complimentary set from Amazon because I heard of its great service and the books were cheaper than what we could buy them for back in NZ. To my amazement I received the student guide quite promptly expecting the complimentary text would arrive soon after. It has been over a month into my course and I still havent received it. Whats worse is the guide is almost useless (complimentary good) with out the good. Why cant Amazon send both of them together? |
Excellent, Otherworldly
| Customer Rating: | This is a clearly written and nicely organized upper-division macroeconomics textbook. Mankiw uses plain English and simple math to model the macroeconomy in the short-run (the IS/LM model), the long-run (the AS/AD model), and the very long run (the Solow growth model). He also devotes a lot of space to the Mundell-Fleming model of international trade and finance. One of the best features is the frequent use of short case studies that apply economic theory to "real world" problems such as the Great Depression or the Japanese slump of the 1990s. Mankiw's views are mainstream -- he doesn't even hint at the existence of alternatives such as Austrian economics or neo-Marxism -- but he is non-dogmatic about policy and quite candid about the limits of what economists really know about the economy. His book is a small masterpiece of clear economic writing for undergraduates.
So why did I give it only four stars? I was disappointed by the relative neglect -- in spite of the many "case studies" -- of the micro-economic, historical, and institutional realities that underlay the graphs and algebra of conventional macroeconomic analysis. Let me give two examples of what I mean:
-- According to Ben Bernanke, Asian countries responded to the financial turbulence of the 1990s by amassing huge foreign exchange reserves to defend their currencies against future attacks. These savings have for the most part been invested in the U.S., where they have financed trade deficits and fueled asset bubbles in the equities and housing markets. In other words, capital has flowed from relatively capital-poor countries to a capital-rich country, where it has paid for consumption binges.
-- According to Robert Pollin, two decades of union-bashing, downsizing and free trade have led to widespread job insecurity in the U.S. With workers too intimidated and too worried about jobs to press for wage increases, the economy was able to grow in the 1990s without triggering a round of inflation, and the benefits of this growth were skewed towards upper-income groups. In other words, extra-market power relationships in the workplace directly affected macroeconomic performance and income distribution.
I don't doubt that these developments can be captured and analyzed in the IS/LM or AS/AD framework. I'm not so sure, however, that many people steeped in this mode of analysis would have expected these developments ex ante. That would have required a knowledge of history, policy responses, and specific markets that is difficult to capture in abstract models. For my taste, any approach to economics that focuses on algebraic relationships between economic aggregates to the semi-exclusion of history and institutions is just too "otherworldly" to be satisfying. But maybe that's a problem with the way my mind works, not with macroeconomics. It certainly doesn't mean that Mankiw's book is anything less than excellent. Any student interested in learning basic macroeconomic analysis should read it.
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Not bad, could be better
| Customer Rating: | I am going to give this book four stars, however, I do have reservations about doing so. When I first picked up this book from one of the economics professors at my school, I was curious to read it because Gregory Mankiw was the Chief of the Council of Economic Adivsors. So I naturally thought, well this must be a brilliant man to have achieved a position so high. Well, now for the book. While the book is laid out in a fairly simple way and it is really easy to understand, sometimes too easy for an intermediate text, I began to notice Mankiw's economic philosophy slipping into the text. If anyone doesn't know, Mankiw is a New Keynesian. Well I thought that Keynesian economics was dead after the Reagan/Bush administrations failed with certain aspects of the economy. Please note, I said certain, such as the supposed tax cuts in the 80's that were offset by Social Security Tax hikes, and the out of control budget deficits. But I digress. Now, back to Mankiw. His text is filled with the ideas that he advised 43 on, and in fact 43 carried out.
But I don't want to hate on Mankiw. I think that the book could have been more properly balanced with other ideas. Mankiw could have really out done himself if he would have supplied a book that had his approach, somewhat governmental, and another approach that lets market forces take over the economy and promotes less government intervention. But that is just wishful thinking. All in all, the book does have its highlites, such as: easy to read, easy to understand, well laid out, and the fact that hopefully Mankiw will be busy and come out with a second edition to make this one really cheap. So therefore, despite its inherent downfall due to Mankiw's economic philosophy, I give four stars, and would recommend it to anyone who might be interested in macroeconomics or wants to expand their library. |
A Nice book!
| Customer Rating: | This book is very well written. I like the clear dichotomy between those topics which are classical and those which Keynesian. Yes, it is true that there is not alot of math in this text, but that is fine for the following reason. In grad school, what is initially more important is a clear understanding of all that you should have learned as an undergrad. You will learn the math you need as well as how to apply it. Secondly, this book, if you pay attention, will really help you master the simple models and learn how to manipulate them in order to suit your purpose. In one section, Mankiw will define is endo and exo variable because of a question he wants to answer, but switch those same variables around in order to answer a very different set of questions. I really liked that approach because alot of published work is derivative in nature: take an existing model and modify it in a new way, after which show the contribution.
In summary, the value of this book is that you will be able to get a clear idea about all of the major topics in contempory maco. Having an easy reference once you get to grad school is nice. |
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