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Journal of Economic Perspeclives-
9
1
Winter 1995
Page 195-202
Recommendations for Further Reading
Bernard Saffran
This section will list readings that may be especially useful to teachers of undergraduate economics, as well as other articles that are of broader cultural interest. In general, the articles chosen will be expository or integrative and not focus on original research. They may include survey articles, discussion of related subjects in which economists might have an interest, or analyses of economics from other perspectives. The intention is to publish a selective list of 15 to 20 articles per issue. If you write or read an appropriate article, please send a copy of the article (and possibly a few sentences describing it) to Bernard Saffran...
Saffran, c/o Journal of Economic Perc eclinec, Department of Economics, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081.
Potpourri In "Macroeconomics After Two Decades of Rational Expectations;' Bennett T. McCallum presents "a nontechnical, expository discussion of recent developments in macroeconomics." He concludes, "Finally, I would like to argue that it is wrong to claim, as many commentators have, that the present state of macroeconomic understanding is very bad. It is true that many wildly divergent modeling strategies appear in current research papers and that a wide variety of policy ideas are being put forth for consideration. But much of the apparent disagreement results, I believe, from the process of personal competition among the growing population of research economists. In the United States, there are hundreds of capable and ambitious assistant professors Bernard Saffrare is the Franklin and Betty Bnrr Professor of Economics, Surnrthmore College, Svrarthmore, Peuns lvania.
who need, to win tenure, to publish about a dozen articles in which `originality' is supposed to be demonstrated. . . . But mature and thoughtful members of the profession-even members whose articles feature very different models-will nevertheless take quite similar positions on most of the truly fundamental issues. One would get basically consistent answers from Friedman, Tobin, Lucas, and Solow to questions such as: Is sustained inflation likely without monetary accommodation? Would sustained inflation lead to faster growth over extended periods of time? Will an increase in government purchases increase aggregate demand? Will an open-market purchase of bonds increase or decrease demand? Can a nation's monetary authority simultaneously...