A Quick Refresher Course in Macroeconomics

This paper presents a non-technical discussion of some of the important developments in macroeconomics over the past twenty years. It considers three broad categories of research. First, it discusses how the notion of rational expectations has affected economists' views on the role of economic policy, the debate over rules versus discretion, and empirical work in macroeconomics Second, it discusses various new classical approaches to the business cycle, including imperfect information theories, real business cycle theories, and sectoral shift theories. Third, it discusses various new Keynesian approaches to the business cycle, includes theories based on general disequilibrium, labor contracting, and menu costs.