The Representative Agent in Macroeconomics

by James E Hartley, James E. Hartley

Overview

Rpresentative agent models have become a predominant means of studying the macroeconomy in modern economics without there being much discussion in the literature about their propriety or usefulness. This volume evaluates the use of these models in macroeconomics, examining the justifications for their use and concluding that representative agent models are neither a proper nor a particularly useful means of studying aggregate behaviour.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781134756803
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/04/2002
Series:	Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

James E. Hartley is Assistant Professor of Economics at Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts

Table of Contents

Part I Why representative agents?1 INTRODUCTION 2 THE ORIGINS OF THE REPRESENTATIVE AGENT 3 ARGUMENT FOR THE NEW CLASSICAL USE OF REPRESENTATIVE AGENT MODELS Part II The Lucas Critique 4 BEYOND TASTE AND TECHNOLOGY PARAMETERS IN MACROECONOMICS Part III The Walrasian tradition 5 WALRASIAN METHODOLOGY 6 MARSHALLIAN METHODOLOGY 7 THE NEW CLASSICALS AS WALRASIAN ECONOMISTS Part IV Microfoundations 8 MICROFOUNDATIONS: AUSTRIAN STYLE 9 THE TRADITIONAL CASE FOR MICROFOUNDATIONS 10 THE AGGREGATION PROBLEM 11 INDIVIDUAL AND MARKET EXPERIMENTS 12 THE REPRESENTATIVE AGENT VERSUS MICROFOUNDATIONS 13 THE MYTH OF MICROFOUNDATIONS Part V Whither macroeconomics? 14 AFTER REPRESENTATIVE AGENT MODELS

Editorial Reviews

Evaluates the use of representative agent models in macroeconomics. Identifies three justifications for the modern use of these models: as a way to avoid the Lucas critique, in the construction of Walrasian models, and as a microfoundation for macroeconomics. Illustrates how these models are inadequate to these tasks, and evaluates the goals themselves, finding that the Lucas critique is unworkable, Walrasian methodology is not useful for macroeconomic study, and rigorous microfoundations are neither possible nor desirable. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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