Incluye referencias bibliográficas.

1. Introduction -- 2. Growth theory preliminaries -- 3. The neoclassical growth model -- 4. An application, the small open economy -- 5. Endogenous growth models I, escaping diminishing returns -- 6. Endogenous growth models II, technological change -- 7. Proximate and fundamental causes of growth -- 8. Overlapping generations models -- 9. An application, pension systems and transitions -- 10. Unified growth theory -- 11. Consumption -- 12. Consumption under uncertainty and macro finance -- 13. Investment -- 14. Real business cycles -- 15. (New) Keynesian theories of fluctuations, a primer -- 16. Unemployment -- 17. Fiscal policy I, public debt and the effectiveness of fiscal policy -- 18. Fiscal policy II, the long-run determinants of fiscal policy -- 19. Monetary policy, an introduction -- 20. Rules vs discretion -- 21. Recent debates in monetary policy -- 22. New developments in monetary and fiscal policy -- Appendix A. a very brief mathematical appendix -- Appendix B. Simulating an RBC model -- Appendix C. Simulating a DSGE model.

Macroeconomic policy is one of the most important policy domains, and the tools of macroeconomics are among the most valuable for policy makers. Yet there has been, up to now, a wide gulf between the level at which macroeconomics is taught at the undergraduate level and the level at which it is practiced. At the same time, doctoral-level textbooks are usually not targeted at a policy audience, making advanced macroeconomics less accessible to current and aspiring practitioners.

This book, born out of the Masters course the authors taught for many years at the Harvard Kennedy School, fills this gap. It introduces the tools of dynamic optimization in the context of economic growth, and then applies them to a wide range of policy questions – ranging from pensions, consumption, investment and finance, to the most recent developments in fiscal and monetary policy. It does so with the requisite rigor, but also with a light touch, and an unyielding focus on their application to policy-making, as befits the authors’ own practical experience.