Macroeconomics: Principles and Applications

The first time I tried to take economics, I gave up. The teacher was no good, and the textbook we were using didn't help. So I put the course off for two years until I couldn't wait any longer. But things have changed, thank God! The second time around I had a much better teacher, but more than that, we used this textbook instead, and I swear it helped me do well in the class. It is SO clearly written, with great examples and great stories. I admit I was intimidated by economics at first, but this book has a way of explaining the concepts that makes you think, "Hey, I actually get this." The authors give you credit for being an intelligent person, and they provide really clear analysis while walking you through the tougher parts step by step. As for the review here that talks about the authors' political agenda, I have to come to the authors' defense. I consider myself very middle of the road politically, and believe me, there is nothing objectionable here. The authors are very careful to present both sides of various debates, and those debates are always framed as two sides of a story - and they don't take either side, they just report the controversy and let the reader decide for himself. After reading this book and taking this course, I feel that I understand the newspaper and TV news much better. So, thanks Robert Hall and Marc Lieberman, I got an A in principles of econ when I thought the best I could hope for was a D.

An introduction to macroeconomics written by the creator of the Taylor Rule. It begins with an overview of economics in general including market economies and the supply/demand model. Later topics include measuring GDP, the spending allocation model, unemployment, productivity, money, inflation, fiscal policy, monetary policy, financial markets, and international trade. The text has bright, eye-catching graphics and convenient review boxes placed throughout the chapters but tends to focus more on the U.S. economy than economies in general.

This book offers a new path to introduce us in macroeconomic studies, quite innovative if we compare to its congenerous, however very focused on rational expectations contribuitions. The authors suggests we must priorize our comprehension about the long term economic flutuactons, in opposite of the traditional ones, which dedicate the last pages to develop these subjects; in Hall & Talylor's book, the reader is introduced to the basics frameworks and modern theories soon in the firsts chapters. So, the natural consequence of their proposal is the loss of the primacy of Hicks's IS-LM model - as a basic framework tradionaly adopted as necessary to understanding the macroeconomics fundamentals - to the contemporaries economics growth theories, enriching it with many "real world" examples about its approaches. The only restriction I do is the negligence, or a little more emphasis, on other kind of approaches in macroeconomic thought (the post-keynesians contribuitions, for example), causing us the sensation that the macroeconomics reality is restricted to rational expectations workings. For an approach which priorize the evolution of the schools of macroeconomics thought, I recomend the Froyen's book. In spite of that, is an excellent introduction to macroeconomic theory.

Easy and fun to use. Excellent blend of academia and real-life examples. Charts, graphs, and illustrations were colorful and easy to understand. Also, authors Hall and Liberman provide readers access to their macroecon website for additional study. I used this text at the postgraduate level - great for undergrads, too.

This book is well organized to help student learn macroeconomics. It has the best utilization of pedagogical features (not just graphs, captions and colors) I've ever seen. I found key term call-outs, section reviews, and keypoint outlines to be the most helpful. I appreciate the efforts of reducing the amount of reading necessary to understand the concepts. If you are not a lazy student, you will have lots of case studies, news analysis, econ puzzles, and biographies to broaden your breath. All these features are well organized so that you can read efficiently, thanks to the ingenious layouts. I am actually here to look for other books by Mr. Taylor to support my current textbooks.