ABSTRACT
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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|30 pages
Why Representative Agents?
chapter 1|6 pages
Introduction
chapter 2|10 pages
The Origins of the Representative Agent
chapter 3|12 pages
Argument For the New Classical Use of Representative Agent Models
part II|26 pages
The Lucas Critique
chapter 4|24 pages
Beyond Taste and Technology Parameters in Macroeconomics
part III|46 pages
The Walrasian Tradition
chapter 5|14 pages
Walrasian Methodology
chapter 6|11 pages
Marshallian Methodology
chapter 7|19 pages
The New Classicals as Walrasian Economists
part IV|92 pages
Microfoundations
chapter 8|15 pages
Microfoundations: Austrian Sstyle
chapter 9|12 pages
The Traditional Case for Microfoundations
chapter 10|15 pages
The Aggregation Problem
chapter 11|11 pages
Individual and Market Experiments
chapter 12|18 pages
The Representative Agent Versus Microfoundations
chapter 13|19 pages
The Myth of Microfoundations
part V|10 pages
Whither Macroeconomics?