Macroeconomics

Perhaps the most important concept in macroeconomics is Gross Domestic Product (GDP): Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is defined as the market value of all finished goods and services produced in a country during a certain period of time.

Wage inflation

In this article, we will continue to develop the Keynesian model removing the assumption of fixed nominal wages. We define wage inflation πw as the percentage average increase in wages. Wages and wage inflation are still exogenous, i.e. they are not determined within the model. One justification for this assumption is that wages often are determined by agreements which often last for several years.

The main difference between the cross model and the investment saving, liquidity preference money supply (IS-LM)  model is that the nominal interest rate is exogenous in the cross model but endogenous in the IS-LM model. In this chapter we will explain how the nominal interest rate is determined in the IS-LM. P remains exogenous and constant in the IS-LM model.

Prices and price level

Price level

Prices are of great importance in macroeconomics as indeed they are in microeconomics. However, in microeconomics we are more interested in prices of individual goods and services and such prices are rarely important for the economy as a whole although there are exceptions (for example, the price of oil).

Money

Before discussing macroeconomic models we must define what we mean by money. Money has a long and interesting history and an understanding of how we came to use money is useful for any macroeconomist. Unfortunately, there is not enough space to describe how money was “invented” and how it evolved over time. There are, however, many excellent descriptions on the Internet.