Francesco Giavazzi

A revealing look at austerity measures that succeed—and those that don'tFiscal austerity is hugely controversial. Opponents argue that it can trigger downward growth spirals and become self-defeating. Supporters argue that budget deficits have to be tackled aggressively at all times and at all costs. Bringing needed clarity to one of today's most challenging economic issues, three leading policy experts cut through the political noise to demonstrate that there is not one type of austerity but many. Austerity assesses the relative effectiveness of tax increases and spending cuts at reducing debt, shows that austerity is not necessarily the kiss of death for political careers as is often believed, and charts a sensible approach based on data analysis rather than ideology.

A timely and incisive look at austerity measures that succeed—and those that don’tFiscal austerity is hugely controversial. Opponents argue that it can trigger downward growth spirals and become self-defeating. Supporters argue that budget deficits have to be tackled aggressively at all times and at all costs. In this masterful book, three of today’s leading policy experts cut through the political noise to demonstrate that there is not one type of austerity but many.Looking at thousands of fiscal measures adopted by sixteen advanced economies since the late 1970s, Austerity assesses the relative effectiveness of tax increases and spending cuts at reducing debt. It shows that spending cuts have much smaller costs in terms of output losses than tax increases. Spending cuts can sometimes be associated with output gains in the case of expansionary austerity and are much more successful than tax increases at reducing the growth of debt. The authors also show that austerity is not necessarily the kiss of death for political careers as is often believed, and provide new insights into the recent cases of European austerity after the financial crisis.Bringing needed clarity to one of today’s most challenging subjects, Austerity charts a sensible approach based on data analysis rather than ideology.

“This is a truly outstanding textbook that beautifully marries theory, empirics and policy. It is surely destined to become the gold standard against which all other texts must be measured” Charles Bean, Deputy Governor, Bank of England. This book gives students a thorough understanding of macroeconomics by taking a unified view of the subject, allowing connections to be made between the short, medium and long run. Re-written almost from scratch in light of the experience of the Great Recession, this text is essential reading for anyone studying macroeconomics in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The book has been re-written almost from scratch after a thorough re-think of how macroeconomics should be taught after the financial crisis. Among the new features: · The text recognizes that modern central banks set interest rates, not the quantity of money: this gets rid of the LM curve greatly simplifying the discussion of financial markets · Ii presents the Medium Run starting directly from the Phillips curve, thus avoiding the intermediate AS-AD step which was clunky, and, for good reasons, undergraduates find it difficult to understand. Output above potential, or unemployment below the natural rate put upward pressure on inflation. The nature of the pressure depends on the formation of expectations, an issue central to current developments · The yield curve now incorporates a risk premium, whose fluctuations have been central to the crisis, especially since Quantitative Easing policies have shown that monetary policy can affect this premium Olivier Blanchard studied at the University of Paris, Nanterre, and has taught at MIT since 1983. He was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund from 2008 to 2015. He is now a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Francesco Giavazzi is Professor of Economics at Bocconi University in Milan, and has been a regular Visiting Professor at MIT Alessia Amighini is Assistant Professor of Economics at Universita’ del Piemonte Orientale (Novara)