Macroeconomic analysis and policy: a systematic approach.

Abstract

This book is the outcome of many years of conducting training programs and courses in macroeconomic analysis for a variety of institutions and several universities. An idea that government officials would find interesting training on macroeconomic accounts and analysis separate from the forecasting done in financial programming courses led to a series of 5 day training programs for government officials, economists at the Asian Development Bank, and a successful half-semester course for master’s level students at Singapore Management University. Lectures and exercises used in these programs and courses provided the basis for the contents of this book. Certain chapters were initially intended as part of a volume on financial programming with inflation targeting. When that project was suspended, the organizer graciously agreed that these materials could be used in this book. I want to thank Bank Negara Malaysia, the Asian Development Bank, Singapore Management University, and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore for providing the opportunity to conduct training programs or courses on macroeconomic accounts and analysis, and Delano (Dan) Villanueva for initially suggesting that I prepare background materials on the topic. I gratefully acknowledge the willingness of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to allow the reproduction of tables from selected IMF reports and papers to illustrate concepts presented in various chapters of the book. I also wish to thank World Scientific, the publisher of my book on public finance, for agreeing to publish this book. Finally, I want to thank my wife, Dara, and children, Ashira and Alexander, for their continuing support and encouragement during this project.