Product Description

Mankiw's "Macroeconomics" is popular, widely adopted and well-known for clearly communicating the principles of Macroeconomics in a concise and accessible way. The sixth edition maintains the core features that have made it a best-selling Macroeconomics text - a balance of coverage between short and long-run issues, an integration of Keynesian and classical ideas, a variety of simple models and the incorporation of real world issues and data through case studies and FYI boxes. An outstanding package of support materials includes the student web-support site Macrobytes. The sixth edition incorporates new coverage of the decline in working hours in Europe, more extensive discussion of business-cycle facts to introduce the subject of short-run economic fluctuations, and new case studies and FYI boxes. It provides supplements for the student: Study Guide (0-7167-7339-2); and for the lecturer: Instructor's Resource Manual (0-7167-7326-0), Instructor's Resource CD-ROM (0-7167-7327-9), Solutions Manual 0-7167-7587-5), Test Bank (0-7167-7328-7), Computer Test Bank (0-7167-7583-3).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36911 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 608 pages

About the Author
N. GREGORY MANKIW is Professor of Economics at Harvard University, USA. He is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a member of the Brookings Panel on Economic Activity and an adviser to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Congressional Budget Office.

Customer Reviews

A must have for any first year economist
Having recently started my first year at University studying economics, this was one of two books that i was advised to buy. I have found it a vital aid to the marcroeconomic lectures, it explains concepts clearly and uses excellent up to date examples. My only problems with the book are that it does not cover the mathematical notes in enough detail and because it is an American book the majority of figures and exaples are based upon the US economy. But these minor problems should not put you off an excellent book.

Get a cup of coffee for this one, you're gonna need it.
This book is good, make no mistake about it, but bloody hell is it wordy. I'm a man who likes his facts coming to him quick and dirty, but Mankiw sets off on a grand crusade to make everything very very long. Not that this isn't a good thing for some people, but not my cup of tea.

simple presentation but inadequate technical coverage
This book is too simplistic and the chapters too fragmented.

Also, many of the exercises are far more difficult than what the chapters let on: so you may understand a chapter really well, after all the presentation is very simple, but then when you try to do the exercises you get stuck because you are confronted with stuff that the chapter did not present. It is as if one minute you are reading a cartoon and the next a Tolstoy.
For example, some of the exercises requires mathematics that is not introduced in the actual chapter.

The technical coverage is very poor, the mathematics is far too simple for intermediate level - by now you should know all about differentials, matrices and such. If you plan to work as an economist you need to know the mathematical technicalities, otherwise you are not of much use to a company: they want numbers and graphs from you. The analysis presented in this book is too simplistic to be of practical value to your career.

I really did not like the presentation of this book, it is almost like a children book, all that's missing are some pop-up figures for when you open the book.
That may sound harsh, but I felt more like a high-school student working with this book than a university student. It lacks a professional feel to it and is taking the "simplicity"-approach way too far.
Intellectually, I felt like I was being treated like a three-year old with all the pretty graphs and color everywhere.

It may come down to a question of taste, but I found both Blanchard's book 'Macroeconomics (5th Edition)' and Dornbusch's book 'Macroeconomics' to have a better "flow" in the chapters and a professional presentation.

Also, if you plan to continue with more advanced studies, with books like Romer's 'Advanced Macroeconomics', then Dornbusch and Blanchard will give you a significantly more solid preparation than Mankiw. I would not depend on Mankiw as preparation for advanced studies, he does excellent introductory books but not good intermediate books.

In summary, this book was paradoxical to me: simple in presentation and explanations yet inadequate in technical and analytical coverage.