Volume 9, No. 1 (Spring 2006)
The book distinguishes seven different schools of macroeconomic thought: orthodox Keynesianism, orthodox monetarism, the New Classical School, real business cycle theory, new Keynesianism, Post Keynesianism, and the Austrian School. As the authors themselves acknowledge, their classification differs slightly from some of those made by other scholars, but it should not prove to be particularly controversial. Each school of thought receives one chapter, and most chapters conclude with an interview by the authors with a leading representative of the school (e.g., Milton Friedman on orthodox monetarism, Robert E. Lucas, Jr. on the New Classical School, Edward Prescott on real business cycle theory, N. Gregory Mankiw on new Keynesianism). The chapters on Post Keynesianism and on Austrian economics do not include such interviews, because they have been contributed by leading scholars of those schools (Paul Davidson and Roger W. Garrison, respectively) rather than by Snowdon and Vane.
