The Problem of Macroeconometrics

This volume contains twelve chapters that discuss important topics in recent macroeconometrics. The presumed audience is the practicing macroeconomist or the student of macroeconomics who has some knowledge of econometrics but who is not a specialized econometrician. Each chapter is written by respected econometricians with the aim of providing information and perspectives useful to those who wish to reflect on fruitful ways to use econometrics in macroeconomics in their own work or in macroeconomics generally. The chapters are all written with clear methodological perspectives and aim to make the virtues and limitations of particular econometric approaches accessible to a general audience in applied macroeconomics. Because each chapter also represents the considered methodological views of important practitioners, I hope that they will also be of substantial interest to technical macroeconometricians as well as to the intended audience of macroeconomists. In order to bring out more fully the real tensions in macroeconometrics, each chapter is followed by a critical comment from another econometrician with an alternative perspective. The full chapters on competing methodologies in Part I further highlight these tensions.