Discover 49 opportunities in macroeconomics

The following article first appeared in the INOMICS Handbook 2024.Download the INOMICS HandbookProfessor Marcel Fratzscher, esteemed macroeconomist and president of the DIW Berlin, once again asks questions about economics and life in general to a peer in the 2024 edition of the INOMICS Handbook Questionnaire. This time, he poses the questions to Dr. Olivier Blanchard, a prominent macroeconomist, who graciously took to the spotlight in this latest round. Thus, the back-and-forth has been dubbed Fratzscher vs. Blanchard, as is tradition. Dr. Blanchard offers us some interesting food for thought: the interview touches on the joy of conducting research with former students, the sometimes counterintuitive things we learn from economics, an analysis of Real Business Cycle Theory, and more.

At the undergraduate level, environmental economics is typically taught as an applied microeconomics course. However, while topics like externalities and common property resources are great for emphasizing efficiency, they don’t always prepare students to consider environmental concerns as part of the broader economy. Incorporating macroeconomics into these courses can help students understand problems that deal with both scale and efficiency, such as how to reconcile economic growth with environmental quality.

Production is interaction of man and nature  Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation

When you're just beginning your economics degree, you'll quickly come across two very important branches – microeconomics and macroeconomics. It's highly likely that you'll study both at some point during your degree, as they are two of the foundational planks of the subject. It is also likely, however, that you will have to choose which to take first, prompting the question: which is the best theoretical starting point for your studies? Having just started out, this can be a tough question to answer. That's why we're going to give you a little run down of each, to help you make the most informed decision possible. So let's begin.