The main tasks and goals of macroeconomics are to promote the efficiency of the functioning of the national economy, ensuring the pace of its development. The latter always functions under certain historical conditions, under the influence of external factors. Macroeconomic issues allow studying the mechanism of functioning of the country's economy in general.
Economic systems
Traditional economy - this form is inherent in underdeveloped countries, where natural-communal forms of management have been preserved. Relations in the system are based on old traditions developed over the centuries. For example, the distribution of production labor is carried out not taking into account the labor costs of each worker, but according to certain charters that a person in society must comply with.
The command economy is a system where government agencies set goals and prices for production.
A market economy is a free exchange of products of production, where prices play a leading role. State participation in it is limited.
Mixed economy is the ratio of the participation of the state and the market in the regulation of the economic system. Different countries solve this problem in different ways. For example, in the United States and Great Britain, elements of liberalism are preferred. Here, the intervention of state bodies in the economy is minimal, they use the levers of market regulation more. In France, the state is much more involved in the regulation of the economic system. The advantage here is given to the so-called dirigisme - the policy of active intervention.
The emergence of macroeconomics
Macroeconomics as a science arose in a market economy in the works of John Maynard Keynes, Paul Anthony Samuelson, Arthur Laffer, Robert Solow, Robert Lucas and other famous economists. It is believed that its foundations were laid in the work of John Keynes "The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money". The difference between macroeconomics and microeconomics lies in the fact that microeconomics deals with the study of individual economic objects.
Subject and object of macroeconomics
This science explores the rational use of limited production resources in order to achieve maximum social efficiency.
The subject of study of macroeconomics is the functioning of the national economy as a whole, as well as the factors that determine its changes in the short and long term, including the impact of government policy.
Object of studymacroeconomics is the entire national economy, which includes interdependent and interconnected subsystems.
Aggregate quantities
Since the subject of macroeconomics covers the patterns of functioning of the country's economy as a whole, it operates with aggregate indicators. They give insight into the sectoral composition of the economy. Namely: households and businesses.
The main aggregate quantities include:
- Private closed economy as a unity of households and businesses.
- Mixed closed economy, which consists of a private closed economy and government institutions.
- Open economy, which is a broader aggregate. And it also personifies the “abroad” sector.
Aggregate supply and demand
Market aggregates are the privilege of macroeconomic analysis, thanks to this, the representation of such markets as commodity, money, labor, capital and others is formed. Aggregates of the parameters of these markets are carried out in macroeconomics based on macroeconomic indicators.
In this science, such an aggregate as "aggregate demand" is used. It determines the amount of demand for goods and services from all economic entities.
The "aggregate supply" aggregate characterizes the sum of all goods and services offered for sale in all markets of the country.
Economic results of production activities are provided in the formthe value of "gross domestic product". Its volume is calculated using prices. Price indices have also gained wide significance. They are calculated based on the ratio of prices of certain goods and services in different periods.
Exploring causal relationships in the functioning and development of the national economy, macroeconomics is able not only to diagnose the economic system, but also to provide competent recommendations for its sanitation, that is, recovery.
Components
Macroeconomics contains positive and normative components. The positive component answers the question “what is happening” and explains the real state of affairs. It does not depend on the assessments of individuals and has an objective character. The normative component illuminates the subjective side. He formulates subjective recommendations for necessary changes and solutions to macroeconomic problems and talks about “how it should be.”
Theories
In macroeconomics, there are several competing theories that explain the mechanism of the functioning of a market economy in different ways:
- Classic.
- Keynesian.
- Monetary.
The biggest discrepancies between them are related precisely to the coverage of the subjective, that is, the normative component of macroeconomic phenomena and processes.
Methodology
Macroeconomics uses a wide range of tools to study economic systems:
- Dialectics.
- Logic.
- Scientific abstraction.
- Process modeling.
- Forecasting.
Together they constitute the methodology of macroeconomics.
Assumption methods
Special methods have been widely used in macroeconomics:
- "other things being equal";
- "a person behaves rationally."
The first method simplifies macroeconomic analysis by isolating the studied links. The second method is based on the assumption that people are aware of the problems they are trying to solve.
Of great importance in macroeconomics is such a method as in-depth knowledge of the essence of economic systems (method of scientific abstraction). Abstraction means the simplification of a certain set of facts in order to cleanse macroeconomic analysis of the random, fleeting, and singular, and to single out in it the permanent, stable, and typical. It is thanks to this method that it is possible to fix the entire set of phenomena, to formulate the categories and laws of science.
Cognitive processes
The process of knowledge in macroeconomic research is carried out as a movement from the concrete to the abstract and vice versa.
Macroeconomic phenomena and processes have a fairly well-defined systemic character, and therefore the inductive and deductive methods are widely used. According to them, the movement of knowledge is carried out, in the first case, from the study of individual specific phenomena to the identification of the general, and in the second, on the contrary, the movement of the process of cognition occurs from the general to specific individual facts.
With the methodhistorical and logical analysis in macroeconomics studies specific events taking place in the national economy. They are generalized and further possible scenarios are determined. On the basis of observations, primarily statistical ones, a hypothesis is formed. It is an assumption about the probability of a change in a macroeconomic phenomenon and a way to know it. At the same time, the hypothesis may be one of the possible solutions to the macroeconomic problem.
Quantitative and qualitative analysis
Like all economic phenomena, the subject of macroeconomics requires quantitative analysis. Quantitative indicators are found out with the help of economic and mathematical methods and with the use of functional calculations. In addition, the definition and comparison of quantitative indicators is also carried out using a statistical graphical method. The unity of quantitative and qualitative analysis in macroeconomics is manifested in the study of unemployment and inflation. An important role is played by such scientific research as modeling, which is based on the results obtained using other methods.
The subject of macroeconomics studies the nature and results of the functioning of the economy as a whole, therefore quantitative analysis is carried out using a certain system of national accounts.
The System of National Accounts are interrelated indicators that are used to describe and analyze the overall results of the economic process at the macro level.
Main macroeconomicproblems:
- inflation and unemployment;
- economic growth and its impact on the welfare of the population;
- taxation and formation of bank interest rates;
- causes of the budget deficit, its consequences and the search for solutions;
- currency fluctuations and more.
Macroeconomics as an independent section of economic science performs three main functions:
- Practical - analysis and development of business practice management frameworks.
- Cognitive - revealing the essence of economic phenomena and processes.
- Educational - the formation of a new type of economic thinking.
The expansion of the production capabilities of the economy occurs due to the efficient technological use of production factors or by attracting additional resources. The indicator of economic activity is improved by using the achievements of scientific and technological progress. And this is also due to the introduction of new technologies. The subject of macroeconomics reveals this pattern of development in general.
Macroeconomics does not offer ready-made solutions to certain economic problems, but it is still of great importance for every person, since the solution of macroeconomic problems affects the life of every family.
