The main tasks and goals of macroeconomics is to help increase the efficiency of the national economy, ensuring the pace of its development. The latter always functions in certain historical conditions, under the influence of external factors. Macroeconomic issues allow us to study 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 occur according to the 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 employee, but according to certain charters that a person in society must observe.
The command economy is a system where government bodies determine the goals and prices of production.
A market economy is a free exchange of products of production, where prices play a leading role. State participation in it is limited.
A mixed economy is the ratio of state and market participation in the regulation of the economic system. Different countries solve this problem by different methods. For example, in the United States and Great Britain, elements of liberalism are preferred. Here, government interference in the economy is minimal; leverage on market regulation is used 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 conducting, a 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 "General theory of employment, interest and money." The difference between macroeconomics and microeconomics is that microeconomics is engaged in the study of individual economic objects.
The 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 the study of macroeconomics is the functioning of the national economy as a whole, as well as the factors determining its changes in the short and long term, including the impact of state policy.
The object of studying macroeconomics is the entire national economy, which includes interdependent and interconnected subsystems.
Aggregate Values
Since the subject of macroeconomics illuminates the patterns of functioning of the country's economy as a whole, it operates on aggregate indicators. They give an idea of ​​the sectoral composition of the economy. Namely: households and enterprises.
The main aggregate values ​​include:
- Private closed economy as a unity of households and enterprises.
- A mixed closed economy that consists of a private closed economy and government institutions.
- An open economy, which is a broader aggregate. And it also represents the sector "abroad".
Aggregate supply and demand
Aggregates of the market are a privilege of macroeconomic analysis, due 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, an aggregate such as “aggregate demand” is used. It determines the amount of demand for goods and services from all economic entities.
The aggregate supply unit 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 form of the “gross domestic product”. Its volume is calculated using prices. Price indices have also gained wide importance. They are calculated based on the price ratio of certain goods and services in different periods.
By exploring the cause-effect relationships in the functioning and development of the national economy, macroeconomics is able not only to diagnose the economic system, but also provide competent recommendations for its rehabilitation, that is, recovery.
Components
Macroeconomics contains positive and regulatory components. The positive component answers the question “what is happening” and explains the real state of things. It does not depend on the ratings of individuals and has an objective character. The normative component illuminates the subjective side. He formulates subjective recommendations on the 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 functioning of a market economy in different ways:
- Classical
- Keynesian.
- Monetary.
The greatest discrepancies between them are associated precisely with 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.
- Logics.
- Scientific abstraction.
- Process modeling.
- Forecasting.
Together, they constitute a macroeconomic methodology.
Assumption Methods
Widespread use in macroeconomics received methods of assumption:
- “Other equal conditions”;
- "Man behaves rationally."
The first method simplifies macroeconomic analysis by isolating the studied relationships. 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 (the method of scientific abstraction). Abstraction means the simplification of a certain set of facts in order to clean up macroeconomic analysis from casual, fleeting and single, as well as highlighting in it a constant, stable and typical. Thanks to this method, it is possible to fix the totality of phenomena, to formulate categories and laws of science.
Cognitive processes
The process of cognition in macroeconomic research is carried out as a movement from concrete to abstract and vice versa.
Macroeconomic phenomena and processes have a fairly well-pronounced systemic nature, and therefore inductive and deductive methods are widely used. According to them, the movement of cognition is carried out, in the first case, from the study of individual concrete phenomena to the identification of the general, and in the second, on the contrary, the movement of the cognitive process proceeds from the general to concrete individual facts.
Using the method of historical and logical analysis in macroeconomics, specific events that occur in the national economy are studied. They are generalized and further possible scenarios are determined. On the basis of observations, primarily statistical, a hypothesis is formed. It is an assumption about the probability of a change in the macroeconomic phenomenon and the way it is known. 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 a quantitative analysis. Quantitative indicators are determined using economic and mathematical methods and using functional calculations. In addition, the determination and comparison of quantitative indicators is also carried out using the statistical graphical method. The unity of quantitative and qualitative analysis in macroeconomics is manifested in the study of unemployment and inflation. A major 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 a quantitative analysis is carried out using a specific system of national accounts.
The system of national accounts is interrelated indicators that are used to describe and analyze the overall results of the economic process at the macro level.
The main macroeconomic problems :
- inflation and unemployment;
- economic growth and its impact on the well-being of the population;
- taxation and the formation of bank interest rates;
- the causes of the budget deficit, its consequences and the search for solutions;
- exchange rate fluctuations and more.
Macroeconomics as an independent section of economic science has three main functions:
- Practical - analysis and development of the basics of managing business practices.
- Cognitive - disclosure of the essence of economic phenomena and processes.
- Educational - the formation of a new type of economic thinking.
The expansion of production capabilities of the economy is due to the effective 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 also this is due to the introduction of new technologies. The subject of macroeconomics reveals this pattern of development as a whole.
Macroeconomics does not offer ready-made solutions to various economic problems, but it is of great importance for every person, since the solution of macroeconomic problems affects the life of every family.