Introduction

Abstract

During the last forty years the basic models used to explain the working of the economy and the range of topics discussed — in the introductory and intermediate macroeconomics textbooks — have changed significantly. In the fifties and sixties methodological comparisons between the classical and Keynesian models were popular in the intermediate textbooks. Introductory books used linear consumption functions and the simple 45° income-expenditure model to explain the Keynesian multiplier process and the effects of changes in the exogenous variables such as the government expenditure, tax rates etc.