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Rating: 
Summary: Amending an earlier review: This book is excellent
Review: A few years ago I dashed off a review of Barro's text in a huff; it had failed me in preparing independently for the AP economics exams and therefore was to be condemned. But new evidence must lead one to change one's mind, and now I must recognize Barro's book for the great effort it is. Truly the work of one of the world's best neoclassical macroeconomists, it cannot be evaluated fairly with the meterstick of the Advanced Placement examinations (perhaps if they didn't drill Keynesianism into all of us at such an impressionable age we would emerge a great deal less confused later).Barro begins with a survey of the United States economy, the history of all the standard macroeconomic variables, and the micro foundations of macro analysis, including such staples as the permanent income hypothesis, labor as a choice between remunerated work and leisure, and utility maximization. From this springboard more complicated phenomena like business cycles, capital markets, money and banking, inflation, and government intervention can be understood. The book culminates with a dressing-down of the Keynesian model's explanation of responses to external shocks and a demonstration of the advantages the neoclassical model has in explaining such shocks. All the while, Barro takes the time to show how empirical evidence stacks up against theory, with much drawn from his own seminal work. He does not belabor the reader with excessive mathematical formulations; usually some shorthand equations are sufficient to explain which variables are involved, and whether they are related positively or negatively to the result. He is also adept at translating mathematical into diagrammatical analysis--a real boon, since any good economist must be adept at both. Why wait until graduate school for that? Unfortunately, the book occupies that awkward purgatory between an intro principles book and a rigorous upper-level text replete with explicit theory and mind-numbing equations galore. So it is an excellent "intermediate" macroeconomics text which will hopefully be supplemented in lecture by a responsible professor. Responsible enough, that is, to not be ashamed of neoclassicism (unlike a previous reviewer crying 'ideologue') and to give his students a thorough exposition of the (for better or for worse) leading paradigm in economic analysis.
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Summary: LOVE IT!
Review: I really enjoyed studying intermediate macroeconomics by reading this book. Maybe one additional reason why I enjoyed reading it was that Sala-i-Martin was my profesor, who personally knows Barro (they together wrote "Economic Growth"which I can also highly recommend).
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Summary: Low Math Level
Review: If Prof. Barro have time, having a more advanced level book (i.e., with more rigorous math treatment) written would be highly appreciate. Law Ka Chung
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Summary: Best book ever on macroeconomic principles
Review: If you are an economics major and you do not know this book, buy it and read it. The market-clearing approach is the approach. Strong microfoundations, rational agents and a dynamic setting. And it is presented in an intuitive, elegant, and clear way with the aid of ingenious diagrams. It is one of those pieces that are introductory and advanced at the same time. It is rather unfortunate that most undergraduate textbooks do not follow the modern approach. Even worst, they do not teach thinks like the labor/consumption choice, savings and capital accumulation, Lucas island's model, public debt sustainability, current account as an intertemporal phenomenon, etc. Once you learn this approach well, macroeconomics will no longer be a headache for you and you will be ready to master more advanced materials. The only major shortcoming in Barro's book is that, despite it is in the 5th edition now, it has scarcely changed. Other have unsuccessfully tried to do this (Krugman, Farmer, and Sachs-Larrain). By the way, there is now in the market another book that heavily relies on the same approach and is a just a little bit more advanced and extends the approach to a few more topics(bank runs, for instance): Stephen Williamson's Macroeconomics. If you are an undergraduate, you shall have both Barro's and Williamson's books. You will not regret it if you later find yourself in graduate shcool. Finally, I agree with a former reviewer that an intermediate, more matemathically oriented, presentation of the approach is urgently needed. Fortunately, I do not really need it, but I feel confident that it will not take long for somebody to come up with a more technical presentation. However, after Barro's exposition, I wonder if one really needs the mathematical intrications. That is actually the beauty of the book.
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Summary: Get Paul Krugman's book instead...
Review: If you want "zero government free-market" philosophy, read R.J. Barro's book. As a member of the conservative Hoover Institution he contaminates every single of his books (this is no exception) with his "religious beliefs". If you want a good book on Macroeconomics, I'd suggest Krugman's instead (or perhaps in addition to this, to compare viewpoints). Paul Krugman is much more balanced than Mr. Barro. Don't believe me? get both books and judge for yourself. Krugman's book is available at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321033876/
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