Political Economy in Macroeconomics

Rating:
Summary: A must in any economist's library
Review: Numerous issues concerning conflict of interest and strategic behavior are involved in political matters and economic policy decisions in particular, and in macroeconomic outcomes in general. Allan Drazen presents the most complete analysis of the literature concerning these issues, both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective. I think this book is the Blanchard and Fischer's of Political Economy. Superb.

Rating:
Summary: Lacking enough depth and details
Review: The book covers several topics on political economics and macroeconomics including (but not limited to) inconsistency in government policies, voting, election and political cycles. The coverage of book from each topic or model is brief, leaving the reader to seek the related paper in journals to understand the topic in depth. The models presented are noramlly simple and easy which is not what one would see in an advanced graduate field.

The book very often gets into verbal discussion of each model with little or no math to support it. Most of the derivations are omitted and conclusions are jumped to. Though game theory is an integral part of political economics, the book doesn't involve very much of it. So the book is basically not very useful without the collection of all the papers it discusses to complement what it says.

Though the book can be a basis for understanding political economics, I wouldn't rank that as a reference or complete book in this field. Instead I would recommend the book by Tabellini, et.al .

Rating:
Summary: Political Economy in Macroeconomics
Review: Though politics and economics continue to be the two most influential forces in our society, the discussion relating the two is often lofty and incomprehensible to common men. Drazen eases the burden of confusion by providing distinct discussion and wonderfully elaborated points of concern. A great tool for understanding politicla economy.