TY  - JOUR
AU  - Mankiw,N. Gregory
TI  - The Macroeconomist as Scientist and Engineer
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12349
PY  - 2006
Y2  - July 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12349
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12349.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
N. Gregory Mankiw
Department of Economics
Littauer 223
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/495-4301
Fax: 617/495-7730
E-Mail: ngmankiw@fas.harvard.edu
AB  - This essay offers a brief history of macroeconomics, together  with an evaluation of what has been learned over the past several decades.  It is based on the premise that the field has evolved through the efforts of two types of macroeconomist%u2014 those who understand the field as a type of engineering and those who would like it to be more of a science.  While the early macroeconomists were engineers trying to solve practical problems, macroeconomists have more recently focused on developing analytic tools and establishing theoretical principles.  These tools and principles,  however, have been slow to find their way into applications.  As the field of macroeconomics has evolved, one recurrent theme is the interaction%u2014sometimes productive and sometimes not%u2014 between the scientists and the engineers.
ER  -