History of macroeconomic thought

The study of how theories, methods, and debates about aggregate economic phenomena developed over time, from classical political economy to contemporary macroeconomics.

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Classical economics: An economic tradition emphasizing production, distribution, markets, and long-run growth, associated with writers such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo. Its theories of markets and growth formed the starting point for later debates about aggregate outcomes.
Say's law: The proposition that production generates income sufficient to purchase output, often summarized as supply creating its own demand. Keynes’s rejection of this proposition marked a sharp break with classical accounts of unemployment.
National income accounting: A system for measuring production, income, and expenditure across an economy, including gross domestic product. Consistent aggregate data made many twentieth-century macroeconomic questions measurable.
Adam Smith: An eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher and economist whose work examined markets, specialization, and economic growth. His account of exchange and growth supplied foundations for classical political economy.
Fiscal policy: Government decisions about spending and taxation that influence economic activity and public finances. Keynesian thought strengthened the case for using budgets to stabilize aggregate demand.
John Maynard Keynes: A British economist whose work transformed theories of employment, output, and government policy. His 1936 account of aggregate demand reshaped macroeconomic thought.
Keynesian economics: An approach that explains output and employment fluctuations through changes in aggregate demand and supports stabilization policy. Its rise and later revisions organize much of twentieth-century macroeconomic debate.
IS–LM model: A model showing equilibrium in goods and money markets through the interaction of interest rates and output. It translated Keynesian arguments into a tractable framework for policy analysis.
David Ricardo: A classical economist known for theories of distribution, comparative advantage, and rent. His models of distribution shaped classical debates about growth and economic limits.
Monetary policy: Central-bank actions that influence money, credit, interest rates, and economic conditions. Monetarist and later macroeconomic debates reshaped central-bank objectives and operating practices.