Imperfect Competition, Differential Information, and Microfoundations of Macroeconomics

The past two decades witnessed a substantial change in the field of macroeconomics. The fall of the Keynesian approach after the inflationary episode of the 1970s was followed by the rise of the New Classical approach, which itself was overtaken by the Real Business Cycle and New Keynesian approaches. The driving force behind the change is a desire for a sound microeconomic foundation for macroeconomic theroy.

This volume links a microeconomic model of imperfectly informed firms and unions in monopolistic competition to a general theory of wage- and price-setting in a macroeconomic model. The analysis is based on a profit maximization and rational behavior and is in line with the New Keynesian approach in its emphasis on the importance of imperfect competition in explaining macroeconomic phenomena. The volume goes on to explain three stylized facts in macroeconomics: nominal rigidity, real rigidity, and cost-oriented prices, presented in a coherent New Keynesian framework.