This book is a presentation of the study of the methods by which macroeconomics is researched, taught and communicated, and why specific theories, research strategies and teaching are preferred. A range of experts provide analysis of the concepts, ideas and principles to give a better understanding of the macroeconomics behind policies.

Introduction: The scope and content of the Handbook I. Philosophy of Science Perspectives I.1. Methodological Individualism and Macroeconomics I.2. Deduction, Induction and Abduction I.3. Instrumentalism I.4 From positivism to naturalism in macroeconomics I.5. Holism & Fallacy of Composition I.6. Macroeconomics and Ethics II. Concepts II.1 Time in Macroeconomics II.2 Uncertainty and Macroeconomic Methodology II.3 Path dependency II.4 Equilibrium II.5 Causality and macroeconomics II.6 Microeconomic foundation of macroeconomics II.7 Open and closed systems II.8. Money and Macroeconomic Methodology III. Schools of Thought III.1. Classical Political Economy III.2. Neoclassical Macroeconomics III.3. Keynes’s Macroeconomic Method III.4. Post Keynesian Methodology III.5. The Austrian Denial of Macroeconomics III.6. What was Marx’s Method, actually? III.7. Methodological Pluralism in Macroeconomics IV. Models, Econometrics and Measurement IV.1. Use of Mathematics in macroeconomic analysis IV.2. Explanation and Forecasting IV.3. Using macroeconomic models in policy practice IV.4. Traditional Methods of Macroeconometrics IV.5. Macroeconometrics: Cointegrated VAR Method IV.6. National Accounts and Macroeconomic Methodology V. Communicating Macroeconomics V.1. The rhetorical perspective on macroeconomics V.2. Teaching Macroeconomic Methodology

“Within the bulk of the existing literature on economic methodology the distinctive methodological questions concerning the methodology of macroeconomics, despite their relevance, have been so far comparatively neglected. This comprehensive Handbook eventually fills the gap in a way that would be hard to beat. It deserves, therefore, to be warmly recommended to all readers with an interest in the methodology and philosophy of economics, in the history of economic thought and, last but not least, in macroeconomics per se.”Andrea Salanti, University of Bergamo“Due to the economic crises of recent years there is an increasing interest by students to look for answers outside the mainstream macroeconomic understanding. As such, students are not only looking for an alternative theoretical macroeconomic universe, they are also increasingly interested in methodological aspects of macroeconomic theory. With the publication of Routledge Handbook of Macroeconomic Methodology students with an interest in Macroeconomic Theory and the History of Economic Thought are offered an updated advanced book on a huge number of relevant methodological questions.”Finn Olesen, Aalborg University, Denmark