This ambitious book seeks both to revive and revise the idea of 'functional finance'. Followers of this doctrine believe that government budgets should concentrate solely on their macroeconomic impact on the economy, rather than reflecting a concern for sound finance and budgetary discipline....

'This is a book macroeconomists were waiting for - a lucid history of macroeconometric model building. A must read.' (Willi Semmler, New School for Social Research, US). -- 'The authors have succeeded in orchestrating a lively debate over the scientific foundations of structural econometrics....