According to Kenneth E. Boulding, “Macroeconomics is the study of the nature, relationships and behaviour of aggregates of economic quantities…”
According to P.A. Samuelson, “Macroeconomics is the study of the behaviour of the economy as a whole. It examines the overall level of Nation’s output, employment, prices and foreign trade.”
The definitions given above and a few other similar definitions capture the central theme of macroeconomics but they do not fully capture its subject matter. As stated above in the introduction of this chapter, macroeconomics covers a wide range of economic activities and the related theories in respect of the lumped or the aggregated units or of the economy as a whole, as to
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(a) How they generate and spend income through production of goods and services,
(b) How human or non-human resources are employed,
(c) How supply and demand of money influence the general price level,
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(d) How and what policies regarding production, income, expenditure be formulated for growth and development, and
(e) How and what policies regarding foreign trade be formulated to serve the interest of people at large, best.
It is, indeed, difficult to cover the scope of macroeconomics in any single definition. Let us attempt to develop a workable definition here to serve our purpose.
It is a study of national output, income, expenditure, employment, growth and development, demand and supply of money and general price level as also of the nation’s foreign trade.
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In a much simpler way, macroeconomics is a study of economic problems of a nation as a whole with a view to analysing ways and means to solve them.
The definition may not specify the range of the subject matter but it sure points out its domain. It lays down a criterion to list the areas that may, or may not, fall within its purview.