These two lectures explore how time is modeled in theoretical analyses of individual industries and of the entire economy. The atemporal Marshallian model is contrasted with an explicit time model with uncertainty about costs at the firm level. The book also examines data on job creation and job destruction; price setting behavior in monopolistic competition and costly search models; data on price changes; and both cyclical and seasonal data on the entire economy. With a focus on the command over purchasing power, the Arrow-Debreu and Hicksian ISLM models are compared with a number of...

Mandatory pensions are a worldwide phenomenon. However, with fixed contribution rates, monthly benefits, and retirement ages, pension systems are not consistent with three long-run trends: declining mortality, declining fertility, and earlier retirement. Many systems need reform. This book gives an extensive nontechnical explanation of the economics of pension design. The theoretical arguments have three elements:

* Pension systems have multiple objectives--consumption smoothing, insurance, poverty relief, and redistribution. Good policy needs to bear them all in mind.

* Good analysis...

Midlife-the time you spend between the ages of thirty-five and fifty-five-is a critical juncture in anyone's career and life. And yet these tend to be neglected decades. You may feel vulnerable about who you are and what you want to do, boxed in by societal pressures and an overly outward focus. You may know that the time to invoke change is now. But how? Enter Amplify Your Career and Life, an insightful look at successfully traversing these midlife years. Author and executive coach Peter C. Diamond struggled through his own midlife quandary. When faced with a series of life-altering events,...