ASSET ACCUMULATION AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
Reflections on Contemporary Macroeconomic Theory

James Tobin
Yale University Press, 1979

Preface

I had the honor to give the Yrjö Jahnsson Lectures in Helsinki in January 1978. With some revision, they appear as Chapters I, II, and IV of this book. Chapter III is a slightly amended version of the Paish lecture I gave in March 1978 at the invitation of the Association of University Teachers of Economics in York, England. The lecture has been published in the Proceedings of the Association and is reprinted here with the kind permission of the Association. The reason for including it here is that it is highly complementary to the three Jahnsson lectures.

For these reflections on current macroeconomic theory, I owe considerable intellectual debt to William Brainard, Willem Buiter, Pentti Kouri, Gary Smith, Laurence Weiss, and Janet Yellen. But of course I alone am responsible for what I said in the lectures and publish in these pages. The Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics at Yale has provided, as always, not only intellectual stimulation and guidance, but also research support of all relevant kinds. Some of the work here reported was aided by the National Science Foundation and by the American Council of Life Insurance. For help in preparing the lectures for publication I am grateful to Randall Morck, Kathy Donahoo, and as always to my peerless secretary Laura Harrison.

Finally, I should like to express my appreciation to the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation, my hosts in Finland, both for the opportunity to speak in their distinguished series and for their hospitality to me and my family.

New Haven
July 4, 1979