Privatization, Deregulation and the Macroeconomy focuses on the macroeconomic consequences of microeconomic rigidity in the markets for goods or services and the reforms necessary to create economic dynamism. Peter van Bergeijk and Robert Haffner address questions of how market structure, competition policy, over-regulation and collusive behaviour may influence macroeconomic performance. Drawing on many examples from the OECD countries (most notably, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and the Netherlands), Eastern Europe and the Third World, the authors show how economic policies intended to provide greater flexibility can be analysed. The authors examine the diagnosis or measurement of product market inertia at the mesoeconomic level and its consequences at the macroeconomic level such as employment, per capita income growth and price stability.

In Privatization, Deregulation and the Macroeconomy, Peter van Bergeijk and Robert Haffner deal not only with practical policy matters but also with the theoretical issues of how to determine price rigidity (hysteresis on the product markets) and their macroeconomic implications. This book will be welcomed by economists interested in industrial organization, macroeconomics, neo Keynesianism, development economics and transitional economies and will also be of interest to policymakers.