A Crash Course on Crises

Macroeconomic Concepts for Run-Ups, Collapses, and Recoveries

Markus K. Brunnermeier, Ricardo Reis

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780691223186, 9780691221106
• eBook ISBN: 9780691221113
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Financial Risk Management
• Index: Economics

An incisive overview of the macroeconomics of financial crises—essential reading for students and policy experts alike

With alarming frequency, modern economies go through macro-financial crashes that arise from the financial sector and spread to the broader economy, inflicting deep and prolonged recessions. A Crash Course on Crises brings together the latest cutting-edge economic research to identify the seeds of these crashes, reveal their triggers and consequences, and explain what policymakers can do about them.

Each of the book’s ten self-contained chapters introduces readers to a key economic force and provides case studies that illustrate how that force was dominant. Markus Brunnermeier and Ricardo Reis show how the run-up phase of a crisis often occurs in ways that are preventable but that may go unnoticed and discuss how debt contracts, banks, and a search for safety can act as triggers and amplifiers that drive the economy to crash. Brunnermeier and Reis then explain how monetary, fiscal, and exchange-rate policies can respond to crises and prevent them from becoming persistent.

With case studies ranging from Chile in the 1970s to the COVID-19 pandemic, A Crash Course on Crises synthesizes a vast literature into ten simple, accessible ideas and illuminates these concepts using novel diagrams and a clear analytical framework.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• 1. Introduction
• Part I. Growing Fragilities: The Run-up to Crises
• Part II. Crashes: Triggers and Amplifiers
• Part III. Policies and Recoveries
• Part IV. Parting Words
• Bibliography
• Index