ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. This book presents a collection of papers that assesses the nature and role of the business cycle in contemporary economics, in view of the financial market instability that distinguishes the Great Recession from previous post-war slowdowns. The contributions of the theorists and applied scholars in the fields of economics and mathematical economics are consider various approaches to understanding cycles and growth, and present mathematical and applied macro models to show how uncertainty shapes the cycles by affecting the choices of economic agents. The book includes an empirical section that investigates how the Great Recession affected households housing wealth, labour productivity, and migration decisions. It explores modeling strategies, linking explicitly to the research of Hyman Minsky and Ferri. The book discusses subjects as business cycles, uncertainty, economic growth, and the Great Recession, constructed around theory, models, and applications.
