Recursive Macroeconomic Theory, by Lars Ljungqvist and Thomas J. Sargent, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2004 (2nd edition), pp. 1200, by Begona Dominguez, Department of Economics, The University of Auckland.
This book, as the title says, is about the use of recursive methods for macroeconomics. Most macroeconomic problems have a dynamic structure, where variables of interest are interrelated and evolve over time. One of the major difficulties in solving this type of problems is how to handle history dependence. Since each period’s optimal decisions depend on the history up to that date, we would have to keep track of everything that has happened until the current date. Moreover, as time passes by, history becomes an ever increasing object. Recursive methods are the solution. Recursive methods are a powerful tool to study dynamic economies.