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This book deals with the mathematical theory of macroeconomic hysteresis, which is the theory of aggregation of microeconomic hysteresis. Microeconomic sunk cost hysteresis is usually represented by relatively simple hysteresis loops with no discrete memory of past economic shocks. It turns out that macroeconomic aggregation leads to the formation of complex multibranch hysteresis with discrete memory of past economic shocks. Consequently, the macroeconomic aggregation of microeconomic hysteresis results in the emergence of new economic phenomena.In the book, the basic properties of macroeconomic hysteresis are mathematically studied. It is demonstrated that certain important properties of macroeconomic hysteresis (such as history-dependent branching, erasure effects of some past economic shocks, geometric features of macroeconomic hysteresis loops, etc.) are insensitive to specific structures of microeconomic hysteresis subject to aggregation. This suggests that the above properties may be viewed as universal. Furthermore, it is pointed out that these aggregation models have the prediction power of future macroeconomic branching, which may be employed for the prediction of future economic evolution.

We explore the long-term impact of economic booms on labor market outcomes using a novel approach based on revisions to professional forecasts over the past 30 years for 34 advanced economies. We find that when employment rises unexpectedly, forecasters typically raise their long-term forecasts of employment by more than one-for-one and also expect a strong rise in labor force participation, suggesting more persistent effects than is traditionally assumed. Economic booms associated with changes in aggregate demand, when inflation is rising and unemployment falling unexpectedly, also come with persistent long-term effects on expected employment and labor force participation, suggesting positive hysteresis. Our forecast evaluation tests indicate that forecasters are, on average, unbiased in their assessment of these positive, persistent effects.

Do high rates of economic growth create conditions favourable to their own maintenance? Or can a period of high growth'sow the seeds of its own destruction'? This book addresses these questions by conceiving growth and structural change as path dependent processes. Methodological, theoretical and empirical insights are combined in an extended model of cumulative causation, which shows how endogenously induced technological and institutional changes may cause the dynamics of a period of high growth to break down. This casts new light on the debate over Britain's economic decline.