IS–LM model

The IS–LM model, or Hicks–Hansen model, is a two-dimensional macroeconomic model which is used as a pedagogical tool in macroeconomic teaching. The IS–LM model shows the relationship between interest rates and output in the short run in a closed economy. The intersection of the "investment–saving" (IS) and "liquidity preference–money supply" (LM) curves illustrates a "general equilibrium" where supposed simultaneous equilibria occur in both the goods and the money markets. The IS–LM model shows the importance of various demand shocks (including the effects of monetary policy and fiscal policy) on output and consequently offers an explanation of changes in national income in the short run when prices are fixed or sticky. Hence, the model can be used as a tool to suggest potential levels for appropriate stabilisation policies. It is also used as a building block for the demand side of the economy in more comprehensive models like the AD–AS model.

The model was developed by John Hicks in 1937 and was later extended by Alvin Hansen as a mathematical representation of Keynesian macroeconomic theory. Between the 1940s and mid-1970s, it was the leading framework of macroeconomic analysis. Today, it is generally accepted as being imperfect and is largely absent from teaching at advanced economic levels and from macroeconomic research, but it is still an important pedagogical introductory tool in most undergraduate macroeconomics textbooks.

As monetary policy since the 1980s and 1990s generally does not try to target money supply as assumed in the original IS–LM model, but instead targets interest rate levels directly, some modern versions of the model have changed the interpretation (and in some cases even the name) of the LM curve, presenting it instead simply as a horizontal line showing the central bank's choice of interest rate. This allows for a simpler dynamic adjustment and supposedly reflects the behaviour of actual contemporary central banks more closely.