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Macro Manager

A Rulebook for the Macroeconomic Simulator
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Goal of the Game

Steer the economy back to full employment

You are the Central Bank Governor and Finance Minister rolled into one. Each scenario hands you an economy that is broken in a specific way — output below potential, runaway inflation, or a banking system frozen by high reserves. Your job is to pull the right policy levers in the right combination, advance time, and watch the results unfold. The game is a sandbox aligned to the CBSE Class 12 Macroeconomics syllabus — every concept on the board maps to something you'll write in an exam.

What's in this guide

  1. The Board — Eight Tiles
  2. The Top Bar (HUD)
  3. The Seven Policy Levers
  4. How the Engine Thinks
  5. How to Play — Five Steps
  6. Tutorial — Closing the Deflationary Gap
  7. Quick Reference
Chapter 1

The Board — Eight Tiles

The board is divided into eight regions. Five are sentient actors — they form opinions about the policies you choose. Three are markets where transactions happen. Hover any tile in the live game to see its balance sheet.

Macro Manager game board with Imports/Exports, Central Government, Central Bank, Post Office Bank, Commercial Banks, Services/Goods, People, and Firms regions
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1
Imports / Exports

The foreign sector. Active only in 4-sector scenarios. Greyed out by default.

2
Central Government

Sets G (spending), T (taxes), TR (transfers). Click the gear icon for fiscal levers. Sentiment shifts with the output gap.

3
Central Bank

Sets Repo, CRR, SLR, OMO. Always neutral — a policy authority, not a stakeholder.

4
Post Office Savings Bank

Holds Post Office savings + time deposits. Contributes to M2 and M4. No active levers.

5
Commercial Banks

Demand deposits, time deposits, reserves at CB, money multiplier, secondary loans. Sentiment shifts with CRR/repo.

6
Services / Goods

The output market — shows MPC, k, C, I, AD, and the live Output Gap (colour-coded green/amber/red).

7
People (Households)

Hold currency, deposits, take loans. Sentiment shifts with prices and unemployment.

8
Firms / Industries

Hold currency, deposits, take loans. Sentiment shifts with output and the cost of capital (repo).

Chapter 2

The Top Bar (HUD)

Everything you need to read or steer the economy lives in the navy bar at the top of the screen.

SCENARIO: THE DEFLATIONARY GAP
◀◀ ⏸ ▶ ▶▶ Q00
Output8,000 / 10,000
Price100.0
Unempl10.0%
₹M3 ₹ 22,200 Cr
SCENARIO: … — Click anywhere on this label to open the scenario selector and pick a different challenge.
◀◀ ⏸ ▶ ▶▶ — Time controls: rewind one quarter, pause, play (2.5 sec/quarter), fast-forward (0.8 sec/quarter).
Q00 — Current quarter counter. The simulation runs in quarters; one tick = one quarter.
Output (Y / Y_full) — Live equilibrium income vs full-employment target. Goal is to drive Y to Y_full.
Price (P) — Price level (100 = baseline). Above 105 = inflation pressure.
Unempl — Unemployment rate. Natural rate ≈ 4%; rises when there is a deflationary gap.
M3 capsule — Broad money supply. Click to expand a dropdown showing M1, M2, M3, M4, HPM and which tiles each component lives on.
Chapter 3

The Seven Policy Levers

Click the gear icon on the Central Bank or Central Government tile to open a side panel with the levers below. Drag any slider — the economy responds instantly in the HUD without advancing time.

— Central Bank (Monetary) —

Monetary

Repo Rate

Range: 0% – 15% · Step 0.1%

The rate at which Commercial Banks borrow from the Central Bank.

Engine: I = 500 + 25 × (4 − repo%). Cut repo by 1pp → I rises by ₹25 Cr → Y rises by ₹125 Cr (k = 5).
CBSE concept: Quantitative tool — main instrument of monetary policy.
Monetary

CRR

Range: 0% – 15% · Step 0.1%

Cash Reserve Ratio — fraction of deposits banks must hold with the Central Bank.

Engine: Money multiplier = 1 / (CRR + SLR). Cut CRR → multiplier rises → M3 expands.
CBSE concept: Quantitative tool. Affects credit creation, not Y directly.
Monetary

SLR

Range: 0% – 30% · Step 0.1%

Statutory Liquidity Ratio — fraction held in liquid assets like govt securities.

Engine: Like CRR, enters the multiplier denominator. Cut SLR → multiplier and M3 rise.
CBSE concept: Quantitative tool. Companion to CRR.
Monetary

OMO (cumulative)

Range: −2,000 to +2,000 ₹ Cr · Step 50

Open Market Operations — net cumulative purchase (+) or sale (−) of government securities by CB.

Engine: HPM = HPM_baseline + OMO. Buy securities (+OMO) → HPM rises → M3 rises.
CBSE concept: Quantitative tool. Direct injection / drain of high-powered money.

— Central Government (Fiscal) —

Fiscal

Government Spending (G)

Range: 0 – 5,000 ₹ Cr · Step 50

Direct purchases of goods and services by the government.

Engine: Enters autonomous expenditure directly. ΔG = +₹100 Cr → ΔY = +₹500 Cr (k = 5).
CBSE concept: Most powerful fiscal lever — full multiplier effect.
Fiscal

Tax Revenue (T)

Range: 0 – 5,000 ₹ Cr · Step 50

Lump-sum taxes paid by households.

Engine: Enters as −MPC × T in autonomous expenditure. ΔT = −₹100 Cr → ΔY = +₹400 Cr (smaller pull than G because of MPC).
CBSE concept: Tax multiplier = −MPC / (1 − MPC) = −4 in this scenario.
Fiscal

Transfer Payments (TR)

Range: 0 – 5,000 ₹ Cr · Step 50

Payments to households without quid pro quo (subsidies, pensions, NREGA wages).

Engine: Enters as +MPC × TR. ΔTR = +₹100 Cr → ΔY = +₹400 Cr.
CBSE concept: Same multiplier strength as a tax cut.
Chapter 4

How the Engine Thinks

Every quarter, the engine runs five equations in this order. All are CBSE Class 12 simplified — no realism beyond the syllabus.

1 · Investment responds to repo I = 500 + 25 × (4 − repo_pp) Cut repo below 4% and investment rises above its baseline of ₹500 Cr. Capped at ₹50 Cr minimum.
2 · Equilibrium income — multiplier autonomous = a + I + G + MPC × (TR − T) k = 1 / (1 − MPC) Y = autonomous × k The investment multiplier k amplifies any autonomous push. With MPC = 0.8, k = 5 — ₹1 Cr extra autonomous expenditure becomes ₹5 Cr of new income.
3 · Money supply HPM = HPM_baseline + OMO multiplier = 1 / (CRR + SLR) M3 = M3_baseline × (multiplier_now / multiplier_base) × (HPM_now / HPM_base) M3 scales with two ratios: how much HPM has grown via OMO, and how much the money multiplier has grown via lower CRR/SLR.
4 · Price + unemployment from output gap gap = (Y − Y_full) / Y_full if gap > +0.5% → P rises by gap × 8; U falls 0.8pp/tick (floor 4%) if gap < −0.5% → P falls 0.4/tick; U = 4% + |gap| × 55% (cap 16%) Inflation arises only when output overshoots full employment. Unemployment arises only when output falls short.
5 · Government debt grows by the deficit debt = debt + (G + TR − T) Every quarter, fiscal deficit accumulates onto government debt. Pure fiscal expansion has a debt cost — exam-relevant trade-off.
Chapter 5

How to Play — Five Steps

1

Pick a scenario

Click SCENARIO: in the top-left HUD. The selector opens with a list of ten scenarios — nine pre-built across three difficulty tiers (easy, medium, hard) plus a Custom Scenario at the bottom (Beta · Pro Preview) where you can design your own. Pick one — for your first game, choose The Deflationary Gap (Easy).

2

Read the briefing

The selector shows the scenario's objective, briefing, starting state (Y, Y_full, MPC, U, P), and which sectors are active. Read it. Click Load and Start Scenario.

Custom Scenario: the right pane becomes a full editor — set the title, briefing, objective, sector mode, every macro constant (Y_full, MPC, autonomous consumption, investment baseline, repo sensitivity), starting state (Y, P, HPM, M3, LRR), and all seven starting policy levers. A live Realism check panel surfaces the gap, multiplier, required ΔAE, money multiplier, and deficit, and blocks the load button on hard violations (Y outside ±50% of Y_full, M3÷HPM unrealistic, P out of range). Unemployment is auto-derived from the gap to match the engine's own formula — you can't set it independently. Drafts save to your browser.

3

Choose 3-sector or 4-sector

Below the HUD, the sector toggle switches between a 3-sector view (households, firms, government — closed economy) and a 4-sector view (adds Imports/Exports tile and the foreign sector). Some scenarios — Coalition Crisis, Stagflation, Fiscal Crisis — are written for 4-sector, but the toggle is always available. The Imports/Exports tile is greyed out in 3-sector mode.

4

Adjust policy levers

Click the ⚙ gear icon on the Central Bank tile (top-right of the board) or Central Government tile (top-centre) to open a side panel with sliders. Drag any of the seven levers — Y, P, U, M3 in the HUD update instantly as you drag. This is preview mode; no time has passed yet.

5

Press ▶ Play to advance time

Each press advances one quarter every 2.5 seconds. Use ▶▶ for fast-forward. Watch the entity sentiments (😊 / 😐 / 😞 badges) shift, the balance-sheet rows redistribute live, and the Output Gap close on the Services/Goods tile.

Rewind (◀◀): steps back one quarter at a time using a circular history buffer of the last 60 quarters. Rewinding restores Y, P, U, HPM, M3, all seven policy levers, and government debt to their state at that tick — useful for "what if I'd cut Repo here instead?" experiments without restarting the scenario.

6

Win the scenario

The win check is |Y − Y_full| / Y_full < 2% AND P < 108. The moment both conditions hold, an Objective Achieved modal pops up showing what you did, what happened, and which alternative paths were available. Click Replay to try again differently.

Watch the deficit, not just the gap. Each quarter, government debt grows by G + TR − T. A scenario "won" by ramping G to ₹3,000 Cr leaves a debt-bomb that the completion modal will surface. Many scenarios — Fiscal Crisis, Coalition Crisis — are explicitly graded on whether you closed the gap without blowing up the deficit.

Chapter 6 · Worked Example

Tutorial — Closing the Deflationary Gap

A complete walkthrough of Scenario 1: The Deflationary Gap. Read this once, then play it once.

Setup

The economy on Q00

Output is ₹8,000 Cr. Full-employment target is ₹10,000 Cr. Gap = −₹2,000 Cr. MPC is 0.8, so the multiplier k = 1/(1 − 0.8) = 5. Unemployment has crept to 10% because firms aren't hiring at full capacity. Prices are at the baseline (P = 100).

Diagnose

Work out what you need

You want Y to rise from 8,000 to 10,000 — a swing of ₹2,000 Cr. Using ΔY = k × Δautonomous:

₹2,000 Cr = 5 × Δautonomous Δautonomous = ₹400 Cr

You need to push autonomous expenditure up by ₹400 Cr. Now decide which lever — or combination — gets you there.

Decide

Pick a single lever

The cleanest single move is raise G by ₹400 Cr. Why? Because G enters autonomous expenditure 1:1 — no MPC discount. Other paths exist (TR or T cut) but they need ₹500 Cr of movement to deliver the same ₹400 Cr push, because MPC scales them down.

G effect : ΔG × 1 × k = 400 × 1 × 5 = +₹2,000 Cr ✓ TR effect : ΔTR × MPC × k = 500 × 0.8 × 5 = +₹2,000 Cr ✓ Tax cut : ΔT × −MPC × k = −500 × −0.8 × 5 = +₹2,000 Cr ✓ Repo cut : even max cut from 4% to 0% = +₹500 Cr only ✗
Execute

Drag the slider

Click the ⚙ gear on Central Government. In the side panel, find Government Spending (G). Drag from 600 to 1000. Watch the HUD: Output jumps from 8,000 / 10,000 to 10,000 / 10,000 instantly. (P and U don't update yet — those only refresh on a tick.)

Run time

Press ▶ Play

One tick fires. The engine recomputes: gap is now zero, P stays at 100, U starts dropping by 0.5pp/tick. The win check fires immediately on this tick because both conditions hold (gap < 2% AND P < 108).

🎯 Objective Achieved. The completion modal pops up showing your policy diff (G: 600 → 1,000, +₹400 Cr), the bulleted list of effects (Y rose, gap closed, U starts converging to 4%, debt grows by deficit), and four alternative paths you could have taken.
Reflect

Trade-offs to notice

The pure-G path has a side-effect: government debt grew by the deficit (₹400 Cr × number of quarters). If the scenario had run longer, debt would compound. A "softer" path is to combine a small repo cut with a smaller G push — same Y outcome, less debt. The Replay button lets you experiment.

Cheat Sheet

Quick Reference

Per ₹1 Cr Move

  • G: Y +₹5 Cr
  • TR: Y +₹4 Cr
  • T: Y −₹4 Cr (cut → +₹4)
  • Repo (per 1pp cut): Y +₹125 Cr

Diagnostics

  • Gap = (Y − Y_full) / Y_full
  • Negative → deflationary, U rises
  • Positive → inflationary, P rises
  • Required Δautonomous = Gap_in_₹Cr / k

Win Conditions

  • |Y − Y_full| / Y_full < 2%
  • AND P < 108
  • Both must hold simultaneously

What Sliders Do

  • Repo: moves I (and Y via k)
  • CRR / SLR: move M3, not Y
  • OMO: moves M3 via HPM
  • G / T / TR: move Y directly

Time Controls

  • ◀◀ rewind 1 quarter (60 max)
  • ⏸ pause
  • ▶ 2.5 sec / quarter
  • ▶▶ 0.8 sec / quarter

Sentiment Triggers

  • People: sad if P>110 OR U>10%
  • Firms: sad if Y<85% Y_full OR repo>8%
  • Banks: sad if CRR>7% OR OMO sale > ₹500 Cr
  • Govt: happy if |gap|<3% AND P<110
  • CB: always neutral
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