According to recent studies, shocks over aggregated variables imply in differentiated impacts over economic system, affecting more some agents and sectors than others according to their characteristics. Theoretically, the mechanisms that differentiate shocks effects over economic agents are the variations in relative prices of inputs and output, the variation of labor demand, the workers characteristics and the design of actual policy. Thus, the purpose of this article is, through a both theoretical and empirical literature review about the relationship of macroeconomic performance and social welfare, to find answers to three questions. First: which are the agents that most suffer the effects of economic recessions? Second: which are the agents that most benefit by economic growth? Third: which are the alternatives of policy related to macroeconomic managing of social welfare?
Welfare; macroeconomic policy; business cycles; social development