Course description
Macroeconomics analyzes the economy as a whole — at the level of a country or a region as opposed to studying separate markets. During this course the students will master the main notions and models of macroeconomics, will be able to explain economic decision of a Central Bank of a government, and will learn to consider consequences of any serious economic event from both short-run (what will happen in the nearest future) and long-run (what this means for our children and grandchildren) perspectives.
The course consists of two parts. The first considers main notions and models of macroeconomics for a closed-economy case (when there is no external trade). In this part students will learn about the Keynesian economic policy logic (active government spending during economic slowdowns) as opposed to neoclassical ideas of self-regulating markets. The second part of the course considers open economy models, limits of macroeconomic policy (how long can a country increase its government debt), as well as issues of economic growth and distribution. In all cases the students are asked to analyze real-life cases using the models they learn and to discuss economic news of the moment.
Topics
- Basic macroeconomic concepts
- Macroeconomic agents
- Markets in macroeconomics
- A simple neoclassical model
- A simple Keynesian model
- The IS–LM model
- Aggregate demand and aggregate supply: the AD–AS model
- The Phillips curve. Expectations and economic policy
- Open economy
- The Mundell–Fleming model
- The limits of fiscal and monetary policy
- Theory of economic growth
- Economic cycles and crises
Literature
- Carlin W. and Soskice D. Macroeconomics. Imperfections, Institutions and Policies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
- Hoover K. Applied Intermediate Macroeconomics. Cambridge; New York; Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
- Romer D. Advanced Macroeconomics. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011.
- Sorensen P. B. and Whitta-Jacobsen H. J. Introducing Advanced Macroeconomics: Growth and Business Cycles. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.