Principles of
Macroeconomics
Required Text: Robert H. Frank and Ben S. Bernanke, Principles of Macroeconomics (McGraw-Hill/Irwin, Brief edition, ISBN 0-07-799868-5)
Course Outline Introduction. Chapters 1 - 2. Demand and Supply. Chapter 3. Answer key to demand and supply worksheet Measuring income, inflation, unemployment and economic growth. Chapters 4 -7 To adjust figures for inflation click here. To get some historical perspective on how much things cost click here. Click here for a song! Click here for the lyrics. Basic Macroeconomic analysis and fiscal policy. Chapters 10 and 11. Money, Banking and Monetary Policy. Chapters 9, and 12. Click here for fun and games at the FED. Modern Macroeconomics. Chapter 13.
Purpose of the course: To introduce you to the branch of economics known as Macroeconomics. Macroeconomics deals with the causes, consequences and control of inflation and economic recession. We also explore the causes of economic growth and discuss what can be done to promote it. In Macroeconomics we attempt to understand how economic systems work. This is in marked contrast to Microeconomics where we attempt to understand how individual economic households or firms behave, given their environment and where the demand side of a market is assumed independent of the supply side. If one could always extend what we observe in Microeconomics about individual behavior to the economy overall we would not need a separate area of study called Macroeconomics. The mistaken belief that we can generalize from the individual case (Microeconomics) to the whole (Macroeconomics) is what is referred to as the fallacy of composition. I hope to help you develop the tools needed to read or listen to reports on where inflation, corporate profits, interest rates, economic growth, the stock market, unemployment and so on may be in the near future. After taking ECON201 you should be able to not only follow expert opinion but to also evaluate the worth or merit of such opinions. Course objectives: (1) To familiarize you with macroeconomic concepts. (2) To increase your awareness of how important these concepts are to business planning, financial analysis and being a good citizen. (3) To help you understand how reasoning from individual behavior to group behavior is often misleading and (4) To help you further develop your higher order thinking skills.
In this class, you must demonstrate that you fully comprehend what we cover and are comfortable In this class, you must demonstrate that you fully comprehend what we cover and are comfortable applying ideas from class to the real world. You are then encouraged to challenge the premises that form the basis of any given argument (once both of us are sure that you understand the argument being presented on its own terms). Reality is far too complex to provide you with a set of ready-made answers. We will go well beyond mere knowledge of "facts" and procedures and basic comprehension to application, analysis, and evaluation of existing ideas. Some of you may go one step further to the creation of new ideas (or theories or explanations) on your own! I would very happy if I could help you get to this point over the next ten weeks.
Course Grade How much you are learning will be measured principally* through exams and quizzes. There will be four quizzes, a midterm exam, and a final. The final is comprehensive and worth 40% of your course grade. Each quiz carries equal weight. Together the quizzes make up 30% of your course grade. The exam is worth 30 percent of your course grade. *(Various small assignments may be given over the course of the term. The points awarded on these will become part of your quiz and exam scores. For example, before your first quiz on the 2nd of September I may give you two assignments worth 1 point each. The quiz itself would then be 8 points and your score on quiz 1 would be the sum of points earned on the quiz out of 8 PLUS your scores on these two assignments. These figures combined would go down in the spreadsheet as your total score out of 10 points possible for quiz 1.) The comprehensive final exam will be worth 30 percent. The two hour final is scheduled for Thursday 12:00 noon February 16th. Please note the following re finals from the registrar's office: 1. No final examination may be changed from its scheduled period except with the approval of the Registrar. Travel arrangements, vacations, employment plans and convenience will not be viewed as sufficient reasons to change an examination. 2. The deadline to submit a petition requesting to change a scheduled exam is the Monday of week 10 each term. Requests after this deadline will not be granted.
Rules of the Road 1.) Attendance and Attendance represents the minimal degree of participation. No more than two unexcused absences will be allowed. The key reason for this is that I don't give lectures. I conduct classes. There is an important difference between the two. In a lecture, a student sits passively in front of the professor and receives the little pieces of wisdom that the professor decides to share or "profess". The Professor is the "sage on the stage". ( The word lecture itself comes from the Latin word lectus or a derivative of the Latin legere "to read". You have got a text and can read on your own. I don't need to lecture or read to you. Lectures should have gone out with the printing press.) In a class or group (check the dictionary for the derivation of the word class), the student is expected to be just that, part of the group. Our group is dedicated to the study of Macroeconomics. My role is to help guide you through your process of learning. In other words, my job is to be a "guide on the side" rather than the "sage on the stage". What you learn and how much you learn depends on the connections you draw between what we are talking about in class, what you are reading about and working on outside of class and what YOU already know and understand; what you bring to ECON 201. If we don't talk or communicate through writing, either in class or outside of class, I have no way of knowing if you are making the sort of connections you need to make and therefore learn as much about Macroeconomics as you possibly can. To encourage you to do what we all need to do to really truly learn more about any subject, to communicate, I will give each of you a large index card on the first day of class. Please put your name on it. If you feel that you have made a contribution to a particular day's class, to your own learning or what the rest of us are learning, make a note of that contribution on this card and put the date down as well. At the one end of the spectrum your contribution may be something as simple as asking me to clarify what we have already covered. At the other end of the spectrum, it may be something as sophisticated as responding to a point raised by another student or bringing up something from outside class that is relevant to what we are discussing. Turn this card in to me at the end of each day's class. I will return the card to you at the start of the next class. I will award points for these daily contributions. These points will count for up to 5 points extra credit on your course grade. As I have noted attendance represents the minimal degree of participation. No more than one unexcused absence will be allowed. I will deduct 5% from your overall grade for every unexcused absence after the first one. 2.) Study habits. Don't get behind. You can't even come close to fully understanding what we're doing here without working things out on your own, outside of class. This is because of the higher order thinking skills used. In other words, there is a far more to this class than memorizing a bunch of definitions and learning a handful of procedures. You should try to study at least two hours for every hour in the classroom. This means about an hour each day. You should review your notes, takes notes on what you have read, make a list of questions you have, bring them to the lab or to me to clarify points you are confused about. Do this before you have too much to catch up on. Review class material as soon after class as possible. For more on this, click here. Also read the assigned material at least once before class meets. Then read the assigned chapters after class as you review your notes.
3.) Notes. It would be a good idea to invest in a separate notebook for this course and leave the back side of each page blank. On the blank sheets facing the pages that you've written your class notes, go through and write down the formulae and graphs we've used, what in plain everyday English we're doing, why you would care, and, in the examples we've gone through, what sort of conclusions we have gotten. 4.) If you were my employee rather than my student, during meetings you would want to be attentive, ask questions, and contribute as much as you could. If this were a job, you would want to make sure you did at least as much as was expected of you and that you produced tangible evidence this work! Also note that I am will be your best friend if I feel that you are putting in the effort. I really enjoy teaching. What I do not enjoy is dealing with people who think there are must be some sort of shortcut to mastering this material and who refuse to put in the effort. 5.) If you have questions about the exams ask them as soon as you can. Either take them to the Econ Lab and discuss your questions with the lab assistant or better yet, come in to see me. 6.) You are always welcome in my office. It is especially important however to keep in mind that (a) there is an answering machine in my office (b) you can send your message to my office email address and (c) you can leave messages with Mrs. Moreno in the Economics Department There is therefore no reason that you should be unable to get hold of me in a timely manner during normal school hours. Also please keep in mind that email is the most efficient way of communicating. 7.) My office hours are listed at the top of my webpage. These are times when I will definitely be in. Appointments are also welcome. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO JUST STOP BY (except right before class). 8.) Motivation. It is my job to teach you this subject. It is YOUR job to convince yourself that what you are learning here is important and relevant. It is also YOUR job to convince yourself that what we cover in this class is interesting and worth the time you will have to invest in studying. Problems with a course frequently start at the point where the student makes up his or her mind that the entire topic is not worth the close attention it demands to master it. Also although it is unlikely that you will feel that we are going too slowly over the material if you do feel this to be the case please let me know. I will happily give you other material to look at. This material will add additional depth to what we are working through together in class. |