Introduction to Macroeconomics

Course Description:

This course provides an overview of macroeconomic issues: the determination of output, employment, unemployment, interest rates, and inflation. Monetary and fiscal policies are discussed. Important policy debates such as, the sub-prime crisis, social security, the public debt, and international economic issues are critically explored. The course introduces basic models of macroeconomics and illustrates principles with the experience of world economies.

This course provides an overview of the principles of macroeconomics. It will describe the economic factors that can lead to a better standard of living and explain the causes of recession, unemployment and inflation. We will examine how policy choices can provide remedies to these problems. We will also examine the interdependence and the role of the United States in the world economy.

Course Learning Outcomes:

These are some of the questions that keep macroeconomists up at night. If you are curious about the answers, then this is the course for you.

The course is organized in three parts:

• Part 1: The first seven lectures are dedicated to understanding the interactions between financial markets and the "real" economy. This is probably the hardest part of the course. But you are fresh from the Winter break, and it will be lots of fun;
• Part 2: The following 10 lectures build up a macro model starting from the Short Run, then moving to the Medium Run and finally opening up the economy to the rest of the world;
• Part 3: In the last seven lectures, we shall study the effectiveness of the government's intervention through fiscal and monetary policies.