Fall 2023 Syllabus: download

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OPTIONAL Books for the course

1. Mankiw, Macroeconomics, 11th Edition by MacMillan Press.  This is "the" standard macro textbook. Very good and well written.​  I'll reference it and use some sections, but it's optional.

2. Garin-Lester-Sims, Intermediate Macroeconomics by Julio Garin, Robert Lester and Eric Sims. ("GLS Macro").  This is a truly modern macro textbook that is really more of an "advanced undergraduate" macro book than an "intermediate" book. The authors' site is here in case they update.

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Outline, Notes and Readings

For this course, I mostly use my own notes. I will reference the Mankiw text and will also provide links to the relevant GLS chapters as well.

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MODULE 1: Review and Macro on the Island

• REVIEW Materials

  • Economics Review

    • Review Basic S&D Analysis

      • Practice Problems for Review of Supply and Demand​

    • Review of the Law of One Price

    • Time Paths

    • Review AS-AD Basics

  • Math Review/Notes

    • Basic Math, Graphing and Intro to S&D

    • Derivatives in 10 Minutes or Less

    • Geometric Series

    • Percentage Changes “Three Ways to Calculate”

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• Introduction

  • Island and 3 Key Economic Questions All Societies Face

    • HO 1 Setup and Agg Production​

  • ​​​Linear Production, Productivity, Wages and Innovation

    • HO 2 Linear Prod MPL Scanned

  • Transaction Costs and Institutions​

    • HO 3 Transaction Costs​

    • HO 4 The Birth of Money

  • Optional READINGS:​

    • The Island of Yap (Chap 1 in Milton Friedman's Money Mischief)

    • The Mystery of Money (First pages of Chap 2 in Friedman's Money Mischief)

    • BBC Article on YAP today (2018)

    • Wikipedia's YAP page

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​​EXAM 1 (Tuesday, October 3, 2023)

Relevant Practice Problems

PS 01 AS AD and Time Paths Forward and Backward

PS 02 Setup and Agg Production Fall 2023

PS 03 Agg and Disagg Production Fall 2023

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​MODULE 2: Distribution of Income and the Solow Model of Growth

• ​NeoClassical Theory of Income Distribution​

  • Concave Production, CRTS, Marginal Products

    • HO 5 Concave Functions in Economics

  • NeoClassical Theory of Income Distribution

    • HO 6 Distribution of Income Broader Thoughts

    • HO 6.5 Distribution of Income Conclusion

    • Mankiw Chap 3 - National Income: Where It Comes From and Where It Goes

• Solow Growth Model​​

  • HO 7 Solow Growth Handwritten Notes​

  • Kaldor Stylized Facts (Wiki)

  • World Bank Graph: US and Germany

  • Word Bank Graph: US and  Japan

  • Mankiw Chap 8 – Capital Accumulation as a Source of Growth

  • GLS 2021 Chap 4 Growth Facts

  • GLS 2021 Chap 5 Solow Growth Model

 

EXAM 2: Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Relevant Practice Problems

PS 04 NeoClassical Thry of Dist 2023

PS 05 Solow Growth Model 2023

 

​MODULE 3: Macroeconomic Policy

• The Birth of Government

  • The Birth of Money

  • The Birth of Government (Fiscal Authority)

• Fiscal Policy

  • HO 08 Gov Fin Pt 1 Constraints

  • HO 09 Gov Fin Pt 2 Further Thoughts

  • HO 10 Gov_Finances_Pt_3_FTPL

    • OPTIONAL: Congressional Budget Office

• Monetary Policy

  • Traditional Theory of Money: MV=Py

    • HO 11 Economic Evolution and Money

    • HO 12 Money and Prices SR vs LR

    • HO 13 Chap 4 The Monetary System Notes

    • A First Monetary Rule: Friedman's k-percent rule (set %M = %y^FE + k)

  • Money Market Basics

    • HO 14 Money Markets Pt 1 Nominal 2023

  • Chris Youtube Videos​: "The Nominal Money Market" or "The Market for Nominal Money Balances"

    • HO 15 Money Markets Pt 2 Real 2023

  • ​The Challenge of Monetary Policy, the Phillips Curve and Losing Control

    • HO 16 "Dangerous Expectations"

      • Monetary Policy and AS-AD: Pt 1 - The Phillips Curve​

      • Monetary Policy and AS-AD: Pt 2 - Loosing Control

  • Modern Monetary Policy: Taylor Rules and New Keynesian Views

    • The idea of Interest Rate Rules

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EXAM 3: TBD, 2023

Relevant Practice Problems

PS 06 Gov Budgets Constraints and Deficits

PS 07 Money and Birth of Money

PS 08 The Real Money Market and Policy

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