Econ520 - Advanced Macroeconomic Theory

Spring 2021 - Prof. Lutz Hendricks

Announcements

• Syllabus
• Final exam:
• Dec-7, noon. You will have 3 hours, but I expect that you will need less time than that.

• Covers material since (including) Open Economy. But note that material is cumulative. While I will not directly ask closed economy AS/AD questions, for example, most of the concepts from before the midterm recur in the post-midterm material.

• Midterm exam: Oct-5 (in class). Material covered up to (including) trade deficits (but not the open economy models).

• Sep-17: Everyone should have contacted me about the term paper by now. If you have not, please do so soon! By week 6 (Sep-23), each student should send me a list of 5 references with a brief summary of the main arguments, pro and con, on their chosen topic.
• There is now a sakai site; to be used in the future for posting grades. It also contains a discussion forum where you can post questions and answers.
• Important: you must have passed Intermediate Macroeconomics to register for this course.
• Important: students who do not attend the first week of classes will be dropped from the course. This is department policy. Please contact me if you need an accomodation.
• Slides will be updated as the course progresses.
• Tips for taking exams
• Of potential interest:
• Business Today's 47th International Conference.
• Internships with NCPIRG

Schedule of Classes

No class on Oct-12 (University Day), Oct-21 (fall break), Nov-25 (Thanksgiving).

Short Run

• Aug-19 (Thu): Introduction, IS-LM model (each of these links leads to the slides that were used in class)
• Aug-24 (Tue): IS/LM Equilibrium, PP (PP means "practice problems"; for your enjoyment; not to be handed in)
• Aug-26 (Thu): IS/LM Equilibrium (cont.)
• Aug-31 (Tue): The term paper, Monetary Policy
• Sep-2 (Thu): Fiscal Deficits, PP

Medium Run

• Sep-7 (Tue): Labor market, PP
• Sep-9 (Thu): Labor market (continued)
• Sep-14 (Tue): AS-AD model, PP (covers Phillips Curve)
• Sep-16 (Thu): AS-AD model (continued)
• Sep-21 (Tue): AS-AD model (continued)
• Sep-23 (Thu): Inflation and unemployment, Inflation expectations and monetary policy, PP

Open Economy

• Sep-28 (Tue): Trade deficits, PP
• Sep-30 (Thu): IS-LM model, PP, IS-LM floating exchange rate
• Oct-7 (Thu): IS-LM fixed exchange rate
• Oct-14 (Thu): AS-AD model,
• Oct-19 (Tue): Policy analysis, PP
• Oct-26 (Tue): Costs and benefits of international trade

Inequality

• Oct-28 (Thu): Inequality facts, Earnings inequality
• Nov-2 (Tue): The top 1 percent, Intergenerational mobility

Long-run Growth

• Nov-4 (Thu): Growth facts
• Nov-9 (Tue): Methods for identifying causes and effects,
• Nov-11 (Thu): Institutions, PP
• Nov-16 (Tue): Solow model, Solow diagram, PP
• Nov-18 (Thu): Solow Applications, In preparation, please read How to prevent the end of economic growth
• Nov-23 (Tue): Growth and ideas
• Nov-30 (Tue): Romer model, PP
• Nov-30 (Tue): Policy implications
• Nov-30 (Tue): Last class. Model summary. All questions answered! (or almost all...).

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