Economics 3334: Intermediate Macroeconomics Spring 2008 Prof. Dietrich Vollrath Office: McElhinney 201C, 743-3806 Office Hours: 2:30 – 5pm Tuesdays Email:

Economics 3334: Intermediate MacroeconomicsSpring 2008

• Prof. Dietrich Vollrath

• Office: McElhinney 201C, 743-3806

• Office Hours: 2:30 – 5pm Tuesdays

• Email: [email protected]

• Web: http://uhec3334.blogspot.com/

•

• Teaching Assistant: Parul Mathur

• Office: McElhinney 246

• Office Hours: ??

• Email: [email protected]


• Intermediate Macroeconomics (6th edition) by Gregory Mankiw.

• www.worthpublishers.com/mankiw

• http://uhec3334.blogspot.com/


• Midterm: February 28th, in class, 30% of grade

• Final: April 24th, in class, 30% of grade

• Problem Sets: (3), due Feb. 5th, Feb. 26th, April 3rd, 20% of grade

• Short Article Discussions: (5), due whenever you do them, 10% of grade

• Paper: Due April 24th, 10% of grade

• Extra credit: Comments on uhec3334.blogspot.com, each 1% extra, up to 10%.


• Withdrawals: by Jan 28th with no grade for the course, by April 1st to receive a “W”. After that – you get a letter grade.

• Problems, Emergencies, Issues: Talk to me right away


• January 15th – 22nd: Introduction, data, and basic facts

• January 24th – Feb. 5th: Income, Money, and Open Economies

– Application: The U.S. Trade Deficit

• February 7th – March 4th: Short run fluctuations, building IS/LM model

– Application: Risk versus reward in the IS market

– Application: Fed operations and money creation

– Application: Housing bubble

• February 28th: MIDTERM covers points 1-3


• March 6th – 13th: Open economy IS/LM

– Application: Currency crises

– Application: The rise of China

• March 25th – April 1st: The Philips curve and implications

– Application: The Great Depression

– Application: The Great Moderation

• April 3rd – April 15th: Other aspects of the macroeconomy

– Application: Government debt

– Application: Unions and unemployment

– Application: Income distribution in the U.S.

• April 17th – 22nd: Growth and Development

• April 24th: FINAL covers points 5-8


• Throughout the semester I will post articles, or links to articles, online at http://uhec3334.blogspot.com/. You are responsible for writing five (5) short article discussions on these.

• Each summary should be approximately 400-500 words (that’s not quite a full page of writing). You have two alternatives for submitting the summaries:– Use the “Comments” section on the website

– Submit a typed/printed version

http://uhec3334.blogspot.com/


• Read any of the assigned articles and write a 1000-1200 word paper about one of them.


• Summarize the author’s main points in your own words.

• Please be aware that using exact sentences (without quotation marks) from the article in your paper is plagiarism.

• It is ok to use quotes SPARINGLY, but you should concentrate on describing the main points of the article in your words.

• Identify and explain one or two relevant economic concepts from our text and/or lecture that you find in the article.

• Present your personal evaluation/reaction to the article. If you submit on-line, feel free to respond to previous comments in a constructive or meaningful manner.

• FOR THE FINAL PAPER: Use the relevant economic theory (i.e. model) that we discussed in class to analyze the main points of the article.


• Identifies the economic concepts that are applicable to the article topic.

• Identifies and summarizes the main points of the article.– Strong: Identifies the main points and recognizes the nuances of the issues;

demonstrates clear understanding of the main points of the article.– Weak: Does not identify the main points of the article, is confused about the issues, or

represents the issues inaccurately or incompletely. Merely repeats the author’s words without demonstrating understanding of the main points of the article.

• Is well written– Strong: Presents main points in a clear and easy to follow sequence; does not contain

unnecessary duplication of ideas or information; does not contain errors of punctuation, grammar, spelling, etc.

– Weak: Presentation is unclear and disorganized; contains unnecessary duplication of ideas or information; contains errors of punctuation, grammar, spelling, etc; contains excessive use of quotes from the article.


• Specifically, the researchers asked for estimated times by which the students thought it was 50%, 75%, and 99% probable their personal projects would be done. Would you care to guess how many students finished on or before their estimated 50%, 75%, and 99% probability levels?– 13% of subjects finished their project by the time they had assigned

a 50% probability level;– 19% finished by the time assigned a 75% probability level;– and only 45% (less than half!) finished by the time of their 99%

probability level.• "The results for the 99% probability level are especially striking: Even

when asked to make a highly conservative forecast, a prediction that they felt virtually certain that they would fulfill, students' confidence in their time estimates far exceeded their accomplishments."

Figure 1.1 Real GDP per Person in the U.S. EconomyMankiw: Macroeconomics, Sixth EditionCopyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Figure 1.2 The Inflation Rate in the U.S. EconomyMankiw: Macroeconomics, Sixth EditionCopyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Figure 1.3 The Unemployment Rate in the U.S. EconomyMankiw: Macroeconomics, Sixth EditionCopyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

Documents

Economics 3334: Intermediate Macroeconomics Spring 2008 Prof. Dietrich Vollrath Office: McElhinney 201C, 743-3806 Office Hours: 2:30 – 5pm Tuesdays Email: