Last Update: Lecture 10 notes are now posted (Posted: Monday, February 06, 2012)


 

Economics 110: Principles of Macroeconomics
Spring 2011

 

Instructor: Pavel Kapinos

Office: Willis 322                                                                                                      

Email: pkapinos@carleton.edu
Office hours: Tu, We 3-5; appt

Prefect: Jake Alcorn
Email: alcornj@carleton.edu



Essentials:
Syllabus


Date

Lecture

References: Required | [Recommended]

January 5 (Th)

Lecture 1: Course Overview | Fundamental concepts

TW 1,2

January 10 (Tu)

Lecture 2: Production Possibilities Frontier | Supply and Demand

TW 3

January 12 (Th)

Lecture 3: Social Welfare and Government Intervention | Elasticity

TW 4 | Reading from the Taylor micro text

January 17 (Tu)

Lecture 4: Overview of Macroeconomics | Measurement of Variables

TW 5,6 | FRED2 database by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

January 19 (Th)

Lecture 5: Economic Growth: Overview of Issues, Malthusian Model

TW 17 | Cowen and Tabarrok Ch 6 | Szulga notes on the Malthusian Model | [4 minute overview of the history of economic development]

January 19 (Th) @6:45pm in Willis 203

Lecture 6: Modern Economic Growth: Solow Model

TW 9 | [Cowen and Tabarrok Ch 7] | Szulga notes on the Solow Model  | [Money, Happiness, and Bulgaria—an Economist update]

January 24 (Tu)

Lecture 7: Growth and Inequality | Spending Allocation Model

Lecture notes | TW 7 | [Trends in the Distribution of Household Income, 1979-2007 by the CBO, Bakija, Cole, and Heim (2010), The Economist’s Take on Inequality]

January 26 (Th)

Midterm I (with MC answers at the end)

PSets 1—3, Lectures 1—6  | Sample Midterm | Sample Midterm 1 Solution (Note: Please take the test under regular test-taking conditions first and then compare your answers to the solution—or swap tests with a classmate to grade each other’s work. Disclaimer: While the micro/macro split and relative topic coverage is likely to be similar on the test, the actual questions and relevant models may be different.)

January 31 (Tu)

Lecture 8: Labor Market | Money and Monetary Policy | Banking System

TW 8, 10

February 2 (Th)

Lecture 9: Short-run Fluctuations: The Aggregate Expenditure Perspective

TW 11

February 7 (Tu)

Lecture 10: Fiscal Policy: Introduction | Aggregate Expenditure | Inequality

TW 14 (skip AD-IA discussion for now) | Lecture notes | [Historical evolution of fiscal variables, US Debt Clock, How Would You Cut the Deficits?, Link for your parents, Partisan Politics and Income Inequality]

February 9 (Th)

Lecture 11: Monetary Policy: Business Cycle Management | Causes of and Responses to the Most Recent Crisis

TW 12, 15 (skip AD-IA and foreign exchange rate discussion for now) | Lecture notes

February 14 (Tu)

Lecture 12: Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply

All AD-IA discussion in TW

February 16 (Th)

Lecture 13: A Brief Macroeconomic History of the United States

Lecture notes (same PowerPoint as Lecture 12) | Monetary Policy Game | [Dealing with Recessions: An Overview]

February 21 (Tu)

Lecture 14: Financial Markets: Debt and Equity Basics

TW 16; lecture notes

February 23 (Th)

Midterm II 

PSets 1—6, Lectures 1—13

February 28 (Tu)

Lecture 15: International Trade 1

TW18

March 1 (Th)

Lecture 16: International Trade 2 | International Finance 1

TW19, TW15 (pp. 372-376) | [Romer on the Dollar: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/business/economy/22view.html]

March 6 (Tu)

Lecture 17: International Finance 2 | Course Overview

Lecture notes

March 12 (Mo) @ 8:30-11am

Final

Everything


Problem Sets:
Problem Set 1, due Thu 1/12 | Solution
Problem Set 2, due Thu 1/19 | Solution
Problem Set 3, due Tue 1/24 | Solution, Excel work
Problem Set 4, due Thu 2/9 |
Problem Set 5, due Thu 2/16 |
Problem Set 6, due Tue 2/21 |
Problem Set 7, due Thu 3/8 |

Problem Set 8—optional, ungraded, does not have to be turned it


Links:
Macroeconomic updates: Global Economic Forum by Morgan Stanley
Financial and Economic News: CNN MoneyEconomist, Wall Street Journal
Nobel Prize Laureates in Economics
FRED II database by the Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis (U.S. data)
Penn World Table Database by the Center for International Comparisons at the University of Pennsylvania
Mankiw Blog, Krugman Blog
IGM Expert Panel Answers Important Economic Questions