59691 - Macroeconomics

Academic Year 2017/2018

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Economics and Finance (cod. 8835)

Learning outcomes

This is an introductory course in macroeconomics. The goal is to develop a relatively advanced basis for an understanding of how the national and global economies work at the aggregate level, and how production, employment, prices and interest rates are determined. We will develop the theoretical foundations to analyze the business cycle (why economic activity fluctuates), long run economic growth (why some countries are rich and other poor, why some countries are growing and other stagnating), the 2007-2008 financial crisis and subsequent deep recession as well as how fiscal, monetary, and economic policy in general affect economic activity.

Course contents

1. Introduction and policy issues

2. National Accounting

3. Growth

4. Aggregate Supply and Demand

5. The Phillips Curve

6. Unemployment

7. Inflation

8. Income and Spending

9. The IS-LM Model

10. The open economy

11. Consumption and Saving

12. The monetary market

13. The Central Bank

14. Basic Finance

15. National debt

16. Recession and depression

17. The eurozone

 

Readings/Bibliography

The textbook is R. Dornbush, S. Fisher, R. Startz, Macroeconomics,

McGraw-Hill, Twelfth Edition, 2014 (chapters 1-18, 20-21)

Additional material is available in Campus on my page

 

Teaching methods

Traditional front teaching

Assessment methods

Written exam made of exercises and questions (90 minutes)

Office hours

See the website of Flavio Delbono