08795 - Macroeconomics

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to introduce students to the basic methods and topics of macroeconomic analysis and to ensure their understanding of macroeconomic equilibrium in closed and open economies. At the end of the course the student is able to: -define the main macroeconomic variables; -understand the interaction between the market for goods and for financial assets in closed and open economies; -understand the determinants of aggregate demand and aggregate supply, and of macroeconomic equilibrium in the short and in the long run; -understand the motivation of fiscal and monetary policy and the role of expectations in influencing their impact on the economic system.

Course contents

The first part of the course is about the basic concepts of macroeconomics, and the short and long run dynamics.

(1) Macroeconomics and the data in macroeconomics

(2) A focus on the aggregate demand components : consumption and investment, government spending, the open economy  

(3) The GDP and the distribution of national income

(4) Money and inflation

(5) Unemployment

(6) Business cycle and long-run equilibrium

The second part of the course provides an overview of the main macroeconomic models.

(6) The aggregate demand and the IS- LM model

(7) The aggregate supply and the trade-off between inflation and unemployment, the Phillips curve. The AD-AO model.

(9) Open economy and the Mundell-Fleming model.

(10) Public Debt , European Union and economic policies

(11) Economic growth

Readings/Bibliography

Textbooks:

N. Gregory Mankiw & Mark P. Taylor "Macroeconomics", last edition, Worth Publishers.

M.E. Bontempi (2021) Macroeconomia, Create McGraw-Hill, ISBN 9781307679816

Further material will be communicated and made available during the course. The reference website is:

https://sites.google.com/site/mariaelenabontempi/teaching/macroeconomia

Teaching methods

The arguments will be presented with the aid of slides, websites, links to databases. Exercises will be proposed to the class, and solved under the guidance of either the teacher or the tutor.

Assessment methods

Written test on theoretical and applied topics. The assignment is made by theoretical questions, numerical exercises and multiple choices. The exam will be in the InfoLab, online depending on the situation, and will use the app for electronic exams. Before each assignment, the tutor and I prepare and insert the texts of the theoretical questions, the multiple choice tests and the exercises. Students can provide answers in a much more orderly and precise way. The evaluation of the students is facilitated by the fact that the answers provided use a homogeneous writing and that the exam tests are always available to the teachers from any workstation. From a series of surveys that I and the tutor have implemented and administered in the past academic years (we use this mode since 2016), a great appreciation from the students emerges.

Teaching tools

The training provides the alternation of theoretical and applied lessons. In the latter , symbolic situations and practical examples from economic reality are presented, with the aid of PC , slide projector , websites and databases , in order to stimulate discussion and the students' reasoning on issues of macroeconomics. Therefore, attendance is strongly recommended .

Links to further information

https://sites.google.com/site/mariaelenabontempi/teaching/macroeconomia

Office hours

See the website of Maria Elena Bontempi