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Cannot be combined with Principles of Macroeconomics (EC1PMA).
A clear understanding of macroeconomics does not only help us understand economic developments at the macro level, but also helps us formulate adequate monetary and fiscal policy responses.This course lays the foundations for analysing the economy at the macro level. You will be able to explain developments in economic activity, inflation, unemployment, interest rate in the short, medium and long run and what the impact of fiscal and monetary policy is on these developments. For this purpose you will deal with simple, small, but abstract and highly interconnected macroeconomic models, like IS-LM, WS-PS, AS-AD and Solow growth model. During the course you will also confront the predictions of these macroeconomic models with actual facts and data. This way, you get an insight into the relevance of economic theory but become also aware of its limitations. You do this by investigating a topic that is highly relevant in policy circles in the European Union.
Learning objectives
At the end of the course the student is able to:
- Think in terms of abstract models when discussing questions about the national and international economy;
- Describe and explain the interactions between the goods, money and labour market, the functioning of the economy in the short and medium run, the relations between employment, inflation and output and the options for fiscal and monetary policy; in a closed and open economy context;
- Describe and explain the factors of growth and the way in which they shape the long-run prospects of the economy;
- Take a well-reasoned position regarding macroeconomic problems in general and in matters relating to economic policy in particular;
- Handle simple macroeconomic models and the matching quantitative data and present the results to an informed audience.
Academic skills
This course focuses on the following academic skills:
- Communication skills
- Being able to give a brief oral presentation on a specific subject.
- Information processing
- Being able to work with data software, such as Excel and Stata.
- Academic reasoning
- Thinking conceptually, thinking in terms of theory.
- Academic research
- Being able to execute the instructed research design.
- Being able to execute an instructed empirical research.
- Being able to apply theoretical concepts in research.
- Social responsibility
- Being able to perform in a team for a well-designed task or project.
Format
Lectures, tutorials and project meetings.
Assessment method
- Written final exam: 70% of the final grade;
- The empirical project: 30% of the final grade;
Effort requirements
Active participation in at least 80% of the tutorials and project sessions.
Language of instruction
English.
Repeaters
Students who signed up for the course in previous years and did not drop the course in time or failed the course, will participate in the course repeaters programme. With respect to the teaching format, this implies that course repeaters:
- Can follow the regular lectures;
- Cannot follow the regular tutorials;
- Will have the possibility to follow a response lecture before the exam.
With respect to the assessment method, this implies that the course repeaters:
- Take the final test (100%);
- And don't have effort requirements;
- Have the possibility for a supplementary or replacement exam if the unrounded final grade is higher than or equal to 4.0.
Students are expected to have knowledge of:
- Mathematics for Economists (ECB1WIS)
- Statistics (ECB1STAT)
Courses that build on Macroeconomics:
- Intermediate Macroeconomics (ECB2VMAE & ECB2IMAE)
- Monetary Theory & Policy (ECB3MTP)
- Growth and Development (ECB3GD)
- Economics of the Public Sector (ECB2EPS)
- Contemporary Economics in Historical Perspective (ECB2GED)
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