Spring
2014
Prof. Robert
J. Shiller (Room 11a, 30 Hillhouse,
Office Hours usually Monday 3-5pm)
Administrative Assistant: Bonnie Blake, 30 Hillhouse
Avenue and Evans Hall
Teaching assistants: Zachary Abrahamson TF4, Letian Cynthia
Chang TF4, Maximiliano Dvorkin TF4, Vitor Farinha Luz TF4, Nipun Kant TF2,
Leora Kelman TF2, Yonatan
Landau TF2, Pablo Olmos TF4, Disha Patel TF2, Jeffery
Zhang TF4
Course Description: Macroeconomics is the study of
national aggregates: employment, inflation, national product, the big picture
for a whole country or for the world. In many ways macroeconomic theory is a
derivative of microeconomics, summing up all the micro units of the economy. But
macroeconomic theory has had its own unique dimensions, approaches to thinking,
and public policy concerns.
Grading
Weights: 20% problem sets, 30% midterm, 50% final (subject
to judgmental adjustment)
Two
books required for purchase:
Textbook: Case, Karl E., Ray Fair
and Sharon Oster, Principles of
Macroeconomics 11th ed., Prentice Hall, 2014. Yale Bookstore, Amazon.com
$172.75, Rent $48.82-$89.50, Kindle $134.99
Additional
reading: Akerlof, George A., and Robert J. Shiller, Animal Spirits:
How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global
Capitalism, Princeton University Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0-691-14592-1 Yale
Bookstore, Amazon: paperback $12.51 Kindle $10.17, Audible.com $24.95, and in
21 languages that may be found on the Internet.
Lectures and Problem Sets
Lecture
1:
Monday January 13, Introduction: Why Isn’t the Economy More Stable?
Chapter 5: Introduction to Macroeconomics
[A&S Introduction and Chapter One “Confidence
and Its Multipliers” pp.1-18]
Lecture
2: Wednesday
January 15, GDP and Related Measures of the Macroeconomy
Chapter 6: Measuring National Output and National
Income
Lecture
3:
Friday January 17, Other Fundamental Macroeconomic Measures and their Behavior
Chapter 7: Unemployment, Inflation and Long-Run
Growth
Lecture 4: Wednesday
January 22, Guest lecturer, David Swensen, Chief
Investment Officer, Yale University
Lecture
5:
Monday January 27, Circular flow, general equilibrium
Chapter 8 “Aggregate Expenditure and Equilibrium
Output
Problem set #1 “GDP” due
Lecture
6: Wednesday
January 29, Fiscal Policy
Chapter 9: “The Government and Fiscal Policy”
Lecture
7:
Monday February 3, Monetary Policy
Chapter 10: “The Money Supply aA
Dend the Federal Reserve”
A&S Chapter 7: “Why Do Central Bankers Have
Power Over the Economy?
Problem set #2 “Consumption, Investment,
Equilibrium” due
Lecture
8: Wednesday
February 5, Inflation and Interest Rates
Chapter 11: “Money Demand and the Equilibrium
Interest Rate
A&S Chapter 4 “Money Illusion”
Lecture
9: Monday
February 10, Aggregate demand
Chapter 12: “The Determination of Aggregate Output,
the price level and the Interest Rate
A&S Chapter 5 “Stories”
Problem set #3 “Money and Banking” due
Lecture
10: Wednesday
February 12, Determination of output
Chapter 13: “Policy Effects and Cost Shocks in the
AS/AD Model”
Chapter 16 “Household and Firm Behavior in the Macroeconomy: A further look (pp. 307-16)
Lecture
11: Monday
February 17 “Wages, Employment”
Chapter 14: “The Labor Market in the Macroeconomy”
Chapter 16 “Household and Firm Behavior in the Macroeconomy: A Further Look (pp. 299-305)
A&S Chapter 8 “Why Are
there People Who Can’t Find a Job?”
Problem set #4 “Aggregate Supply and Aggregate
Demand” due
Midterm Exam Wednesday February 19
Lecture
12: Monday
February 24 “Financial Crises, Booms and Busts”
Chapter 15: “Financial Crises, Stabilization, and
Deficits
Problem set #5 “The Labor Market” due
Lecture
13: Wednesday
February 26, Growth and Historic trends
Chapter 17: Long-Run Growth
Lecture
14: Monday
March 3 International macroeconomics
Chapter 19: International Trade, Comparative
Advantage and Protectionism
Problem set #6 “Growth models” due
Lecture
15: Wednesday
March 5: The Open Economy and the Fair Model
Chapter 20: “Open-Economy Macroeconomics: The
Balance of Payments and Exchange Rates
Spring Recess, March 8-23
Lecture
16: Monday March 24 Prof. Roger Ibbotson, stock market game #1
Problem set #7 “International Macroeconomics” due
Lecture
17: Wednesday
March 26, Prof. Roger Ibbotson, stock market game #2
Lecture
18: Monday
March 31, Volatility in Financial Markets
A&S Chapter 11 “Why Are Financial Prices and
Corporate Investments so Volatile?
Problem set #8 “The Fair Model and Questions about Ibbotson’s
Games” due
Lecture
19: Wednesday
April 2 Real estate markets
Chapter 16 “Measuring House Price Changes” p. 306-8
A&S Chapter 12 “Why Do Real
Estate Markets Go Through Cycles?”
Lecture
20: Monday
April 7, Development Economics
Chapter 21 “Economic Growth in Developing and
Transitional Economics”
Problem set #9 “Real Estate Economics” due
Lecture
21: Wednesday
April 9, Doctrinal Disputes in Macroeconomics
Chapter 18: Alternative Views in Macroeconomics
Lecture
22: Monday
April 14, Fairness, Inequality
A&S Chapter 2 “Fairness”
A&S Chapter 13 “Why is there
Special Poverty among Minorities?”
Problem set #10 “Development economics” due
Lecture
23: Wednesday
April 16, Corruption, bribery, influence, Trust, Trustworthiness”
A&S Chapter 3 “Corruption and Bad Faith”
Lecture
24: Monday
April 21, Macroeconomics, our Purposes, and our Society
Lecture
25: Wednesday
April 23, review session