Course Website (Canvas): All materials for the course are accessible through Canvas.

Prerequisite: ECON 2006, ECON 3104 and MATH 1206 or 1526 or 2015

Required Materials:

• Zoom. Note that you MUST sign into Zoom using your VT account. Improper behavior on Zoom will be immediately referred to Student Conduct.

• A way of quickly scanning and sending something, such as the TinyScanner app.

• A way to take notes with paper and pen/pencil.

Required Textbook:

Jones, C.I. (2020): Macroeconomics 5th edition, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, NY. Available at University bookstore. It is also available as an ebook at https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393417326, 3rd or 4th edition is almost the same. (It is fine to use)

Course Description:

This course will provide a broad introduction to macroeconomics. Topics covered in the course include produc- tion, labor supply, household savings, long run economics growth, cross-country income differences, business cycles, monetary theory, inflation, financial crisis and monetary policy. The goal of the course is to introduce students to the main ideas macroeconomists use to think about how the economy works at the aggregate level. The course also aims to teach students how to evaluate empirical evidence and policy questions relating to macroeconomics.

The class will use mathematics extensively.

Recommended:

I strongly advise you to incorporate daily reading from reputable news sources into your routine.  The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, and The Economist are all reliable sources worth considering. If you don’t want a paid subscription, you can create a personalized RSS feed using various free websites such as Project Syndicate and Brookings. Keeping up with economics, business, and political news—both domestically and internationally—is an excellent way to apply what you learn to real-world scenarios.  This practice will enhance your comprehension of the course material and and you will make better sense of the world around you.

Course Format: This course is designed such that it can be considered as a combination of both asynchronous and synchronous modalities. It is asynchronous in the sense that the course is divided into weekly topics/mod- ules, and each topic will be covered through lecture videos, readings and homework assignments.  You can watch these videos in your own time. It is also synchronous which means that you will have the opportunity to actively participate in our daily online sessions (M-F, 11:00 AM to 12:15 PM). Please read the next section to get more details regarding these sessions. You should consider the course home page in Canvas as your launch point each week. There, you will find a link to the Welcome Page for each module. Once you have clicked on the Welcome Page, you just click next to lead you through the course.

Zoom Meetings: These sessions take place five times a week (Daily, M-F, 11:00 AM-12:15 PM) through this link:

https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/89388007496?pwd=ZlFqeWR4K2xHdHo5SUF1QjQyMGpGdz09

(Meeting ID: 893 8800 7496 and Passcode: ECON3204).

Our daily online sessions during class time serve as a valuable supplement to the recorded lectures, provid- ing an opportunity to delve deeper into the concepts covered in each module. In these sessions, I will provide a concise overview of the assigned modules for the week, review exam questions, and engage in discussions around practice questions.  It’s important to view these daily sessions as a valuable addition to the recorded lectures rather than a replacement for them. Therefore, if you have any problems or find a concept difficult to understand, please feel free to join the meetings to ask your questions. So, generally, they are not mandatory, but strongly encouraged. Please note that each Friday, I will offer a separate review session regarding the main important points of the modules assigned to that week and we will go through a few practice questions together. If you have any questions, please email them to me before our online sessions so I can explain them. For other particular sessions regarding reviewing the exam questions, I will send announcements beforehand in case you want to attend those meetings and will post recordings of these review sessions. Please note that I will only record the Friday review sessions and the exam review sessions.  I will post videos from each to Canvas within 24 hours of the meeting. If you cannot attend, you are strongly encouraged to watch them later.

Office Hours: My office hours will be held by appointment.  If I set formal office hours, during that times, the drop-in Zoom room will be open, and I will meet with you on a first-come, first-served basis.  If you are in the waiting room for longer than a couple of minutes, I am likely meeting with another student, and I will let you in when that meeting concludes. If you have been waiting for more than ten minutes, feel free to send me a chat message within Zoom chat and I will provide you with an update or set up another time for a meeting.

Availability & Instructor Contact: I am generally available during normal business hours (9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST, Monday through Friday), but like any other professor and administrator, I have a wide variety of obligations outside of this class. The best way to contact me is via the email address given above. DO NOT send me messages through Canvas, as I will most likely miss these! When emailing, please include the following information in the subject line of your email: [ECON 3204] LAST NAME: Subject.

For example, let’s say you have a question about an extension on an assignment due to illness and your last name is Nguyen. You should send an email with this subject line: [ECON 3204] Nguyen: Request for extension due to illness. Failure to follow this formatting may result in a delay in reply.

I will make every effort to respond to emails within a few hours, and certainly within 24 business hours. If it has been longer than that, please feel free to send a follow-up email, as it is possible your email got sent to spam or something similar.

Homework Assignments, Exams, and Grading:

• Participation and Engagement: (Quizzes within the Modules) There are up to 2 quizzes within each module based on the material that is covered in the videos and textbook. You have more than one attempt to complete these quizzes without penalty since these quizzes are really meant to build your understanding rather than test your understanding (like homework or an exam). I will consider the highest grade among your attempts for each quiz. They are due each Sunday at 11:59 PM.

• Homework: You will have four homework assignments this semester  (one per week except for first and last week).  Your homework can be typed or handwritten, but it must be legible.  You can work together and submit one group homework, but please note that the maximum number of students per group is THREE. To form groups, use the group formation feature on Canvas (instructions here).  For group submissions, you are required to explicitly document the specific contributions of each member at the beginning of every assignment. However, individual submissions are also acceptable. The homework assignments are due each Sunday at 11:59 PM.

• Exams: There will be two mini exams (“major” quizzes), each worth 10% of your grade, a midterm exam worth 20% of your grade, and a comprehensive final exam worth 30% of your grade.  These exams will be conducted during our designated class time (refer to the course outline for specific dates).  The time  limit for the midterm and final exam will be 2 hours, whereas you will only have 1 hour to complete the “major” quizzes.  Please keep in mind that the Midterm and Final exams are cumulative.  Moreover, at the end of the semester, I will drop the lowest major quiz grade, replacing that score with the higher of the two quizzes.  Note:  you must take both quizzes in order to take advantage of this policy. Please ask if you have questions about this.

Letter Grades: The average weight of your score produces a letter grade as follows:

A ≥ 92.5       B+   86.5 - 89.49    C+    76.5 - 79.49   D+   66.5 - 69.49   F ≤ 59.49

A-   89.5 - 92.49     B     82.5 - 86.49     C     72.5 - 76.49     D     62.5 - 66.49

B-    79.5 - 82.49    C-    69.5 - 72.49    D-    59.5 - 62.49

• Missed Exams: You must have a final exam grade in order to receive a grade for the class. There are no make-up exams except under the following circumstances:

1. A documentable university-sponsored event. Documentation must be provided two-weeks in advance of an exam and will be verified.

2. Athletes or artists with competition related conflicts need to bring official documentation the first week of class or within 24 hours of the event being scheduled if it is scheduled at the first week of class.

3. A documentable emergency or illness. In order to be excused, you need to get your reason for missing the exam approved either by the Dean of Student’s Office (for family emergency), Schiffert Health Center (for physical illness), a screen shot of the Hokie Ready app reporting symptoms (or similar), or Cook Counseling Center (for mental health issues).

If you miss an exam (not the final exam), I will either give you a make-up exam or weigh your other exams more heavily based on my best judgement.

• Late Assignment Submissions: In general, I will not be awarding credit for any assignments submitted after the posted deadline.  However, if you do have excusable circumstances, such as those mentioned under the Missed Exams section above, I may provide make-up assignments or extensions based on my best judgement.

• Students with learning and other ADA Accommodations: Students with test-taking accommo- dations from SSD should contact me at least one week before each exam to make arrangements.  If you have any other in-class accommodations, please discuss these with me the first week of class.

Please use your accommodations if you have them – once you take an exam, there is no remedy for a poor grade.

• Inclement  Weather,  Emergencies,  and other  Unforeseen Events:  The Status of the University is posted on https://vt.edu/status.html.   You might want to subscribe to @vtAlerts on Twitter to follow announcements.

• When You are Struggling: Don’t  wait  until  it  is  too  late  to  get  help  when  you  need  it. Please know that you are not alone. Many new learners struggle at first with concepts that are new and unfamiliar. Get help during office hours if you need it.

Honor Code

“As a Hokie, I will conduct myself with honor and integrity at all times .  I will not lie,  cheat,  or steal, nor will I accept the actions of those who  do . ”

For additional information about the Honor Code, please visit: https://www.honorsystem.vt.edu/ Students enrolled in this course are responsible for abiding by the Honor Code.  A student who has doubts about how the Honor Code applies to any assignment is responsible for obtaining specific guidance from the course instructor before submitting the assignment for evaluation. Ignorance of the rules does not exclude any member of the University community from the requirements and expectations of the Honor Code. In particular:

1. All assignments submitted shall be considered  “graded work” and all aspects of your coursework are covered by the Honor Code.  All projects and homework assignments are to be completed individually unless otherwise specified.

2. Commission of any of the following acts shall constitute academic misconduct. This listing is not, however, exclusive of other acts that may reasonably be said to constitute academic misconduct.  Clarification is provided for each definition with some examples of prohibited behaviors in the Undergraduate Honor Code Manual located at https://www.honorsystem.vt.edu/

• CHEATING: Cheating includes the intentional use of unauthorized materials, information, notes, study aids or other devices or materials in any academic exercise, or attempts thereof. In particular, speaking to another person or using your cell phone or other smart device in any way during an exam is cheating.  Using WhatsApp, Discord, or any social media wesbite or platform to communicate answers to an exam is cheating.

• PLAGIARISM: Plagiarism includes the copying of the language, structure, programming, computer code, ideas, and/or thoughts of another and passing off the same as one’s own original work, or attempts thereof. In particular, obtaining answers from anyone else on an Achieve or other homework assignment is plagiarism, as is copying questions or responses on from a social networking site or app, including copying your own responses. All course content is the property of the instructor (Nazanin Sedaghatkish). Distributing course content to third parties without her consent is both a copyright and a conduct violation.

• FALSIFICATION: Falsification includes the statement of any untruth, either verbally or in writing, with respect to any element of one’s academic work, or attempts thereof.

• FABRICATION: Fabrication includes making up data and results, and recording or reporting them, or submitting fabricated documents, or attempts thereof.

• MULTIPLE SUBMISSION: Multiple submission involves the submission for credit – without autho- rization from the instructor receiving the work – of substantial portions of any work (including oral reports) previously submitted for credit at any academic institution of attempts thereof.

• COMPLICITY: Complicity includes intentionally helping another to engage in an act of academic misconduct, or attempts thereof.   In particular, this includes directly observing another student cheating and not reporting it or knowing of communication networks used to cheat on exams and not reporting it.

• VIOLATION OF UNIVERSITY, COLLEGE, DEPARTMENTAL, PROGRAM, COURSE, OR FAC- ULTY RULES: The violation of any University, College, Departmental, Program, Course, or Faculty Rules relating to academic matters that may lead to an unfair academic advantage by the student violating the rule(s).

For each quiz, test, or exam, you are expected to remain on the testing screen for the duration. You may not visit other sections of the course, other websites, or communication tools (other than Zoom chat to contact the instructor) for assistance. I will be monitoring the Canvas quiz audit log for compliance. Failure to only access the quiz, test, or exam during testing will result in an academic integrity violation.

Ignorance of the Honor Code does not protect any member of the University Community from violations of the Honor Code.  If you have questions or are unclear about what constitutes academic misconduct on an assignment, please speak with me.  I take the honor code very seriously in the course.  The normal sanction I will recommend for a violation of the Honor Code is an F* sanction as your final course grade.  The F repre- sents failure in the course.  The “*”is intended to identify a student who has failed to uphold the values of academic integrity at Virginia Tech. A student who receives a sanction of F* as their final course grade shall have it documented on their transcript with the notation “FAILURE DUE TO ACADEMIC HONOR CODE VIOLATION.”You would be required to complete an education program administered by the Honor System in

order to have the“*”and notation “FAILURE DUE TO ACADEMIC HONOR CODE VIOLATION” removed from your transcript. The “F”however would be permanently on your transcript.