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Course and Instructor Information

Macroeconomic Theory and Policy: AS.440.602.50

Fall 2023

Instructor Information

Instructor: Prakash Loungani

Email Address: [email protected] 

Office Hours: Mondays and Thursdays, 2 to 3 pm, and by appointment

Course Information

Class Times: Tuesdays, 11.15 am to 1.55 pm

Course Location: 555 Penn

Textbook/s

Olivier Blanchard, Macroeconomics, 8th edition (2021).

Course Overview

This course provides a systematic overview of the theory of aggregate output and employment, the rate of interest, and price level determination. Coverage includes the theories of consumption and investment, the demand and supply of money, inflation, unemployment, and economic growth. These topics are discussed in the context of contemporary empirical work on aggregative relationships.

Program Learning Objectives (PLO)

When you successfully complete the program requirements, you will achieve the following goals:

PLO1: Analyze advanced economic theory

Course Learning Objectives (CLO)

When you successfully complete the course, you will be able to:

CLO 1: Compute estimates of long-run trends and short-run cycles in incomes in various economies

CLO 2: Estimate trend and cyclical relationships among income, unemployment, prices and interest rates

CLO 3: Categorize economic policies that influence trends and cycles in incomes

CLO 4: Explain interactions between the macroeconomy and financial markets

CLO 5: Appraise explanations for differences across countries in trend income growth

CLO 6: Illustrate frameworks for analyzing cycles and financial crises

CLO 7: Explain how fiscal policies influence trend incomes and mitigate cycles and crises

CLO 8: Explain how monetary and financial policies influence trend incomes and mitigate cycles and crises

Required Text and Other Materials (refer to Appendix for course schedule)

Textbook/s

Olivier Blanchard, Macroeconomics, 8th edition (2021).

Minimum Technology Requirements

This course requires the use of a laptop. Students are required to use Excel and STATA (or similar package).

Evaluation and Grading Policy

In the table below, you will find a brief description of the various course requirements including assignment weights and frequency.  Predicting Central Bank Decisions is the Signature Assignment.

Grading Scale

A 94% to 100%

A- 90% to 93%

B+ 88% to 89%

B 84% to 87%

B- 80% to 84%

C 70% to 79%

F   0% to 70%

This course will follow the Advanced Academic Programs Grading Policies and Probation and Dismissal Policy.

Assignment Submission

Students are required to adhere to the following guidelines when submitting written work:

· Adhere to word limits for each assignment

· Cite sources properly

Assignment Feedback

The instructor will aim to return assignments to you within 5-7 days following the due date, depending on the length of the assignment.

Late Policy

You are expected to contact your instructor in advance if you think you cannot meet an assignment deadline.

Course Policies

Group Work

Group work will be assigned as part of this course. If group work is required, you are expected to work equitably within your group to complete collaborative group activities.

Course Protocols and Getting Help

Amendments to the Course

Changes to the course will be posted in the Announcements section of your course. Please check announcements every time that you log into your online course.

Course Communication

You should communicate often with your classmates and the instructor. The majority of communication will take place during group assignments. When you have a question about an assignment or a question about the course, please contact your instructor.

Email Communication

For questions regarding course activities and assignments that would be general interest to other students, please post those in the discussion board. If you have a question regarding course activities and assignments of a personal nature, please send an email message to the instructor and observe the following guidelines:

· Include the title of the course in the subject field (e.g., JHU Insert Name of Course).

· Keep messages concise, and check spelling and grammar.

· Sign your full name (the sender’s email is not always obvious).

Feel free to contact your instructor with comments, questions, and concerns. All email messages will be sent to you via your JHU email account, so you should be in the habit of checking that account every day or you should ensure that your JHU email account forwards messages to another account of your choice.

Email messages will be responded to within 24-48 hours.

University Policies

General

This course adheres to all University policies described in the academic catalog. Please pay close attention to the following policies:

Academic Conduct

All JHU students assume an obligation to conduct themselves in a manner appropriate to the Johns Hopkins University’s mission as an institution of higher education and with accepted standards of ethical and professional conduct. Students must demonstrate personal integrity and honesty at all times in completing classroom assignments and examinations, in carrying out their fieldwork or other applied learning activities, and in their interactions with others. Students are obligated to refrain from acts they know or, under the circumstances, have reason to know will impair their integrity or the integrity of the University.  Students and faculty in Advanced Academic Programs are required to adhere to the academic integrity guidelines and process laid out in the Graduate Academic Misconduct Policy. Refer to the website for more information regarding the academic misconduct policy.

Please note that student work may be submitted to an online plagiarism detection tool at the discretion of the course instructor. If student work is deemed plagiarized, the course instructor will follow the policy and procedures governing academic misconduct.

Ethics & Plagiarism

JHU Ethics Statement: The strength of the university depends on academic and personal integrity. In this course, you must be honest and truthful. Ethical violations include cheating on exams, plagiarism, reuse of assignments, improper use of the Internet and electronic devices, unauthorized collaboration, alteration of graded assignments, forgery and falsification, lying, facilitating academic dishonesty, and unfair competition. Report any violations you witness to the instructor.

Read and adhere to JHU’s Notice on Plagiarism.

Copyright Policy

All course materials are the property of JHU and are to be used for the student's individual academic purpose only. Any dissemination, copying, reproducing, modification, displaying, or transmitting of any course material content for any other purpose is prohibited, will be considered misconduct under the JHU Copyright Compliance Policy, and may be cause for disciplinary action. In addition, encouraging academic dishonesty or cheating by distributing information about course materials or assignments which would give an unfair advantage to others may violate AAP’s Code of Conduct and the University’s Student Conduct Code. Specifically, recordings, course materials, and lecture notes may not be exchanged or distributed for commercial purposes, for compensation, or for any purpose other than use by students enrolled in the class. Other distributions of such materials by students may be deemed to violate the above University policies and be subject to disciplinary action.

Student Conduct Code

The fundamental purpose of the Johns Hopkins University's (the "University" or "JHU") regulation of student conduct is to promote and to protect the health, safety, welfare, property, and rights of all members of the University community as well as to promote the orderly operation of the University and to safeguard its property and facilities. As members of the University community, students accept certain responsibilities which support the educational mission and create an environment in which all students are afforded the same opportunity to succeed academically.

For a full description of the code please visit the Student Conduct Code Web Page (https://studentaffairs.jhu.edu/policies-guidelines/student-code)

Students with Disabilities – Accommodations and Accessibility

Johns Hopkins University values diversity and inclusion. We are committed to providing welcoming, equitable, and accessible educational experiences for all students. Students with disabilities (including those with psychological conditions, medical conditions and temporary disabilities) can request accommodations for this course by providing an Accommodation Letter issued by Student Disability Services (SDS). Please request accommodations for this course as early as possible to provide time for effective communication and arrangements.

 

For further information or to start the process of requesting accommodations, please contact AAP Student Disability Services at [email protected] and visit our website https://advanced.jhu.edu/student-resources/disability-services/ for additional resources.

Dropping the Course

You are responsible for understanding the university’s policies and procedures regarding withdrawing from courses found in the current catalog. You should be aware of the current deadlines according to the Academic Calendar.

Getting Help

You have a variety of methods to get help on Canvas. Please consult the resource listed in the "Canvas Help" link for important information. If you encounter technical difficulty in completing or submitting any online assessment, please immediately contact the designated help desk listed on the AAP online support page. Also, contact your instructor at the email address listed in the syllabus.

Title IX Confidentiality and Mandatory Reporting

As an instructor, one of my responsibilities is to help create a safe and inclusive learning environment on our campus. I also have mandatory reporting responsibilities related to my role as a Responsible Employee under the Sexual Misconduct Policy & Procedures (which prohibits sexual harassment, sexual assault, relationship violence and stalking), as well as the General Anti-Harassment Policy (which prohibits all types of protected status based discrimination and harassment). It is my goal that you feel able to share information related to your life experiences in classroom discussions, in your written work, and in our one-on-one meetings. I will seek to keep information you share private to the greatest extent possible. However, I am required to share information that I learn of regarding sexual misconduct, as well as protected status based harassment and discrimination, with the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE). For a list of individuals/offices who can speak with you confidentially, please see Appendix B of the JHU Sexual Misconduct Policies and Laws.

For more information on both policies mentioned above, please see: JHU Relevant Policies, Codes, Statements and Principles. Please also note that certain faculty and other University community members also have a duty as a designated Campus Safety Authority under the Clery Act to notify campus security of certain crimes, as well as a duty under State law and University policy to report suspected child abuse and/or neglect.

Diversity

Johns Hopkins is a community committed to sharing values of diversity and inclusion in order to achieve and sustain excellence. We firmly believe that we can best promote excellence by recruiting and retaining a diverse group of students, faculty, and staff and by creating a climate of respect that is supportive of their success. This climate for diversity, inclusion, and excellence is critical to attaining the best research, scholarship, teaching, health care, and other strategic goals of the Health System and the University. Taken together these values are recognized and supported fully by the Johns Hopkins Institutions leadership at all levels. Further, we recognize that the responsibility for excellence, diversity, and inclusion lies with all of us at the Institutions: leadership, administration, faculty, staff, and students.

For more information on JHU’s commitment to diversity, please visit the Diversity at JHU website.

Course Evaluation

Please remember to complete an online course evaluation survey for this course. These evaluations are an important tool in the ongoing efforts to improve instructional quality and strengthen programs. The results of the course evaluations are kept anonymous - your instructor will only receive aggregated data and comments for the entire class. An email with a link to the online course evaluation form will be sent to your JHU email address close to the end of the semester.

Appendix

Tentative Course Schedule

(1) Why do incomes differ so much across countries?

(2) Why do incomes fluctuate year to year and sometimes fall, as during the Great Recession?

This course covers the answers that macroeconomists provide to these two questions. Students will be introduced to the facts about several economies around the globe, to the models that macroeconomists use to try to understand these facts, and to the role that government policies can play in raising incomes over time and in stabilizing year-to-year fluctuations.  

Module A will cover how to describe and estimate trend and cyclical relationships between income and other macroeconomic indicators. This module will also discuss how central banks use estimates of these relationships to make policy decisions.

Module B will cover the models that macroeconomists use to understand business cycles and financial crises and the role of government policies, particularly monetary & financial policies and fiscal policy, in moderating cycles and crises and mitigating their impact.

Module C will cover facts about differences in income levels across countries, the evidence on convergence in incomes across countries, and the models that macroeconomists use to understand long-run growth.

The tentative course schedule is given below. It may be adjusted as needed over the course of the semester, but every effort will be made to give ample notice if an exam date is changed.

Module	Dates	Topics	Textbook Chapters
A	Aug. 29, Sep. 5, 12	Macroeconomic Fundamentals: Indicators and Inter-relationships,	1-4, 6.1, 6.2, 7-8, 14-15, 17, 21-24
September 19            Module A: Exam (in class, closed book)                 Predicting Central Bank Decisions, Part 1 (in class, open book)
B	Sep. 16, Oct. 3, 10	Macro Models: Cycles and Crises	5-6, 9, 16, 18-20
October 17                 Module B: Exam (in class, closed book)                                                       Predicting Central Bank Decisions, Part 2 (in class, open book)
C	Oct. 24, 31, Nov. 7	Long-Run Growth	10-13
November 14             Module C: Exam (in class, closed book)                                                        Predicting Central Bank Decisions, Part 2 (in class, open book)
Nov. 21: Fall Recess (no class)
November 28            Topics in the News
December 5               Student Presentations of Individual Project
Dec. 12-13: Reading Period
Dec. 13-21: Final Exam (date and time to be determined)