Economics 100B: Economic Analysis – Macroeconomics
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Econ 100B Syllabus
Fall 2021
Economics 100B: Economic Analysis – Macroeconomics
This is a course in intermediate macroeconomics with an emphasis on real world applications. There are two main objectives for this course.
1. To develop models that can be usefully applied to generate realistic explanations about the behavior of important macroeconomic variables such as output and income, em- ployment and unemployment, interest rates, the government budget balance, exchange rates and the current account balance, and inflation.
2. To apply these models to understand and interpret current and historical macroeco- nomic developments – including monetary and fiscal policy choices – and to make predictions about future macroeconomic events, primarily in the industrialized coun- tries.
Prerequisites for this course are Economics 1 or 2 and Math 1A or 16A. You will need a application like Excel for some of the homework assignments.
Requirements
The course requirements are (i) ten problem sets, (ii) two midterm exams, and (iii) a final exam. Some of the problem sets will involve data work. Your course grade will be determined from the scores you receive on these items as follows:
Problem Sets 20%
Midterm 1 20%
Midterm 2 20%
Final 40%
The first midterm will be on Tuesday, October 5th and the second midterm will be on Tuesday, November 2nd. The final exam will be on on Tuesday, December 14th. All exams will be online and timed. Each exam needs to be completed within a 12-hour time window that begins at the lecture time for midterms and at the final-exam time for the final. We reserve the right to use Zoom for remote proctoring.
Meeting Times, Sections and GSIs
The lecture portion of the class will be given live and recorded on Zoom. The Zoom session for the lecture will begin at 3:30 p.m. PDT. In keeping with the tradition of “Berkeley time,” the first 10 minutes will be open for questions and not recorded. At 3:40 p.m. PDT the video recording of the lecture will begin and continue until the lecture ends at 5:00 p.m. PDT. After the lecture I will be available for questions. The video of the lecture will be posted later the same day in the Lecture Videos subfolder of the Files folder on the bCourses site.
You are not required to attend the Zoom meeting. The course is designed to be equally accessible to those who attend the lecture and those who watch the recording of the lecture. I will hold “drop in” office hours on Zoom from 1:00 p.m. PDT to 2:30 p.m. PDT on Monday.
Sections will review background material, amplify & extend concepts introduced in the lectures, and explain analytical & computational techniques. Your GSI will also hold weekly office hours.
The primary form of communication for this course is Piazza. By posting your questions on Piazza, everyone – instructors and students – has the opportunity to answer and to learn from the Q&A. If you do send email to your GSI or Prof. Hawkins, please put “Econ 100B” somewhere in the subject line so your email is routed correctly.
Texts
The recommended textbook for the course is
● Macroeconomics: Policy and Practice, by Frederic S. Mishkin.
There are two domestic editions and at least two non-domestic (e.g., global, international, etc.) editions of the book. Any edition of the text can be used for this course and the least-expensive option is your best choice. Each slide deck will include the associated readings that cover the material covered in the lecture.
The textbook is not required. It does, however have useful information on the macroeconomy that can help to round out your understanding of this field. The lecture slides, memos, and papers cover the course material. The models we will develop in this course differ – sometimes substantially – from those in the textbook. The exams will not cover material in the textbook that does not appear in the lecture slides, memos, and papers.
Lecture slides will be posted on the bCourses course website.
2021-12-06