ECON30009/90080 Macroeconomics 2022

Introduction

Welcome to  ECON30009/90080  Macroeconomics! This subject  is an  introduction to the advanced study of macroeconomics. We will use an integrated theoretical framework – a simple life-cycle model – to explore some of the central issues in macroeconomics.

A  rough  guide  of the topics we will  cover  include  income  determination  and  economic growth,  economic  fluctuations  and  the  business  cycle,  fiscal  and  monetary  policy,  the international economy, and macroeconomic policy.  The formal outline is:

“This subject is an introduction to the advanced study of macroeconomics. An integrated theoretical framework – a simple life cycle model – is used to explore the central issues of macroeconomics. Major topics to be covered include income determination and economic growth,  economic  fluctuations  and  business  cycles,  fiscal  and  monetary  policy,  open economy issues and international trade. The overall objective of this subject is to provide students with an integrated neoclassical approach to address substantive macroeconomic questions  to  improve  their  critical  thinking  and  analytical  skills,  and  to  enhance  their understanding of aggregate economic behaviour. ”

Subject Overview and Aims

The  aim  of this  subject  is to  provide you with  an  integrated  neoclassical  approach for analysing  substantive  macroeconomic  questions,  to  improve  your  critical  thinking  and analytical skills, and to enhance your understanding of aggregate economic behaviour. The objective is to prepare you for more advanced studies in economics, or for a career as a professional economist either in industry or government agencies.

Learning Outcomes                                                                            

Learning Outcomes and Generic Skills

To view the subject objectives and the generic skills you will develop through successful completion of this subject, please see the University Handbook link in the stream through which you are enrolled:

Macroeconomics (ECON30009) — The University of Melbourne Handbook (unimelb.edu.au)

Or:

Macroeconomics (ECON90080) — The University of Melbourne Handbook (unimelb.edu.au) 

To view the eligibility and requirements, including prerequisites, corequisites, recommended background knowledge and core participation requirements for this subject, please see the University Handbook:

Eligibility and requirements: Macroeconomics (ECON30009) — The University of Melbourne Handbook (unimelb.edu.au)

Eligibility and requirements: Macroeconomics (ECON90080) — The University of Melbourne Handbook (unimelb.edu.au)

Academic Staff Contact Details

Please see the subject LMS site for full contact details of the teaching staff in this subject.

Subject Coordinator Contact Details

Name: Dr James Hansen

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +61 3 8344 2142

Consultation Hours: 3.30–4.30pm Tuesdays. Consultations will be held in person and via Zoom at the scheduled time, or by appointment.

Email Protocol

Please note that we are only able to respond to student emails coming from a University email address. Please do not use personal email addresses such as Yahoo, Hotmail or even business email addresses. Emails from non-University email addresses may be filtered by the  University’s  spam  filter,  which  means  that  we  may  not  receive  your  email.  All correspondence relating to this subject will only be sent to your University email address. Note that you  must first  activate your  University  email address  before you can  send or

receive  emails  at  that  address.  You  can  activate  your  email  account  at  this  link:

http://accounts.unimelb.edu.au/.

While academic staff endeavor to address queries received via email, it is more appropriate to   resolve  substantive  questions  during   lectures  and  tutorials  and/or  during   normal consultation  hours. With this  in  mind, we  encourage students to  attend  all  lectures  and tutorials and to familiarise themselves with the consultation hours offered by the lecturers and tutors in this subject.

Lecture Times

There are two one-hour lectures each week. Lectures will be delivered on-campus and recorded through Lecture Capture. The recorded lectures can be accessed through the LMS. On-campus lectures will be delivered and recorded at the following times:

Tuesday 2. 15pm–3. 15pm (AEST) - PAR-Law-GM15 (David P. Derham Theatre) Thursday 2. 15pm–3. 15pm (AEST) - PAR-Law-GM15 (David P. Derham Theatre)

Lecture Participation Requirements

This subject is offered in dual delivery mode. Students can either attend lectures on campus at the scheduled lecture times or study the online recording through Lecture Capture.

Lecture Schedule

This section provides a preliminary outline of the lecture plan for the semester. I will post any updates to this plan on the LMS.

Lecture Slides

Lecture slides will be placed on the LMS page for this subject before each lecture.

Recorded Lectures

Audio and video recordings of lectures delivered in this subject will be made available for review. These recordings allow you to revise lectures during the semester, or to review them in preparation for the end of semester exam.

You can access recorded lectures by clicking on the Lecture Recordings (or similar) menu item on the LMS page for this subject.

Please note that for live classes, recordings are not a substitute for attendance; rather they are designed for revision. On rare occasions the recordings can fail to take place due to technical reasons. In such cases, a substitute recording will be made available.

Tutorials

Tutorials start from the FIRST week of semester and then run every week till the end of the semester.  For  the  dates,  times  and  locations  of  tutorials,  please  refer  to  the  subject timetable:

https://sws.unimelb.edu.au/2022/Reports/List.aspx?objects=ECON30009&weeks=1- 52&days=1-7&periods=1-56&template=module_by_group_list

Tutor consultation hours will be posted on the LMS.

Tutorial Participation Requirements

Students are expected to work on the tutorial questions beforehand and actively participate in the online tutorials. Tutorial attendance and participation will be monitored by tutors each week. Attending Week 1 (a maths review) is highly recommended.

To  maximise  the  learning  experience  from  tutorials,  students  are  expected  to  have completed the questions prior to commencement of their respective tutorial.

Tutorial solutions will be posted on the LMS at the end of each week after tutorials have been completed.

Private Tutoring Services

The Faculty has become increasingly concerned about the existence of a number of private tutoring services operating in Melbourne that heavily target University of Melbourne students enrolled in FBE subjects.

Students are urged to show caution and exercise their judgement if they are considering using any of these services, and to please take note of the following:

Any claim by any of these businesses that they have a “special” or “collaborative” or “partnership” style relationship with the University or Faculty is false and misleading.

Any claim by a private tutoring service that they are in possession of, or can supply you with, forthcoming University exam or assignment questions or “insider” or “exclusive” information  is also false and misleading.

The University has no relationship whatsoever with any of these services and takes these   claims very seriously as they threaten to damage the University’s reputation and undermine its independence.

It is also not appropriate for students to provide course materials (including University         curricula, reading materials, exam and assignment questions and answers) to operators of these businesses for the purposes of allowing them to conduct commercial tutoring             activities. Doing so may amount to misconduct and will be taken seriously. Those materials contain intellectual property owned or controlled by the University.

We encourage you to bring to the attention of Faculty staff any behaviour or activity that is not aligned with University expectations or policy as outlined above.

Assessment

Assessment Overview

The final assessment criteria are here:

*It is important to note that there is a hurdle requirement for this subject That is, students need to get 50% of the final exam to pass the subject.

Assignment Submission

There are two group assignments for the subject (detailed instructions will be provided later) with ONE to FOUR students per group for each assignment. Students should choose and form their own assignment groups through the LMS. You can get help from your tutor if you have trouble forming a group.

Assignment submission is completed  using the  LMS Assignment Submission  link for all written assignments. Please refer to the Turnitin section of the LMS website for detailed submission instructions if needed.

Please note that you are required to keep a copy of your assignment after it has been submitted as you must be able to produce a copy of your assignment at the request of teaching staff at any time after the submission due date.

Penalties for Late Submission and Word Limits

In order to ensure equality for all students, assignments and examinations (where relevant) must be submitted by specified deadlines.  Late assignment submissions will attract the following marking penalties (unless approval for late submission has been granted):

All assignments (excluding examinations):  10% penalty per day of the total maximum mark for the piece of assessment.

Please  note  that  neither  the  lecturer  nor  tutors  have  authority  to  process  assignment extensions. The maximum extension that can be granted is 3 business days. Requests for

an assignment extension should be submitted here:

http://go.unimelb.edu.au/yh9n.

Before completing this form, please read the Assignment Extension Policy, which can be

found at:

Assessment  and  Results  Policy  (MPF1326)  :  Policy  :  The  University  of  Melbourne (unimelb.edu.au)

Assignments that significantly exceed word limits may also attract a marking penalty in line with University policy. Students with a genuine and acceptable reason for not completing an assignment   (or   other   assessment   task),   such   as   illness,   can   apply   for   special consideration (see Policies below).

Late Exam Submissions: Late exam submissions will attract a 10% penalty (of the total maximum mark for the exam) if submitted less than 30min after the scheduled completion time (for instance, an exam scheduled at 3:00pm with 180 minutes writing time + 30 minutes reading time will have a completion time of 6:30pm). Submissions made more than 30 minutes after the completion time will not be marked.

The exam will require file uploads; these files may take some time to complete their upload in peak exam times. Students are advised to allow sufficient time to upload and check files prior  to  the  scheduled  completion  time.  File  uploads  must  be  fully  completed  by  the examination completion time.

Students who were prevented from submitting due to technical difficulties will need to apply for technical consideration with supporting documentation.

Prescribed References

The main reference book for this subject is: Macroeconomics: An Integrated Approach, second edition, by Alan J. Auerbach and Laurence J. Kotlikoff, the MIT press. We will refer to this book as AK, after its authors.

The   book   is  available  for   purchase  online  at  various  websites.   Examples   include

https://textbooks.zookal.com.au/,https://www.jekkle.com.au/andhttps://www.amazon.com/

The AK book is very clear and has the right level of difficulty for our subject. However, its examples and case studies are a little old. Through the lecture material and online readings, I will provide more contemporary examples and case studies. I strongly encourage you to read the recommending readings made available in Readings Online (accessed through the LMS).

Supplementary Readings

If you are unable to access the AK textbook, I have also listed two supplementary textbooks that can be accessed online through the Library Catalogue. These are:

Farmer, K. and Schelnast, M., 2013. Growth and International Trade: An Introduction to the Overlapping Generations Approach. Springer

De La Croix, D. and Michel, P., 2002. A Theory of Economic Growth: Dynamics and Policy in Overlapping Generations. Cambridge University Press.

The Farmer and Schelnast textbook is a similar level of difficulty to the AK textbook and is a good substitute. The De La Croix and Michel textbook provides a more advanced treatment and is more comprehensive.

Academic Integrity                                                                              

Academic Honesty

The University maintains high academic standards in its courses and subjects and expects students to conduct themselves in a manner which is fair, honest and consistent with the

principles of academic integrity, particularly when undertaking assessment and research.

http://academicintegrity.unimelb.edu.au/

Referencing

Each source used for a written piece of assessment must be referenced. This is to        acknowledge that your material is not based entirely on your own ideas, but is based, in part, on the ideas, information, and evidence of others. This is desirable as you are       attending University in order to learn from others.

You will be required to use either the APA system or Harvard System of referencing. The library has prepared a website to help students correctly reference:

http://www.library.unimelb.edu.au/recite

It is important that all material you present for assessment is referenced correctly. Material that has not been referenced correctly may be considered to be plagiarised, and as such   may be penalised. We will also look for evidence that material included in the bibliography has been used in the assignment.

The Academic Skills Unit has produced resources to assist students with referencing

https://services.unimelb.edu.au/academicskills/undergrads/top_resources

University Services                                                                             

Timetable

MyTimetable is a class timetabling system that creates individual timetables for students       based on submitted class preferences, ensuring everyone has an equitable opportunity of    getting their preferred class timetable. You will use this system to create your class timetable prior to each study period.

By following a preference-based model, students who have other commitments, such as   employment or carer responsibilities, or who are returning or living overseas during the     timetabling period, aren’t disadvantaged by their limited availability. When allocating class timetables, MyTimetable also takes into consideration factors such as class size limits and potential clashes to ensure all students are equally accommodated. Further information is available on the web at https://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/class-timetable

Stop 1: Connecting Students and Services

Stop 1 is here to provide you with a range of support services throughout your university  degree, from help with enrolment, administration and wellbeing to advice on building your skills and experiences. https://students.unimelb.edu.au/stop1

Academic Skills

Academic Skills offers a range of workshops and resources to help you with study skills including researching, writing and referencing, presentation skills and preparing for exams. Visit their website via http://services.unimelb.edu.au/academicskills.

Service Finder

The University of Melbourne offers one of the most comprehensive student support networks in Australia. Use this site to locate a wide range of services

http://services.unimelb.edu.au/finder

Student Counselling

Students attend counselling to talk about personal, emotional, or mental health issues which might be affecting their study and life. The University’s Counselling and Psychological

Services (CAPS) provides free, confidential, short-term professional counselling to currently enrolled students and staff. https://services.unimelb.edu.au/counsel

Student Equity and Disability Support

Student Equity and Disability Support provides services for students who need ongoing    support with their studies. They understand that adjustments to learning and assessment are sometimes required to allow all students to reach their full potential. Learn more about the services provided, how to find support and how to register for assistance.

http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity

University of Melbourne Library Services

As well as holding an extensive collection of books, ebooks, digital media and periodicals, library staff provide research guidance and support for students.

http://library.unimelb.edu.au/

These Business and Economics Library Guides have been designed specifically for Faculty of Business and Economics staff and students.

http://unimelb.libguides.com/sb.php?subject_id=80310

Policy                                                                                                   

Alternative Exam Arrangements (AEA)

The definition of and eligibility requirements for alternative exam arrangements (AEA) can be found via http://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/alternate.

Mid-semester examinations/tests are organised by the  Department of Economics.  If you wish to request alternative arrangements, email your subject coordinator for any questions about this.

Assessment and Results Policy

The University’s assessment policy provides a framework for the design, delivery and       implementation of assessment of students in award and non-award courses and subjects. Assessment is designed to contribute to high quality learning by students, and to allow for quality assurance and the maintenance of high academic standards.

https://policy.unimelb.edu.au/MPF1326

Exam Policy

The University requires that you are available for the entire examination period. Please see the University's Principal Dates via https://www.unimelb.edu.au/dates for the full annual      calendar. Supplementary exams will not be provided in cases of absence during the           examination period unless the absence is due to serious illness or other serious                  circumstances and a Special Consideration application is submitted and approved.