Graduate School of International Policy & Management
Monterey Institute of International Studies
Macroeconomics, August 8th,9th,11th,12th, 2014
ECPR8501
Date/Time:
10am-1pm, 2-5pm
Instructor:
Moyara Ruehsen
Contact:
Moyara.ruehsen@gmail.com
Office Hours:
Every day, 5pm-7pm
Office Location:
McCone Building, Room 213
Classroom:
McGOWAN 102 (*Please note room change)
Course Description and Objectives
This course is designed to provide students with a foundation in macroeconomics
in preparation for graduate-level courses at the Monterey Institute. Subjects covered
include unemployment, inflation, national income, aggregate demand, investment,
equilibrium output, fiscal policy, central banking, interest rates, and economic growth.
Great emphasis will also be placed on building macroeconomic vocabulary, and reading
and listening comprehension.
Course Format
This is a 30 hour course, but to break up the face-to-face portion, six of those
hours will be delivered online or used for group assignment meeting time. For the
remaining 24 hours in the classroom, students are encouraged not to use their laptops or
iPads unless they are used for note-taking purposes only. If you need to read email or
surf the web, please use your smartphone for that purpose, as it will be less visible and
distracting to the individuals sitting behind you in the classroom. Note that there will be
some drawing by hand, so it would be helpful to have a pencil, and at least three colors of
marker (preferably blue, green and red). Links to any podcasts and other sites that we
view in class will be sent electronically if students wish to view them again at their
leisure. (If you are not receiving regular emails, please alert the professor immediately.
The default setting is your miis.edu email address.) Most of the diagrams used in class
will be handed out at the beginning of class for note taking as well as occasional
diagnostic exercises. The goal is to make the course as hands on as possible. “Learning
by doing.”
There will not be any midterm or final exam. Instead, students will be quizzed on
the previous day’s material each morning at the start of class. Instead of a final quiz on
the final day’s class content, there will be a take-home assignment.
Grades and Expectations
This course will be graded Pass/Fail, with a passing grade = 80%. To pass the
course, students must attend all lectures (except in the case of serious illness and/or other
emergencies), complete one group project, complete all take-home assignments, and
achieve an average of 80% on the quizzes.
Readings
In addition to the required pre-reading and recommended chapter assignments during the
course, there will be printed handouts provided in class on current events that apply the
concepts and/or use the vocabulary learned in class.
Required pre-reading:
Wheelan, Charles, Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, NY: W.W. Norton,
2010. Chapters 6, 9, and 10. (Earlier 2002 edition is also fine, as well as the electronic
edition) The chapter on Development Economics (Chapter 12 in 2002 edition, and
Chapter 13 in 2010 edition) can be done later.
The required readings from Wheelan should be completed in advance of the course.
It is important to have this basic foundation. Remaining reading excerpts can be done
concurrent with the course and are available on the library’s e-reserve. Lecture outlines,
required reading assignments and additional graphs will be handed out in class.
Recommended:
Boyes, William and Michael Melvin, Fundamentals of Economics, 4th edition, Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 2009. (3rd edition from 2006 is also fine)
Mankiw, N. Gregory, Essentials of Economics, 4th edition, Thomson Southwestern
Publishers, 2007.
Readings for Boyes & Melvin, and Mankiw will be made available as needed.
READING ASSIGNMENTS (Topics for each day are approximate, as some subjects will
take less or more time)
Required Pre-reading (to be completed before August 8th)
Wheelan, Naked Economics: Chapters 6, 9, 10 and the chapter on Development
Economics (Chapter 12 in the 2002 edition, Chapter 13 in the 2010 edition). The chapter
on Development Economics can be completed on August 13th.
Required Pre-viewing: Narrated slide presentation on fiscal policy.
August 8th: Circular Flow Model of the Economy
Recommended reading for reinforcement of concepts in today’s lectures: Boyes &
Melvin, Chapter 10, and Mankiw, Chapter 16
August 9th: Aggregate Supply & Demand
Recommended: Boyes & Melvin, Chapters 11, and Mankiw, Chapter 23
August 10th: Online portion (narrated slide presentations on monetary policy, inflation
and unemployment), documentary viewing and discussion questions, and time for
completing group assignment.
August 11th: Fiscal Policy, Monetary Policy, Money and Banking
Recommended: Boyes & Melvin, Chapters 13 and 15, and Mankiw, Chapter 21, 24
August 12th: Balance of Payments, Sovereign Debt, and Economic Growth
Recommended: Mankiw, Chapter 17