University at Albany
State University of New York
Economics 301: Intermediate Macroeconomics
Spring 2006
Section 2150: SS 134; MWF 11:30-12:25
Instructor
John Bailey Jones
BA-113
442-4926
jbjones@ albany.edu
http://www.albany.edu/~jbjones/
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 10:30-12:00; and by appointment
Course Objectives
Macroeconomics is the study of how national economies behave. In this course, we
will consider:
1. Why economic activity fluctuates over time.
2. Why some economies grow more rapidly than others.
3. How government policies affect economies.
In doing this, we will first discuss how a country’s “economic activity” is measured,
and then develop models of how this economic activity is determined. In discussing
these economic models, we will regularly consider whether the assumptions that
underlie these models and the predictions that these models make are consistent with
the data.
Prerequisites
The prerequisite(s) for Eco 301 are: Eco 110; Eco 111 with a grade of C or better;
and Mat 106, 111, 112, or 118, or Eco 210. The Economics Department intends to
deregister students whose Albany course records do not show that the required
courses were completed with passing grades; concurrent enrollment is not sufficient.
The deregistration may occur as late as the end of the semester, and students will be
assigned a W grade by the Registrar. Individual exceptions to the prerequisite
requirements require written permission of the instructor and approval by the Director
of Undergraduate Studies in Economics during the drop/add period. Students who
have taken a required course elsewhere that is not yet on their Albany records should
ask for an exception.
Text
The main text is Macroeconomics, fifth edition, by Andrew B. Abel and Ben S.
Bernanke (Addison-Wesley, 2005). (The cheaper fourth edition will also work.)
The other main reading is a set of lecture notes and reprinted articles, which is
available at Shipmates in Stuyvesant Plaza.
The lectures will include some material not contained in the text. Additional reading
assignments may be made during the semester. In addition, the lectures will include
material not explicitly discussed in the lecture notes, which is to say that the lecture
notes are not complete. You will be responsible for this additional material.
Students are also encouraged to look for and read articles that relate to the class in
such sources as the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Business Week, or
Time. As discussed below, students that bring such articles to my attention will
receive extra credit.
Midterm Examinations
Midterms will be held in class at the usual time and place. The midterm dates and
tentative coverages are:
1. Midterm 1: Wednesday, March 15, covering material (approximately) from
January 25 through March 6.
2. Midterm 2: Friday, April 7, covering material (approximately) from March 8
through March 29.
Final Examination
The final examination will be cumulative, with more emphasis placed on material not
covered in the midterms. According to the University’s schedule (click here), the
final will be held in the regular lecture room on Thursday, May 11, 3:30-5:30 p.m.
Homeworks
There will be 5 homeworks.
Assigned
Due
Homework No. 1
Friday, Feb. 10
Friday, Feb. 17
Homework No. 2
Friday, March 3
Friday, March 10
Homework No. 3
Monday, March 20
Monday, March 27
Homework No. 4
Monday, March 27
Monday, April 3
Homework No. 5
Friday, April 28
Friday, May 5
Homeworks will be due at the beginning of class.
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Attendance
Part of the final grade will consist of an attendance score. Students with 5 or fewer
unexcused absences will receive a perfect score. Students with more than five
unexcused absences will receive a score equal to a weighted average of their
homework and exam scores (see below). Students that arrive late or leave during
class, or are otherwise disruptive, will be considered absent.
All examinations are mandatory. Make-up examinations will be granted when
students have: illnesses; family emergencies; or three finals in one day. In rare
extreme cases, midterms or homeworks will be waived, and the associated grading
weight shifted to other assignments.
Late homeworks will penalized, except for the reasons listed above.
Grading Scheme
Your grade will consist of a weighted average of point (not letter) grades on
homework, examinations, and attendance. The weighting scheme will be either:
1. 9 percent on homework, 22.5 percent on each midterm, 36 percent on the final,
and 10 percent on attendance.
2. 9 percent on homework, 13.5 percent on each midterm, 54 percent on the final,
and 10 percent on attendance.
Each person will receive the weights that maximize her score.
The attendance score will be set as follows. Students with 5 or fewer unexcused
absences will receive a perfect score. Students with more than five absences will
receive a score equal to the weighted average of their homework and exam scores.
The homework-exam weights used for this calculation will be the ones listed in items
1 and 2 above, rescaled to total 100 percent—the weight on homework will rise from
9 to 10 percent, and so on. (I will again use the scheme that maximizes the score.)
Finally, there will be extra credit given to students that turn in current newspaper and
magazine articles that relate to the class. In addition to the article itself, students
should indicate the date of the lecture to which the article relates. This credit will be
most useful to students with point totals near letter grade cut-offs. The amount of
extra credit will in general depend on the relevance and novelty of the articles. For
example, a collection of articles taken from a single edition of the Wall Street Journal
will count less than a collection taken from several sources over the semester.
There are no other sources of extra credit.
Other Policies
If a student is dissatisfied with his grade on a homework or examination, he can
request that it be regraded in its entirety. Individual questions will not be regraded,
but I will provide specific explanations during office hours.
Academic dishonesty will be dealt with as severely as possible.
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Tentative Outline
This schedule will change as the semester proceeds. Updates will be provided in
class. All readings are required.
Page numbers are for the 5th edition of Abel and Bernanke. Page numbers for the
4th edition will at times differ from the ones shown here.
1. Introduction
Ch. 1
Jan. 25
2. Measuring Economic Activity
Ch. 2; Ch. 3,
pp. 94-99
Jan. 27Feb. 3
3. Production Functions
Ch. 3.1, pp. 62-71
Feb. 6
4. Economic Growth
Ch. 6
Feb. 8-17
5. The Saving Decision
Ch. 4, pp. 111-121,
156-172
Feb. 27March 6
6. Savings Markets
Ch. 4
March 8-13
7. Labor Markets
Ch. 3, pp. 72-93;
Ch. 11, pp. 393-399
March 1722
8. Money and Asset Markets
Ch. 7; Ch. 12,
pp. 455-459
March 2429
9. Business Cycles
Ch. 8, pp. 276-297
March 31
10. IS-LM/AD-AS Model
Ch. 9
April 3 April 24
11. Real Business Cycles
Ch. 10.1,
pp. 355-373
April 26-28
12. The Keynesian Approach
Ch. 11
May 1-5
13. The Inflation-Unemployment Trade-off
Ch. 12, pp. 434-447,
459-462
May 8
14. Fiscal Policy
Ch. 15
If Time
Permits
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