Syllabus
Economics 102, Principles of Macroeconomics
Professor Till Schreiber
Fall 2014, MWF 12:00-12:50, Andrews 101.
Office hours, Friday after class, and T Th by appointment, Morton 112 (I’m usually around starting around
9:30 until 4 or so with a break for lunch, come on by. Send me an email if you prefer to make a specific
appointment).
Course Overview
Principles of Macro is designed as a course which should give you an overview of economics related to the
study of the national and global economy. It will cover topics which are often in the news: Recession,
unemployment, growth, inflation, monetary policy and the Federal Reserve, bonds and interest rates,
government stimulus and the deficit, exchange rates, international capital flows and so on. The goal is
ultimately for the students to be able to make a bit more sense of economics events discussed on TV and
elsewhere. The course is a pre-req for many other courses in Econ and IR, a required course to apply to the
Business School, and also fulfills the GER 3 requirement as stated in the course catalog. Personally, I think
it is one of the most exciting classes offered in Economics.
I assume you work on average about 9 hours per week on this course. Three of the nine will be in class, six
hours outside of class doing home works, readings, exam prep etc. each week. Recent studies have found
that students in College often work less than they did in High School (see the first pages from Arum and
Roksa, 2011). I think that is sad. My aim is to provide you with assignments which enhance learning and
understanding of the material. This takes time, effort, and concentration. Don’t expect that just coming to
class (see below) is all you need to do. Learning does not usually equal memorization. However, I also don’t
want you to waste time with ‘make-busy’ work. According to comments from the Spring 2014 evaluations
this worked reasonably well.
Textbook
We will use the free internet edition of Charles Nelson’s Macroeconomics: An Introduction. The book is
available here: http://faculty.washington.edu/cnelson/macroeconomics.html
Additional Readings
We will often look at what’s going on right now in the U.S. economy and will talk about the economics
behind news coverage of, for example, new growth estimates, inflation numbers, or policy decisions. I will
include the links on the slides or make those additional readings available on Blackboard.
Homework
Working exercises is essential. There will be a total of nine online home works over the semester. They will
be based on the course content extended by additional articles. Or the home work will involve working
through an online interactive module. Your understanding in either case will be tested by an online multiple
choice quiz. The home works which are indicated on this syllabus below will be usually available starting at
about 9pm on Wednesday and must be completed by 9am the following Monday. No late work will be
accepted, if you don’t finish the quiz by the deadline your score will be zero for that quiz. You can drop the
lowest quiz score for the home works. The score you receive on these home works will count for 20% of
your class grade.
Exams
There will be four exams. Three midterms will be at the dates outlined below, these will each consist of 34
multiple choice questions. The midterms are non-cumulative (of course you need to know the earlier topics
to make sense of what comes later, but I won’t go back to chapter 2 on the last midterm). I will count your
two best midterms you have taken, each of the two will count for 25% of your class grade. The final exam
will be cumulative and will have about 70 multiple choice questions. It will count for 30% of the course
grade. You can bring one 8.5x11’’ double sided piece of paper with hand written notes, equations etc. for
each exam.
There will be NO make-up midterms. If you miss a midterm exam for whatever reason (illness, car didn’t
start, athletic event etc.) it will be the midterm which I drop for you. Last semester this policy seemed to
confuse some students, make sure you think about it and the implications today! If you miss more than one
midterm I need a college-sanctioned excuse (athletics, Dean of Students…) or a note excusing you due to
illness (since the Health Center, bizarrely, no longer provides these for students, you might need to obtain
the documentation from an off-campus health care provider (Urgent Care etc.). In this case, and in this case
only, provided an official excuse is presented, I will increase the weight of the one midterm you take to 35%
and the final exam to 45% of your class grade. The policies of the College for the final exam apply.
To ensure the integrity of assessment, I will distribute different versions of exams which have questions and
answers in different orders. To minimize distractions and disturbances for other students, you also must
remain in the room until you hand in your exam, and may not leave to go to the bathroom, get a drink etc.
Since the midterm exams are only 50 minutes long and the final shouldn’t really take longer than 90-120
minutes, this should be feasible for everybody. The William and Mary Honor Code applies.
If you require special accommodations due to disability for the midterms/ final please let me know as soon
as possible. Provide the documentation from the Dean of Students at the latest one week before the exam
date so I can make the necessary arrangements.
Grade distribution
I aim for a grade distribution with a mean and median of B. This is the distribution from Spring 2014 for the
179 students in the class, mean 2.96, median B.
A: 58 students
B: 69 students
C: 37 students
D: 12 students
W: 3 students
The average for all Principles courses in Econ (all sections of 101 and 102) over the last semesters has been
2.95, so you can expect the distribution in this course to again be in line with the past scores.
I will use the standard grading scale out of 100, meaning scores in the 90s will be in the A-range, 80s will be
B-range and so on. Since each midterm consists of 34 questions, I will multiply your number of correct
answers by three to get to your midterms scores. If needed, I will curve up to ensure that the median score
for the class is at least 80 for each midterm. I will never curve down. This also means you know where you
stand and can adjust studying effort early if needed.
Attendance
Attendance is not required but strongly encouraged. As you know from Micro rational thinking may
sometimes indicate that your opportunity cost of coming to the lecture is seemingly high (“the weather is
really nice outside and some of my friends are going to the beach this Friday”). Don’t fool yourself, often
people make these choices with myopic preferences (meaning putting too much weight on the short term) or
being overly optimistic about their own abilities (“I know this stuff or can figure it out easily by teaching
myself”). Most students (I would say about 80%) who skip regularly do relatively poorly once grades are
submitted.
If you do come to class, don’t use it as social hour. There are nicer places on campus to visit with your
friends. Don’t distract other students, be considerate. You can bring your laptops, phones, tablets and use
them in class, but don’t distract yourself or others. On occasion I notice a student who attracts an audience
of people sitting around him/her with what he/she is looking at. Almost always that’s not the course material
and negatively impacts everybody’s concentration, my own included.
On occasion I will ask a short question on the course material in class. I will ask you to write down your
answer on a piece of paper, put your name on it, and hand it in. At the end of the semester if you get most of
these questions correct you will receive a small amount of extra credit (up to a maximum of 2 points out of
100 for the course).
Course Outline

Wed 8/27: Introduction

Fri 8/29: Chapter 1

September
Mon 9/1: Chapter 2

Wed 9/3: Chapter 2, homework 1 available on Blackboard after 9pm

Fri 9/5: Chapter 2

Mon 9/8: Homework 1 due by 9am, chapter 2

Wed 9/10: Chapter 2 or chapter 3, homework 2 available on Blackboard after 9pm

Fri 9/12: Chapter 3

Mon 9/15: Homework 2 due by 9am, chapter 3

Wed 9/17: Chapter 3, homework 3 available on Blackboard after 9pm

Fri 9/19: Chapter 3 or chapter 4

Mon 9/22: Homework 3 due by 9am, chapter 4

Wed 9/24: Chapter 4

Fri 9/26: exam questions and answers

Mon 9/29: Midterm 1
October

Wed 10/1: Chapter 5, homework 4 available on Blackboard after 9pm

Fri 10/3: Chapter 5

Mon 10/6: Homework 4 due by 9am, chapter 5

Wed 10/8: Chapter 6, homework 5 available on Blackboard after 9pm

Fri 10/10: Chapter 6

Mon 10/13: Fall Break

Wed 10/15: Homework 5 due by 9am, chapter 6, homework 6 available on Blackboard
after 9pm.

Fri 10/17: Chapter 6, 7

Mon 10/20: Chapter 7

Wed 10/22: Homework 6 due by 9am, chapter 7

Fri 10/24: Chapter 7, exam questions and answers

Mon 10/27: Midterm 2

Wed 10/29: Chapter 8, homework 7 available on Blackboard after 9pm.

Fri 10/31: Chapter 8
November

Mon 11/3: Homework 7 due by 9am, chapter 8

Wed 11/5: Chapter 10, homework 8 available on Blackboard after 9pm.

Fri 11/7: Chapter 10

Mon 11/10: Homework 8 due by 9am, chapter 11

Wed 11/12: Chapter 11

Fri 11/14: Chapter 11

Mon 11/17: Midterm questions and answers

Wed 11/19: Midterm 3

Fri 11/21: Chapter 12, homework 9 available on Blackboard after 9pm.

Mon 11/24: Chapter 12
December

Mon 12/1: Homework 9 due by 9am, chapter 12

Wed 12/3: Chapter 12, course wrap-up.

Fri 12/5: wrap-up
Final Exam: December 15th, 9-12pm.