UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
Department of Economics
Economics 313. Spring 2014.
Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory
MW 12:00 - 1:50pm in 101 JAQ
Instructor: John Voorheis
Office: 508 PLC. Office hours: Tuesday 4-5:30pm and Friday 1:30-3pm or by appointment.
email: jlv@uoregon.edu
GTF: Frank Zou
Textbook
Olivier Blanchard and David Johnson, Macroeconomics, Sixth Edition, Pearson. You will also need to purchase
MyEconLab access, which will be needed for homework. I will also distribute lecture notes for some topics, once
the lectures on that topic are completed, via Blackboard.
Course Description
Economics 313 is the basic course in macroeconomic theory for economics majors and minors. The official
pre-requisites for this course are Principles of Macroeconomics (EC 202) and College Algebra (MATH 111);
Intermediate Microeconomics is highly recommended. This course covers the theory of the determination of
aggregate output, unemployment, prices, interest rates, inflation, and growth, in the short-run and the mediumrun, with applications to the U.S. economy and discussions of macroeconomic policy issues. You should aim
to become well informed about the current state of the U.S. economy, and you will be expected to know some
basic facts about U.S. macroeconomic data. Real-time releases of key data (e.g. GDP) will be mentioned and
analyzed in the lectures.
Grading
There will be weekly homeworks, two quizzes, a midterm exam and the final exam. All quizzes and exams are
closed book/closed notes. The midterm will be from 12:00 - 1:50pm on Wednesday April 30. The final exam
will be on Monday, June 9 at 10:15am. The two quizzes will count a total of 15%, and will be equivalent to a
medium-to-hard midterm problem. The midterm will count for 30%, and the final exam will count for 40% of
the course grade. Homework (see below) will count 15% of the grade. If you miss a test or the midterm exam,
let me know immediately; however note that retakes will only be available for legitimate reasons. Appeals of
an exam grade must be made within 1 week of its being returned: the entire test/exam will be considered and
the grade may be altered up or down. The Economics department grading policy (which I will abide by) can
be found here: http://economics.uoregon.edu/undergraduate-program/department-grading-standards/
Academic Dishonesty
Any form of cheating will be dealt with severely. At best, any student caught cheating will receive no credit for
the assignment. At worst, the student will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct for further disciplinary
action. Takeaway: the expected benefit from cheating is far outweighed by the expected loss from cheating. So
be a rational economic agent and don’t cheat.
Homework and MyEconLab
There will be periodic (usually weekly) homework, which counts 15% of the grade. The answers will be discussed
in class and some closely related problems may appear on the exams. Homework will be submitted on the
MyEconLab website. You must register for MyEconLab and enroll with MyEconLab in this course. To do this
you will need to have the access code, which will be contained with the textbook. Go to the Pearson website,
enter the course ID (given below), sign in or create an account, and use the access code that came with the
textbook. In general, homework assignments will be available at the end of each Wednesday’s lecture and will
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be due by the start of the following Monday’s lecture. There will be 7 homeworks in total (although this is
subject to change).
The instructor course ID for MyEconLab is voorheis63986.
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Lecture and Reading Schedule (Subject to Change)
Reading should be (ideally) completed before attending lecture to maximize your own understanding.
Date
March 31
Chapter & Assignment
Introduction to Macroeconomics, Concepts and Measurement
Read Chapters 1-2
April 2
Introduction to The Goods Market
Read Chapter 3
April 7
Introduction to Financial Markets
Read Chapter 4
HW 1 due 4/7
April 9,14
The IS-LM Model
Read Chapter 5
April 16
The Labor Market
Read Chapter 6
Quiz 1
HW 2 due 4/16
April 21, 23, 28
April 30
The AS-AD Model & Review
Read Chapter 7
HW 3 due 4/28
Midterm Exam
May 5
The Phillips Curve and the Natural Rate of Unemployment
Read Chapter 8
May 7
Introduction to the Long Run: Growth Facts
Read Chapter 10
May 12, 14
Savings and Capital Accumulation
Read Chapter 11
HW 4 due 5/14
May 19, 21
Technological Progress and Growth
Read Chapter 12
HW 5 due 5/21; Quiz 2 5/19
May 26
Memorial Day (No Lecture)
May 28
Technological Progress in the Short, Medium and Long Run
Read Chapter 13
HW 6 due 5/28
June 2
Fiscal & Monetary Policy
Read Chapter 23-24
June 4
Final Review
Final Exam
June 9, 10:15am
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