Economics 311
Money and Income
Introduction
Spring 2002
Department of Economics
College of Business and Economics
California State University-Northridge
Professor Kenneth Ng
Administrative Details (2)
 Textbook: Robert
Barro,
Macroeconomics,
5e.
 Course will follow
Barro closely.
Subject matter,
notation, etc.
Administrative Details (1)
 Adding and dropping.
All sections currently full.
TTR drop/add during the first two weeks.
Will add up to the enrollment limit as spaces
become available on Tuesday of the 3rd and 4th
week of class.
Concurrent Enrollment and Open University
Students will be added on the Thursday of the 3rd
week of class—space permitting.
Administrative Details (3)
 Class website: ng.csun.edu.
Reading List.
Exam Archive.
Assignments.
Slides from lectures.
Slides will be updated immediately following class.
Grade Roster.
Grading
 Grade is based on 2 exams plus a final.
Weighting: Exams 25% each. Final 50%.
 The final will be comprehensive.
 Before each exam there will be at least two
homework or other types of exercise.
The assignments will be worth 10 points each.
Points will be added to the next exam before
computing the curve.
5 points deducted for not completing
assignment.
The Curve
 Grades in the class will be mean based.
Letter grade is determined by how well each student
performs relative to the average performance of all
students in the class.
Roughly speaking, 1/3rd of the class will receive an A or
B, 1/3rd a C, and 1/3rd (including those who do not
complete the class) a D or F.
 Scores on the three exams including homework will be
averaged into a course score using the formula:
Course Score  (.25)(norm alized first exam score)
 (.25)(norm alized 2nd exam score)
 (.5)(norma lized final score)
The Curve (2)
 Each exam’s normalized course score measures how far a
score is from the mean score of all students taking the
exam and is computed using the formula:
(Students Score - Mean)
Normalized Exam Score 
Standard deviation
•A Normalized Exam Score of 0 is the mean.
•A positive Normalized Exam Score is a score above the
mean.
•A negative Normalized Exam Score is a score below the
mean.
How to get a good grade in this class
 Follow a cycle of preparation and review.
Before each new section of material give Barro a quick read.
Attend lecture.
After each lecture download the Powerpoint slides and
review. Make sure that you understand everything discussed
in class.
Somewhere in the middle of a section of material download
the sample exams. Choose a few questions and try to
answer them under exam like conditions.
 Complete all assignments.
Scoring 10 points from homework assignments prior to each
exam is equivalent to improving one letter grade.
Missing both assignments prior to an exam is equivalent to
lowering you grade by 1+ letter.
Course Objective (1)
 Will develop a general purpose macro-economics model
of an economy.
 Concentrate on 3 key decisions made by economic
agents:
Work/Leisure-Chapter 2
Consumption Now vs. Consumption Later-Chapter 3
Money-Chapter 4
 Combining these 3 decisions generates the Basic Market
Clearing Market -Chapter 5.
Course Objectives (2)
 Use the Basic Market Clearing Model to engage in
economic analysis.
If there is a change in the world what effect will it have
on the economy.
Changes in the world.
• Government Policy-Taxes, Money Supply, and
Regulation.
• Natural Disaster-Earthquake, Terrorist Attack.
Effect on the Economy.
• Output-GNP, GNP per capita.
• Employment/Unemployment.
• Prices-Inflation/Deflation.
Reading Assignment for Thursday
Chapter 1 in Barro.
No Class on Thursday.