Office: Dewing 309

phone: X-7023

cstull@kzoo.edu

http://cc.kzoo.edu/~cstull/class.html

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Economics 410 is an introduction to the concerns and methods of economics, with an emphasis on macroeconomic issues. Macroeconomics is the study of aggregate economic behavior; its focus is the national economy. Topics include unemployment, inflation, national income, money and banking, fiscal and monetary policy. The course will introduce principles of economic analysis as a means to study macroeconomic behavior and determine the appropriate course of government policy.

READINGS

1) Principles of Economics, N. Gregory Mankiw, The Dreyden Press 1998

2) A daily newspaper of the student's choice

EXAMS, ASSIGNMENTS, AND OTHER WORK

There will be three exams, as follows:
Exam I .... Wednesday January 27 (in class)
Exam II ... Wednesday February 17 (in class)
Exam III .. during the scheduled final exam period

The material covered by each exam will be described in class. The final exam will be comprehensive. Assignments will be an important part of this class. The assignments are intended to be thought provoking. Many assignments will be completed during class, but some will require thought outside of class. Some assignments draw on your newspaper readings, others will involve classroom discussion. Quizzes and problem sets, if assigned, will be part of the "assignment” grade.

GRADING SYSTEM

The overall course grade is based on total points earned on the exams and the other work. The points will be distributed as follows:
Exam I ............. 150
Exam II ............ 150
Exam III (final).. 150
Assignments...... 100
Total .................550

COURSE OUTLINE

I. Basic Economic Principles
A. Economics and the Price System (review Ch. 1- 4)
B. Introduction to Macroeconomics (Ch 24)
C. Financial Markets (Ch. 25)

II. Macroeconomic principles
A. Macroeconomic Issues
B. National Income Accounting (Ch. 22)
C. Measuring Inflation (Ch. 23)
D. Unemployment (Ch. 26)

III. Money
A. Money, Banking and The Federal Reserve (Ch. 27)
B. Inflation (Ch. 28)

IV. International Economics
A. International Finance (Ch. 29)
B. Open-Economy Macro (Ch. 30)

V. Economic Fluctuations
A. Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply (Ch. 31)
B. Keynesian Model (Ch. 32)
C. Unemployment vs. Inflation (Ch 33)

VI. Policy (as time permits)
A. Development
B. Macroeconomic Issues (Ch. 34) READINGS