In this course, you will build on and apply what you learned in the introductory macroeconomics course. You will use the concepts of output, unemployment, inflation, consumption, and investment to study the dynamics of an economy at a more advanced level.
For example, now that you understand the relationship between supply and demand in general terms, you will be asked to examine the effects that short-run and long-run price changes have on full employment and output. As the course progresses, you will gain a better appreciation for how policy shifts and changes in one sector impact the rest of the macroeconomy (whether the impacts are intended or unintended). You will also examine the causes of inflation and depression, and discuss various approaches to responding to them. By the end of this course, you should be able to think critically about the economy and develop your own unique perspective on various issues. Remember that macroeconomics attempts to explain the role of government and the scope of total production in a national economy. Economists use abstract quantitative tools to develop concepts about how markets and systems work; basic assumptions are made and then relaxed to create more flexible and realistic models. This course will use a variety of mathematical techniques to describe how the macroeconomy changes over time.
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Explain the standard theory in macroeconomics at an intermediate level.
- Explain and use the basic tools of macroeconomic theory, and apply them to help address problems in public policy.
- Analyze the role of government in allocating scarce resources.
- Explain how inflation affects entire economic systems.
- Synthesize the impact of employment and unemployment in a free market economy.
- Build macroeconomic models to describe changes over time in monetary and fiscal policy.
- Compare and contrast arguments concerning business, consumers and government, and make good conjectures regarding the possible solutions.
- Analyze the methods of computing and explaining how much is produced in an economy.
- Apply basic tools that are used in many fields of economics, including uncertainty, capital and investment, and economic growth.
Course Requirements: have completed the following courses: Principles of Microeconomics; Principles of Macroeconomics; Single-Variable Calculus I; Multivariable Calculus and Introduction to Statistics.
