Teaching Assistants
Andriy Baranskyy
WMC 4668, Tuesday 14:30-15:30
abaransk@sfu.ca
Noor-E Zannat
WMC 1674, Tuesday 11:30-12:30
nzannat@sfu.ca
Xiaowen Lei
WMC 2702, Thursday 2:30-3:30
xiaowen_lei@sfu.ca
Xiao Yu
WMC 1672, Friday, 11:30-12:30
yuxiaoy@sfu.ca
Tenzin Yindok
WMC 3619, Thursday 4:00-5:00
tyindok@sfu.ca
Georgi Boichev
WMC 2657, Tuesday 3:30-4:30
gvb1@sfu.ca
Office Hours (Instructor)
WMC 2684, Tuesday 2.30-3.30 (or by appointment)
Phone: 778.782.5825
Exam Dates
Midterm 1: Thursday, June 14, 2012
Midterm 2: Thursday, July 12, 2012
Final Exam: TBA
Important: Dead Grandmother Alert.
Course Grade
Your course grade will be based on the formula MAX{0.2*MT1 + 0.3*MT2 + 0.5*FINAL, FINAL}.
In other words, if you underperform on your midterm exams, you have a chance to make it all up with a 100% final exam.
Sober assessments of my teaching ability available here, on Ratemyprofessors.com.
Course Outline
[1] Economic Methodology. Just a brief overview of how economists generally go about trying to understand things.
Lecture slides: The Science of Economics.
Additional reading: The Methodology of Postive Economics ( Milton Friedman, 1966)
Optional readings :
What are Economic Models? (Sam Ouliaris, IMF 2011)
Big Questions and Big Numbers (The Economist).
Milton Friedman on Greed (interview with Phil Donahue, 1979).
Moral Misunderstanding and the Justification of Markets (Paul T. Heyne, 1998).
Factual Free-Market Fairness (Deidre McCloskey, 2012)
[2] The Gross Domestic Product [Chp1]. Measurement issues; definitions.
Lecture slides: The Gross Domestic Product.
[3] Output and Employment [Chp2&3]. A static neoclassical model designed to explain time allocation choices (employment),
real wages, and GDP as function underlying productivity. A simple extension to incorporate uncertainty. Irrational and
rational expectations; multiple equilibria; self-fulfilling prophecies and "animal spirits."
Lecture slides: Interpreting the Business Cycle.
Additional reading:
Actual and Potential GDP (David Altig, June 2005)
Optional reading:
Beyond Shocks: What Causes Business Cycles? An Overview (Jeffrey Fuhrer and Scott Schuh, New England Review, 1998).
[4] Redistributive Policies and Employment Across Nations [Chp6:129-141] and here. What accounts for the differences in employment
across nations? Investigating some of the theoretical effects of government fiscal policies on employment patterns.
Lecture slides: The Employment of Nations.
Additional reading: Why Do Americans Work More than Europeans? (Ed Prescott, WSJ October 2004)
Additional reading: Seven Questions About Income Inequality (Laura Fieveson, June 2012)
[5] Consumption and Saving [Chp5]. A simple two-period (dynamic) model designed to explain consumption/saving choices, the
determination of the current account, and the real interest rate.
Lecture slides: Consumption and Saving.
[6] Capital and Investment [Chp7]. Extending the simple dynamic model to incorporate domestic capital expenditure.
Lecture slides: Capital and Investment.
[7] Government Deficits [Chp6: 142-152]. An application of the simple dynamic model to understand and interpret government deficits;
the Ricardian Equivalence Theorem. Reading: The Public Purse (Economist Magazine, November 24, 1990), Page 1, Page 2.
Lecture slides: Fiscal Policies. (I will not examine you on the first part of these slides; focus on the latter part, beginning with Dynamic Endowment Model.)
[8] Unemployment [Chp4]. The modern theory of unemployment. (In terms of the theory of unemployment, focus on slides, rather than text.)
Lecture slides: Employment, Unemployment, and Turnover
Additonal readings:
Many Moving Parts: A Closer Look at the U.S. Labor Market (David Andolfatto and Marcela Williams, 2011)
Interpreting the Beveridge Curve (Andolfatto blogpost, Dec. 18, 2010)
The Great Canadian Slump: Can it Happen in the U.S.? (Andolfatto blogpost, Dec. 22, 2010)
[9] Monetary Theory [Chp8]. (I would recommend giving chapter 8 a quick read; focus on lecture slides)
Lecture slides I: Money.
Lecture slides II:
A simple OLG model.
Reading: What is Money? How is it Created and Destroyed?
Optional readings:
Banking Panics in the U.S.: 1873-1933 (EH Net)
Lender of Last Resort Policies: From Bagehot to Bailout (Angela Redish, 2001)
The Federal Reserve System (Wikipedia)
[10] International Monetary Systems
Lecture slides: International Monetary Systems
Reading: Sovereign Debt: A Modern Greek Tragedy (Fernando Martin and Chris Waller)
Lecture slides: Sovereign Debt: A Modern Greek Tragedy
[11] The Great Recession
Lecture slides: The U.S. Recession of 2007-201? (by Robert E. Lucas, Jr.)
Optional readings:
Seven Sects of Macroeconomic Error, Part I (by Brad DeLong)
The Economic Crisis from a Neoclassical Perspective (by Lee Ohanian)
Final exam will cover all materials above this point (except for optional readings).
[12] Growth and Development [Chp9]. We did not have time to cover this section, so will not constitute exam material.
Old Exams
