Macroeconomics Course

Brad DeLong's Office Hours:

Preclass assignments:

Highly Optional: Introduction to Technology in Coursework | Textbooks for the 21st Century | Other possible initial orienting readings | Intro to Python on Microsoft Azure

This class is going to be an experiment:

  1. Revising and transforming the DeLong and Olney textbook for the modern age...
  2. Lightening the grading load on GSIs...
  3. Teaching some useful data manipulation (and other data science) tools...

Readings: Textbook (online), Robert Skidelsky (2010): Keynes: A Very Short Introduction http://amzn.to/2FGtsoE, and John Maynard Keynes (1930): Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren http://tinyurl.com/y9k4othx

Textbook: the last edition of Delong and Olney: Macroeconomics http://amzn.to/2rdAL4m: Downloadable:

  1. http://delong.typepad.com/delong-olney-2nd-ed-chs-1-3.pdf
  2. http://delong.typepad.com/delong-olney-2nd-ed-chs-4-5.pdf
  3. http://delong.typepad.com/delong-olney-2nd-ed-chs-6-8.pdf
  4. http://delong.typepad.com/delong-olney-2nd-ed-chs-9-12.pdf
  5. http://delong.typepad.com/delong-olney-2nd-ed-chs-13-end.pdf

Course Outline:

Introduction: D&O2 Part 1: chs. 1-3

Pre-class assignments
2018-08-23 Th: Introduction and Python q1
2018-08-29 We: PS 1 Python due http://datahub.berkeley.edu/user-redirect/interact?account=&repo=datahub.berkeley.edu&branch=master&path=notebooks/ECON-101B/Intro%20(Problem%20Set%201)/intro.ipynb

Macroeconomics Brief Intro
Orientation—Who Are You? And What Do You Know?
Doing the Problem Sets
Tools: Analyzing Growth
Data8 Infrastructure Quiz 1
The 21st C Educational Process: Reflections

  • iClickers inclass…
  • Disrupting the textbook market
  • Data Science
  • Python

This Is Berkeley!
The Uses of a University

PS1: Letter to Instructors | PS2: Keynes: Economic Consequences for Our Grandchildren | PS3: Introduction to Python

 

Long Run Growth: D&O2 Part 2: chs. 4-5

2018-08-28 Tu: The Solow growth model
2018-08-30 Th: Malthusian economies
2018-09-04 Tu: Escape: two heads are better than one and demographic transition
2018-09-05 We: PS 2 Solow due
2018-09-06 Th: Industrial Revolution and modern economic growth q3
2018-09-11 Tu: Cross-country labor productivity divergence
2018-09-12 We: PS 3 Malthus and escape due
2018-09-13 Th: Joining the postindustrial core? q4
2018-09-18 Tu: Assessing the past and future of economic growth
2018-09-19 We: PS 4 cross-country growth due
2018-09-26 We: PS 5 assessing growth due

Hunters and Gatherers: Background
The Malthusian Agrarian Era

 

Business Cycles: Flex Prices: D&O2 Part 3: chs. 6-8

2018-09-20 Th: building blocks of the business cycle model q5
2018-09-25 Tu: The flexprice business cycle model
2018-10-03 We: PS 6 flexprice due

Business Cycles: Sticky Prices: D&O2 Part 4: chs. 9-12

2018-09-27 Th: The sticky-price business cycle model: IS curve q6
2018-10-02 Tu: Interest-rate spreads and financial crises
2018-10-04 Th: The Phillips curve q7
2018-10-09 Tu: Inflation expectations
2018-10-10 We: PS 7 IS Curve due
2018-10-11 Th: The monetary policy reaction function q8
2018-10-17 We: PS 8 inflation and monetary policy due due

Business Cycles: Policy: D&O2 Part 5: chs. 13-END

2018-10-16 Tu: The zero lower bound on short safe nominal interest rates and non-standard expansionary policy q9
2018-10-18 Th: Deflation?
2018-10-23 Tu: Hysteresis
2018-10-24 We: PS 9 zero lower bound due due
2018-10-25 Th: Secular stagnation q10
2018-10-30 Tu: Optimal control
2018-10-31 We: PS 10 hysteresis and secular stagnation due
2018-11-01 Th: The burden of the government debt and the fiscal theory of the price level q11
2018-11-06 Tu: Open economies and exchange rate regimes
2018-11-07 We: PS 11 fiscal issues due
2018-11-08 Th: Assessing societal well-being q12
2018-11-13 Tu: Income and wealth inequality: education, trade, and monopoly
2018-11-14 We: PS 12 smorgasbord due
2018-11-15 Th: Income and wealth inequality: the rent-seeking society and the future of work q13

Wrap-Up

2018-11-20 Tu: Article review project
2018-11-22 Th: Thanksgiving
2018-11-27 Tu: Synthesis and review https://www.icloud.com/keynote/0dt8ktpYbjNyBVZ30PM4xjCvw http://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/braddelong/LSS18E101b/blob/master/2018-05-01%20%23MRE%20Review%20Intermediate%20Macroeonomics.ipynb
2018-11-29 Th: Q&A
FINAL:

Grading:

  • 45 pts.: Final: notes on final
  • 45 pts.: 15 problem sets/assignments
  • 13 pts.: 13 weekly in-class quizzes
  • 12 pts.: iClickers (28 chances for 1/2 pt each)
  • 10 pts.: participation (lecture and section)
  • A go-faster do-more course: match the average grade to your average grades outside this class

An Educational Experiment

Who Are You?

Support Teaching Economics...

Search

Design | Pages | Edit Contents |