Take a trip with me in this the third and final course of this Economics 100 Specialization which is a direct adaptation from one of my courses I teach at Rice University. Specifically, in this course we're going to be focusing on Macroeconomics. What is Macroeconomics you might be asking? Well, you've come to the right place! We're going to be going over the big picture of economics- which is examining the measures we use to gauge the health of national economies and study the theories and policies aimed at improving economic health. In a nutshell, how can we use economics to make the world a better place?
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Through course lectures, quizzes, discussions, and problem sets, my hope is that you'll be able to digest economic news with a more discerning viewpoint, and have a more informed view about the cost and benefits of economic policy. Finally, my hope is that you've learned to look at the world around you through the eyes of an economist.
By the end of this course you should be able to:
- Describe how GDP is used to measure macroeconomic performance.
- Describe how inflation is used to measure macroeconomic performance.
- Describe how unemployment rates and participation rates are used to measure
macroeconomic performance.
- Identify the primary sources of economic growth and explain the observed cross-
country differences in income per capita.
- Define savings and explain the factors influencing financial flows and
international trade.
- Identify the function of the federal reserve, describe the relationship between
nominal interest rates, money demand and money supply, and describe the
relationship between exchange rates and Net Exports.
- Explain the interaction between aggregate demand and aggregate supply to
determine the price level, real GDP, and employment.
- Describe the role of government and analyze policy responses to business cycle
shocks
This course is part of the A Story of Economics: A Principles Tale Specialization.
Syllabus
Welcome to the Course!
Welcome, congratulations and thank you for enrolling in this final chapter of our three-part Specialization, Macroeconomics. Please make sure to take look at all the welcome materials (you can skip the Meet the Professor if you've already "met me" two times).
Module 1 - Macro Measures
Alrighty then Econ 100. Welcome to Macro Measures. This is our first lecture in Act 3, the big picture. We made it to the big show, Macroeconomics. Here, the first thing we're going to do in macro, we're going to talk about our macro measures. Just like other social sciences, there's two sides of economics, there's the empirical side or the data side. Let's dive in!
Module 2 - Economic Growth
When we're talking about economic growth, what is the name of the game? The name of the game is raising standards of living. That's what we're trying to do with economic growth. We're trying to take people in difficult situations and give them the tools and the equipment that they need to raise themselves up, put themselves in better situations, and live the lives that they want to live.
Module 3 - Labor Markets
Welcome to labor supply and demand. Now, we've already talked about our labor market measures, our labor market variables. Now, we going to talk about the theory behind the labor market. Now this is macro, but before we get to the macro, we going to take a little trip down memory lane to the world of microeconomics and then we can explore further!
Module 4 - Savings and Consumption
In this module we're going to be looking at the relationship between... well savings and consumption. We're going to look at how the relationship between the two affects changes in income and interest rates within our two period consumer model. Let's get it.
Module 5 - Savings and Investment
When you think savings and investment, you probably think of financial institutions-- You think stocks, bonds, Wall Street, maybe the stock market. That's where this story is taking place. Now remember here in economics, we use the term investment differently than they do in finance. In finance, when you buy stocks and bonds, they call that investment. You're investing in the market in economics when you buy those assets and that's what they are assets, we call that savings. Investment is different for us in economics as you'll see in this module!
Module 6 - Money and Monetary Policy
In this module, we're going to be talking about money and monetary policy. Monetary policy, how it's conducted by the Federal Reserve. The control the money supply to affect interest rates, inflation, and employment. And we'll be defining some terms, looking at tools, and exploring their impact. Jump on in!
Module 7 - Aggregate Supply and Demand
Here in aggregate supply and demand we are going to take everything we've done throughout the entire course and we're going to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and look at our aggregate supply and demand graph! It's a bit of a short lesson, but it encompasses a lot of previous knowledge, so you may want to allot some time for review of previous lessons or have your notes handy. Let's check it out!
Module 8 - Fiscal Policy
Welcome to fiscal policy, this is really government policy. We've talked about monetary policy with the Central Bank, with the Federal Reserve but as I told you, they're an independent institution they're not really part of the government. Here our fiscal policy, that is really government policy, and this is our last hurrah, this is our last lecture in Act 3 the big picture. Can you believe it!?
