SUBJECT:	This course deals with the behavior of the major economy-wide, or aggregate, economic variables. These include the level and growth rate of GDP, the rate of unemployment, the price level and rate of inflation, the rate of interest, the exchange rate, the trade deficit and the government budget deficit. All of these are prominently featured in the news. The purpose of the course is to provide an analytical framework that will enable students to make sense of these economic aggregates. It is important to know not just what they mean and how they are measured, but also how they relate to each other and how they are determined in a market-oriented economy like that of the United States. This in turn will bring us to important issues of economic policy, and the extent to which such policies can and should be used to influence these variables, especially in the context of the interdependent world economy.
Prerequisite:	Econ 101 - Principles of Microeconomics - or equivalent
Organization:	Students are expected to attend three hours of lecture and a 1-1/2 hour section meeting each week. Lectures are TTh at 2:40 PM in the Askwith Auditorium, 140 Lorch. Section meetings, scheduled at various times and places on Fridays, will be led by graduate student instructors (GSIs) who are graduate students in the Department of Economics.
Permissions:	When the course fills up during registration, there will NOT be a waitlist. Instead, as students drop the course, it will then be possible to register into the spaces that open up. Since sections are already set at their maximum size, it will not be possible to grant permission to add into a section that is already full. You should just keep trying to register until a space opens up and you get in.

Requirements:

Exams:

Readings

Readings for the course come primarily from a textbook, but they also include a number of outside readings that are available online and in coursepacks, plus regular reading of the Wall Street Journal newspaper. All of the outside readings can be found on the World Wide Web (some via a U of M subscription), and they are also in a separate coursepack that is therefore optional.

The textbook, for the course has been ordered as a package that also includes a subscription to the Wall Street Journal:

Mankiw, N. Gregory Brief Principles of Macroeconomics 4th edition, Thomson South-Western Publishers, 2007.

The text package (with WSJ subscription form and study guide) is available from the usual bookstores around campus. The Wall Street Journal is required reading, although it is not required that you subscribe, if you choose to acquire the text separately.

Also required are a number of short readings from the web. Links to them are provided in the schedule below (click "online") to view them online or to download and print. They are also listed separately, in an optional Coursepack 1, together with questions on each reading that should guide you in your study. The readings themselves are reproduced in a second optional Coursepack 2, for those who find that more convenient.

To give you an idea of the format and content of exams, old exams and answers from my course in previous years will be placed on the course web site (see below). I used the same text each time, in an earlier edition (although I did not use all the same readings from the web), so these exams should provide a fairly accurate guide to what the exams this year may look like. Hard copies of these exams will also be available in additional optional coursepacks.

Finally, you will be expected to keep up with the current news that is related to macroeconomics, as reported in the Wall Street Journal. You do not have to subscribe, if you can get access to the paper some other way, in a library or through someone else's subscription. But you do need to read it daily and be prepared to use it for a few of the homework assignments. Each week an article will be assigned as required reading for the exams. While these articles will be available on the web from U of M computers, you may find it much easier to study these articles if you have copies yourself.

Those who buy the textbook package, which includes the Wall Street Journal, should activate their subscriptions by filling out the card that is enclosed with the text and mailing it to WSJ. If you wish instead to subscribe separately or for a longer period of time, you can subscribe online directly with WSJ for a student price.

The following are things that you might find useful to assist you in studying for the course. Of course, none of them can replace your own efforts at careful reading of the course materials, attention during lectures and sections, and your own notes on both the lectures and the readings.
1. Lecture Outlines: At the beginning of each lecture, I will post an outline of it. These outlines will also be available by clicking on the lecture topic from this syllabus online, or by going to Lecture Outlines from the course homepage. The outlines that are there now are from last year, but with a few exceptions, they probably won't change much. The outlines from last year are also included in Course Pack 1 from Grade A Notes.

2. Help with the Text: The Mankiw text includes materials at the end of each chapter that should help you to focus on the concepts and issues raised there. In addition, the homepage for the Mankiw text provides still more Learning Resources to help you learn the material, including problems, online quizzes, and a glossary.

3. Questions on Readings: To guide you to what is important in the readings from the web, I have written a few questions on each. As you read, you should watch for the answers to these questions, and/or try to answer them after you have finished the reading. If you can answer these questions, you should be in good shape for handling any questions about the readings on exams. To find these questions, click on the reading's topic here in the online syllabus or look under Questions on Readings on the course homepage. These questions are also included in Course Pack 1 from Grade A Notes.

4. Questions on WSJ Articles: To guide you to what is important in the assigned articles from the WSJ, I will write a few questions on each of them as well. I can't make these available ahead of time, obviously, but you will find them each week together with the assigned article on the course homepage under Wall Street Journal Assignments. You should use them as you do the questions on the readings.

5. Old Exams: There are no "sample exams," as students often ask for. But there are old exams from the last several times I've taught this course, and these should be helpful. You can find them online or in additional Course Packs from Grade A Notes (numbers 3, 4, and 5, one from each year, so that you don't have to buy them all).

6. Study Tips: These are some suggestions that I wrote down a few years ago in response to a student's question. They include all of the suggestions that I could think of for doing better in a course like this. They too can be found under Useful Links from the course homepage, which also lists other web links that you might find helpful.