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2016/2017  BA-BINBO1127U  Macroeconomics

English Title
Macroeconomics

Course information

Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Mandatory
Level Bachelor
Duration One Quarter
Start time of the course Third Quarter, Spring
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for BSc in International Business
Course coordinator
  • Annaïg Morin - Department of Economics (ECON)
Main academic disciplines
  • Economics
Last updated on 21-09-2016
Learning objectives
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes or errors:
  • Explain basic macroeconomic terminology (e.g. "growth", "recession", "natural unemployment", "trade balance deficit", etc.) in a comprehensive way.
  • Describe and explain the assumptions and mechanisms of the main macroeconomic models (e.g. the Keynesian model, the IS/LM model, the AD/AS model, the Solow growth model, etc.). Illustrate these models graphically and solve them algebraically.
  • Describe how GDP is determined in the short run, the medium run and the long run. Explain how GDP is affected by shocks.
  • Describe the main determinants of other important macroeconomic variables such as inflation, unemployment, real wage, interest rate, exchange rate, etc. Explain how these macroeconomic variables are affected by shocks.
  • Perform policy experiments (e.g., changes in government spendings or changes in money supply). Interpret the mechanisms verbally and graphically, and solve algebraically.
Course prerequisites
No prerequisites in economics are required.

The technical level required by the course is modest but basic math will be used in this class. More precisely, we will make extensive use of elementary algebra.

If you feel that it’s needed, please review how to:
- work with algebraic expressions (factorization, substitution, exponentiation, solving systems of two linear equations with 2 unknowns)
- plot linear equations in two-dimensional graphs
- differentiate simple functions
Examination
Macroeconomics:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Written sit-in exam
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Assignment type Written assignment
Duration 4 hours
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Spring, The regular exam takes place in March. The make-up exam / re-examination takes place in August.
Aids allowed to bring to the exam Limited aids, see the list below:
  • Written sit-in-exam with pen and paper
  • Approved calculators: HP 10bII+ and Texas BA II Plus
  • Dictionaries (only some, see specification below)
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
If the number of registered candidates for the make-up examination/re-take examination warrants that it may most appropriately be held as an oral examination, the programme office will inform the students that the make-up examination/re-take examination will be held as an oral examination instead.
The make-up exam / re-exam takes place according to the same rules as the regular exam.
Description of the exam procedure

Basic language dictionaries (e.g. from mother tongue to English and vice versa and English/English).
Pen and paper exam.

Course content and structure

The aim of this course is to provide students with an introduction to macroeconomics. The course focuses on the behavior of the economy in the short-run, middle-run, and long-run, specifically looking at the goods market, the financial market and the labor market. The course is designed to help students understand how these markets operate, how they interact with each other, and how they are impacted by shocks and macroeconomic policies. The key mechanisms will first be explained in a context of closed economy and the analysis will then be extended to include trade and financial openness.

 

 

Why do economies expand sometimes, raising employment and living standards, and shrink at other times? What is a recession? What happened in 2008–09 when the world economy was hit by the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s? How did government policy respond to the crisis and was this response effective?

 

More generally, which shocks affect macroeconomic activity? How do these shocks affect output, employment, investment, or consumption? Can government policies make economies grow or stop them from shrinking? Why do we have inflation? Is inflation a bad thing? Is there anything we can do to reduce inflation? Why do we have unemployment? Do policies to reduce unemployment work? Why do countries borrow from abroad? How are exchange rates determined and why are they so volatile? What drives economic growth in the long run? What explains the large differences in economic performance across different countries in different times?

 

These are some of the central questions that fascinate macroeconomists. If you are curious about how macroeconomists look at the world around them, how they model it, and how this helps answering the questions you just read, then this is the course for you. 

Teaching methods
The course will mainly consist of general lectures that will present and explain
macroeconomic concepts and models. Each mechanism presented in class will be embodied in a simple analytical framework to facilitate understanding the underlying logic. Moreover, graphs will be used extensively to build intuition.

In addition to general lectures, tutorial sessions will be devoted to solving exercises.
Student workload
Lecture hours 42 hours
Exercise classes 12 hours
Preparation for lectures 42 hours
Preparation for exercise classes 12 hours
Preparation for exam 98 hours
Expected literature

Blanchard, O. and Johnson, D., Macroeconomics (6th Edition), 2013, Pearson Prentice Hall.

 

Please note, minor changes may occur. The teacher will uploade the final reading list to Learn two weeks before the course starts.

Last updated on 21-09-2016