Macroeconomics

Description

A comprehensive study of the economy as a whole. An understanding of the determinants of long-run growth in the standard of living and the general level of prices, of short-run fluctuations in employment and output, of the forces that act to change these variables, and how they are affected by public policies.

There are seven basic sections in this course: an introduction to macroeconomics, which includes data definitions and data measurement; micro foundations of macro which looks at consumption, investment, the labour market, money demand, and money supply; macroeconomic fluctuations (also called business cycles); an introduction to public sector macroeconomics; the open macroeconomy; economic growth; and a history of macroeconomic thought. New Zealand content is incorporated where applicable and possible.

By the end of the course you will be able to read an article from a newspaper such as The Press or the National Business Review, or from a magazine like The Economist, that involves some aspect of macroeconomics, and make some sense of it. The course aims to develop your economic intution, to increase your understanding of macroeconomics, to increase your knowledge about the New Zealand macroeconomy, and to enhance your skills, especially your quantitative and analytical skills. You should note that there are three features of studying economic issues that you will meet repeatedly in this course and which are important in achieving these objectives. One is the ability to think logically. The second is to be able to use the language of mathematics to describe and analyse people's behaviour (hence you should be comfortable with basic statistics, linear algebra, and using graphs). The third is to be comfortable with material and questions that do not have nice simple explanations or answers.