ECON325-25S2 (C) Semester Two 2025

Advanced Macroeconomics

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 14 July 2025
End Date: Sunday, 9 November 2025
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 27 July 2025
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 28 September 2025

Description

ECON325 studies the economy as a whole to understand the two main areas of macroeconomics: long-run growth in the standard of living and the general level of prices, and short-run fluctuations in employment and output. The course gives particular attention to the mathematical techniques that economists use to study these areas and the microeconomic foundations that underpin much of macroeconomic analysis.

The goal of Advanced Macroeconomics is to provide students with a rigorous overview of modern macroeconomics. The course builds on the themes introduced in ECON206. The principal objective of this class is to equip students with the tools and ideas necessary to understand the aggregate economy and to make informed opinions about different economic policies. This course builds up a set of models of the economy. Students are expected to use some basic mathematical tools (algebraic manipulations, solving systems of equations, differential calculus, optimisation).

Learning Outcomes

The objectives of the course are:
1. To obtain a thorough and complete understanding of national economic accounts.
2. To be able to construct and interpret price indexes and their role in measuring inflation.
3. To learn about the micro-foundations of modern macroeconomics.
4. To solve consumer problems using the Lagrange method.
5. To understand how banks create money and banks interact with the central bank
6. To understand how interest rates are determined
7. To understand the Euler equation as an intertemporal first order condition for a dynamic choice problem.
8. To learn the basic concepts of economic models such as identities, behavioural equations, exogenous variables, exogenous variables and equilibrium conditions
9. To learn to solve economic models
10. To learn about the role of expectations and uncertainty in macroeconomics
11. To learn about money and its role in the economy
12. To use a set of frameworks such as the IS-LM and IS-LM-PC model to examine the effect of monetary and fiscal policy.
13. To understand and solve labour-leisure choice problems
14. To explain what is a general equilibrium model.
15. To explain what is optimal monetary policy.
16. To explain what is the difference between cash-in-advance constraint and money in the utility function
17. To explain the Friedman rule.
18. To derive and explain the Phillips curve.
19. To understand the drivers of economic growth, chiefly through the lens of the Solow/neoclassical growth model.
20. To learn about the chief distinction between growth through capital accumulation and growth through technological progress.

Prerequisites

(1) ECON206; and (2) MATH102; and (3) ECON207 or ECON208

Timetable 2025

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Lecture A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 13:00 - 14:00 Karl Popper 612
14 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
Lecture B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00 A9 Lecture Theatre
14 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
Lecture C
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00 A7
14 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct
Tutorial A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 13:00 - 14:00 Jane Soons 602
14 Jul - 24 Aug
8 Sep - 19 Oct

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

Philip Vermeulen

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
10 Weekly Problem Sets 20%
Mid term test 30%
Final Exam 50%


The ‘45% rule’ does not apply to this course. That is, student does not need to reach 45% weighted average across invigilated assessments.

Assessment In Te Reo Māori
In recognising that Te Reo Māori is an official language of New Zealand, the University provides for students who may wish to use Te Reo Māori in their assessment. If you intend to submit your work in Te Reo Māori you are required to do the following:

Read the Assessment in Te Reo Māori Policy and ensure that you meet the conditions set out in the policy. This includes, but is not limited to, informing the Course Coordinator 1) no later than 10 working days after the commencement of the course that you wish to use Te Reo Māori and 2) at least 15 working days before each assessment due date that you wish to use Te Reo Māori.

Textbooks / Resources

Required Texts

Blanchard, Olivier; Macroeconomics ; Eighth edition, Global edition; Pearson, 2021.

Other readings will be provided on the course’s Learn site.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $946.00

International fee $4,363.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Department of Economics and Finance .

All ECON325 Occurrences

  • ECON325-25S2 (C) Semester Two 2025