Macroeconomics

1. Introduction to Economics

• 1.1 The Basics of Economics
  • 1.1.1 Defining Economics
  • 1.1.2 What Economists Do
  • 1.1.3 Macroeconomics and Microeconomics
  • 1.1.4 An Overview of Economic Systems
  • 1.1.5 Case Study: The Work of Adam Smith

• 1.2 Graphs in Economics
  • 1.2.1 Using Graphs to Understand Direct Relationships
  • 1.2.2 Plotting a Linear Relationship between Two Variables
  • 1.2.3 Changing the Intercept of a Linear Function
  • 1.2.4 Understanding the Slope of a Linear Function

• 1.3 Demand
  • 1.3.1 Determining the Components of Demand
  • 1.3.2 Understanding the Basics of a Demand Curve
  • 1.3.3 Analyzing Shifts in the Demand Curve
  • 1.3.4 Understanding Changes in Other Demand Variables
  • 1.3.5 Deriving a Market Demand Curve

• 1.4 Supply
  • 1.4.1 Determining the Components of Supply
  • 1.4.2 Deriving a Supply Curve
  • 1.4.3 Understanding a Change in Supply versus a Change in Quantity Supplied
  • 1.4.4 Analyzing Changes in Other Supply Variables
  • 1.4.5 Deriving a Market Supply Curve

• 1.5 Competitive Equilibrium
  • 1.5.1 Determining a Competitive Equilibrium
  • 1.5.2 Defining Comparative Statics
  • 1.5.3 Classifying Comparative Statics

• 1.6 Elasticity
  • 1.6.1 Defining Elasticity
  • 1.6.2 Calculating Elasticity
  • 1.6.3 Applying the Concept of Elasticity

2. Macroeconomic Measurements

• 2.1 Aggregate Output and Income
  • 2.1.1 The Production Possibilities Frontier: Macroeconomic Applications
  • 2.1.2 The Circular Flow Model
  • 2.1.3 Real GDP
  • 2.1.4 The New BEA Procedure for Calculating Real GDP
  • 2.1.5 Limitations of GDP and Alternative Indexes
  • 2.1.6 Hot Topic: Feminist Economics and the Measurement of GDP
  • 2.1.7 Hot Topic: Off the Books: The Underground Economy

• 2.2 Approaches to Calculating GDP
  • 2.2.1 The Expenditures Approach
  • 2.2.2 The Income Approach
  • 2.2.3 Hot Topic: The Impact of E-commerce on the Economy

• 2.3 Cost of Living
  • 2.3.1 Changes in the Cost of Living and the CPI
  • 2.3.2 Case Study: The Index of Leading Economic Indicators
  • 2.3.3 Calculating the Rate of Inflation
  • 2.3.4 Comparing the CPI and the GDP Deflator

3. Economic Fluctuations: Unemployment and Inflation

• 3.1 The Business Cycle
  • 3.1.1 Recessions, Depressions, and Booms
  • 3.1.2 Theoretical Explanations for Cycles

• 3.2 Measuring Unemployment
  • 3.2.1 Measuring the Labor Force and Unemployment
  • 3.2.2 Types of Unemployment
  • 3.2.3 Hot Topic: The Unemployment Rate and the Crime Rate
  • 3.2.4 Hot Topic: Too Old to Work: Are We Discarding Valuable Workers?

• 3.3 The Natural Rate of Unemployment
  • 3.3.1 Understanding the Natural Rate of Unemployment

• 3.4 Causes of Unemployment
  • 3.4.1 Minimum Wage Laws
  • 3.4.2 An Analysis of Labor Unions and Unemployment
  • 3.4.3 Case Study: "La Causa": The United Farm Workers
  • 3.4.4 The Theory of Efficiency Wages
  • 3.4.5 Unemployment Insurance

• 3.5 Inflation
  • 3.5.1 Inflation, Deflation, Stagflation, and Hyperinflation
  • 3.5.2 Inflation and Purchasing Power
  • 3.5.3 Short-Run Causes: Demand-Pull and Cost-Push Inflation
  • 3.5.4 The Quantity Theory of Money
  • 3.5.5 The Costs of Inflation
  • 3.5.6 Case Study: Behavior during Hyperinflation

4. Aggregate Expenditures Model

• 4.1 Historical Background
  • 4.1.1 Say's Law and Keynes: An Overview
  • 4.1.2 Case Study: John Maynard Keynes

• 4.2 Components of Aggregate Expenditures
  • 4.2.1 The Aggregate Expenditures Identity
  • 4.2.2 Average and Marginal Propensities to Consume and Save
  • 4.2.3 The Aggregate Expenditures Model
  • 4.2.4 Case Study: The Paradox of Thrift
  • 4.2.5 Autonomous Investment

• 4.3 Equilibrium GDP
  • 4.3.1 The Expenditures Approach and the Saving Approach

• 4.4 The Multipliers
  • 4.4.1 Applications of the Multipliers

• 4.5 Comparative Statics: The AE Model
  • 4.5.1 Changes in Aggregate Expenditures
  • 4.5.2 Changes in Taxes
  • 4.5.3 Changes in Net Exports
  • 4.5.4 Hot Topic: Does Social Security Need to Be "Saved"?

• 4.6 Keynes and the Aggregate Expenditures Model
  • 4.6.1 Relating the Keynesian Model to the AD/AS Model

• 4.7 The Multipliers
  • 4.7.1 Deriving the Multipliers
  • 4.7.2 Case Study: The Paradox of Thrift
  • 4.7.3 Hot Topic: Does Social Security Need to Be "Saved"?

5. Money: Banking, Spending, Saving, and Investing

• 5.1 Money in the Economy
  • 5.1.1 The Money Supply
  • 5.1.2 Case Study: The Cashless Society
  • 5.1.3 Determinants of Money Demand
  • 5.1.4 The Money Market

• 5.2 Financial Markets
  • 5.2.1 Financial Markets and Intermediaries
  • 5.2.2 Hot Topic: Should the U.S. Government Bail Out Failing Financial Institutions?
  • 5.2.3 Stocks and Bonds
  • 5.2.4 The Price of Bonds and the Interest Rate

• 5.3 The Fed
  • 5.3.1 The Federal Reserve System
  • 5.3.2 Hot Topic: Are Reserve Requirements Necessary?
  • 5.3.3 The Fed's Tools of Monetary Policy

• 5.4 The Creation of Money
  • 5.4.1 How Goldsmiths Created Money
  • 5.4.2 Case Study: Cigarettes As Money
  • 5.4.3 How Banks Create Money
  • 5.4.4 How the Fed Changes the Money Supply

• 5.5 Saving and Investment
  • 5.5.1 Investment Demand
  • 5.5.2 The Market for Loanable Funds and Government Policy
  • 5.5.3 Equilibrium in the Money Market

6. Aggregate Demand/Aggregate Supply Model

• 6.1 Aggregate Demand
  • 6.1.1 Deriving the Aggregate Demand Curve
  • 6.1.2 Movement along the Aggregate Demand Curve
  • 6.1.3 Shifts in Aggregate Demand

• 6.2 Aggregate Supply
  • 6.2.1 The Short-Run Aggregate Supply Curve
  • 6.2.2 The Labor Market
  • 6.2.3 The Long-Run Aggregate Supply Curve

• 6.3 Differences in the Long Run and the Short Run
  • 6.3.1 The Classical View
  • 6.3.2 Equilibrium in the Short Run
  • 6.3.3 Expectations in the Long Run and the Short Run
  • 6.3.4 Long-Run Macroeconomic Equilibrium
  • 6.3.5 Case Study: The U.S. National Debt

• 6.4 The Phillips Curve
  • 6.4.1 Definitions and the Historical Record
  • 6.4.2 Expectations and the Phillips Curve
  • 6.4.3 Hot Topic: Is the Roller Coaster Ride Over? The Future of the Business Cycle

7. Monetary and Fiscal Policy

• 7.1 Recessions and Booms
  • 7.1.1 Unanticipated Changes in Aggregate Demand
  • 7.1.2 Unanticipated Changes in Aggregate Supply

• 7.2 Fiscal Policy : The Mainstream
  • 7.2.1 Fiscal Policy Using the AD/AS Model
  • 7.2.2 The Market for Loanable Funds and Crowding Out
  • 7.2.3 Timing Problems and the AD/AS Model
  • 7.2.4 Automatic Stabilizers
  • 7.2.5 Hot Topic: The Political Business Cycle

• 7.3 Fiscal Policy: Alternative Approaches
  • 7.3.1 New Keynesian and New Classical Approaches to Fiscal Policy
  • 7.3.2 Supply-Side Policy

• 7.4 Monetary Policy: The Mainstream
  • 7.4.1 The Quantity Theory of Money (review)
  • 7.4.2 Monetary Policy Using the AD/AS Model
  • 7.4.3 Monetary Responses to Changes in the Economy
  • 7.4.4 Monetary Policy: Accommodation
  • 7.4.5 Hot Topic: Should Monetary Policy Be Made by Rule or Discretion?

• 7.5 Monetary Policy: Alternative Approaches
  • 7.5.1 New Keynesians versus Monetarists
  • 7.5.2 New Classical Macroeconomics
  • 7.5.3 Case Study: Policy in the Great Depression

8. Productivity and Growth

• 8.1 The Elements of Productivity and Growth
  • 8.1.1 The Rule of 70, Compounding, and Growth
  • 8.1.2 The PPF, the AD/AS Model, and Long-Run Growth
  • 8.1.3 The Production Function and Growth
  • 8.1.4 The Definition of Productivity and Factors Affecting It

• 8.2 Policy and Growth
  • 8.2.1 Investment
  • 8.2.2 Other Policies to Encourage Growth
  • 8.2.3 Hot Topic: Women's Roles in Rural Economic Growth
  • 8.2.4 Case Study: Post-WWII Japan

• 8.3 Emerging Economies
  • 8.3.1 Growth in Emerging Economies
  • 8.3.2 Policies to Promote Growth
  • 8.3.3 Hot Topic: The Myth of Exploding Populations
  • 8.3.4 Case Study: Growing Pains in Indonesia

9. International Focus

• 9.1 Microeconomics Background
  • 9.1.1 Determining the Difference between a Closed Economy and an Open Economy
  • 9.1.2 Understanding Exports in an Open Economy
  • 9.1.3 Analyzing a Change in Equilibrium in an Open Economy
  • 9.1.4 Analyzing International Trade Using Comparative Advantage

• 9.2 Exports, Imports, and Accounting
  • 9.2.1 The International Flow of Goods and Services
  • 9.2.2 Balance of Payments
  • 9.2.3 Trade Balances

• 9.3 Exchange Rates
  • 9.3.1 Nominal Exchange Rates
  • 9.3.2 Real Exchange Rates
  • 9.3.3 Purchasing Power Parity
  • 9.3.4 Determination of Exchange Rates
  • 9.3.5 Floating and Fixed Systems
  • 9.3.6 The Managed Float

• 9.4 Government Policies
  • 9.4.1 Government Budget Deficits and Trade
  • 9.4.2 Trade Policy
  • 9.4.3 Hot Topic: Winners and Losers in NAFTA
  • 9.4.4 Political Instability and Trade
  • 9.4.5 Hot Topic: Is the World Trade Organization a Conspiracy?

• 9.5 Transition Economies
  • 9.5.1 Centrally Planned Economies
  • 9.5.2 Policies to Change to Market Systems
  • 9.5.3 Comparative Economic Performance
  • 9.5.4 Case Study: A Successful Transition in the Czech Republic

• 9.6 Alternative Systems
  • 9.6.1 Case Study: Post-Mao China
  • 9.6.2 Case Study: Revolution and Reform in Mexico