Economics 442: Macroeconomic Policy
This site provides resources for students in Economics 442
at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison for Spring 2015 Semester
Source:BEA, 2014Q3 final release, CBO, January 2014, author's calculations.
Syllabus | Academic Misconduct |
Important Dates |
Downloadable Course Materials and Information Sources |
Department of Economics
Robert M. LaFollette School of Public Affairs |
LECTURE: MW 4-5:15, SocSci 6240
Instructor
Professor Menzie Chinn
Office Hours: MW 1:30-2:30
Office: 7418 Social Sciences Bldg.
Phone: (608) 262-7397
email:
mchinn [at] lafollette.wisc.edu
Home Page
Econ 442 Syllabus in PDF file.
This course will address current issues in modern macroeconomic policymaking, including: (1) the causes of secular stagnation; (2) the efficacy of fiscal policy, (3) the slowness of the investment recovery, (4) international macro policy challenges, (5) responding to currency crises, and (6) the euro area crisis.
Prerequisites: Econ 301 or 311, and Econ 302 or 312, and Econ 310.
The required textbook is Blanchard and Johnston, Macroeconomics 6/e (Prentice-Hall, 2012). Other required readings are listed below. In addition, some readings from Econbrowser will be assigned.
Academic Integrity is critical to maintaining fair and knowledge based learning at UW Madison. Academic dishonesty is a serious violation: it undermines the bonds of trust and honesty between members of our academic community, degrades the value of your degree and defrauds those who may eventually depend upon your knowledge and integrity.
Examples of academic misconduct include, but are not limited to: cheating on an examination (copying from another student's paper, referring to materials on the exam other than those explicitly permitted, continuing to work on an exam after the time has expired, turning in an exam for regrading after making changes to the exam), copying the homework of someone else, submitting for credit work done by someone else, stealing examinations or course materials, tampering with the grade records or with another student's work, or knowingly and intentionally assisting another student in any of the above.
The Dept. of Economics will deal with these offenses harshly following UWS14 procedures (http://students.wisc.edu/saja/misconduct/UWS14.html):
1. The penalty for misconduct in most cases will be removal from the course and a failing grade,
2. The department will inform the Dean of Students as required and additional sanctions may be applied.
3. The department will keep an internal record of misconduct incidents. This information will be made available to teaching faculty writing recommendation letters and to admission offices of the School of Business and Engineering.
If you think you see incidents of misconduct, you should tell your instructor about them, in which case they will take appropriate action and protect your identity. You could also choose to contact our administrator and your identity will be kept confidential.
- Midterm 1, 2/25
- Midterm 2, 4/8
- Term paper due,
5/8 5/11 5pm 
Downloadable Course Materials
Required On-line Readings
- ISLM: Notes on IS-LM. [link]
- PCO: Notes on Portfolio Crowding Out. [link]
- KS: John Kitchen and Menzie Chinn, Financing U.S. Debt: Is There Enough Money in the World – and At What Cost?" International Finance (2012). [link]
- ADAS: Notes on Aggregate Demand/Aggregate Supply [link]
- WW1: Weidner and Williams, “How Big is the Output Gap?” FRBSF Economic Letter 2009-19, June 12, 2009. [link]
- WW2: Weidner and Williams, “An Update to “How Big Is the Output Gap”. [link]
- SS: Secular Stagnation: Facts, Causes, Cures. [link]
- EM: Eggertsson, Mehrotra, ‘A Model of Secular Stagnation.” [link]
- Chinn, “Fiscal Multipliers” Palgrave Encyclopedia of Economics [link]
- BBD: Baker, Bloom and Davis, “Has Policy Uncertainty Hampered the Recovery” [link]
- GK: Gruber-Kamin, “The Corporate Saving Glut in the Aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis” [link]
- Open: Notes on Open Economy Macroeconomics [link]
- Chinn15: Chinn-Irwin chapter 15. [link]
- Sh: Jay Shambaugh, “The Euro’s Three Crises,” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 2012:1. [link]
Newspapers/serials
Additional Readings
- IMF, World Economic Outlook April 2015, Chapter 1
- Aisch, Cox, "The Upshot: A 3-D View of a Chart That Predicts The Economic Future: The Yield Curve," NYT (March 18, 2015)
- Coenen, et al. (2010), "Effects of Fiscal Stimulus in Structural Models," IMF Working Paper 10/73
- J. Gali, Monetary Policy, Inflation, and the Business Cycle (manuscript, 2007) ce
- FRB/US webpage
- CEA, post on Economic Report of the President, 2015
- CBO, Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output in 2014 (February 20, 2015)
- CEA, The Economic Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Five Years Later (February 2014)
- Hamilton, Harris, Hatzius, and West, "The Equilibrium Real Funds Rate: Past, Present and Future," paper presented at USMPF.
- IMF World Economic Outlook January 2015 update
- CBO, The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2015 to 2025 Jan. 2015. See Chapter 1.
Tracking the Crisis and Recession
Weblogs and Perspectives
Economics and Economic Policy Links
International Organizations
U.S. Government Agencies
Current and Historical Data
- St. Louis Fed economic database Thousands
of time series on economic activity, in an easily downloadable form.
- IMF International Financial Statistics via UW Data and Information Services Center
- YCharts Macro and equity market data series.
- Yahoo finance website Current financial data.
- Google finance website Current financial data.
- ino.com Futures data.
- Federal Reserve Board data Monetary, financial and output data
collected by the Nation's central bank.
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Dept. of Commerce Data on GDP and components (the national income and product accounts) as well as other macroeconomic data.
- Bureau of the Census, Dept. of Commerce Data on the characteristics
of the US population as well as of US firms.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Dept. of Labor Data on
wages, prices, productivity, and employment and unemployment rates.
- Energy Information Agency, Dept. of Energy Data on
on energy (electricity, gas, petroleum) production, consumption and prices.
- Economic Report of the President, various years. The back portion of
this annual publication contains about 70 tables of government economic data.
- Economic Indicators CEA and JEC Compilation of economic data in tabular form.
- Economic Time Series page A large collection of economic time series.
- NBER Data Specialized economic databases created by
economists associated with the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Economics 442 Macroeconomic Policy / UW Madison / mchinn@lafollette.wisc.edu / 6 May 2015