Mount Saint Mary College

Division of Business

Principles of Macroeconomics (ECO 1010)

Accelerated Session E (Fall 2013)

Basic Information

About the course
Course Title / Principles of Economics, Macro
Course Number / ECO 1010_E
Meeting Times / Tuesday: 6:45-9:55
Thursday: 6:45-9:55
Class Room / Aquinas 301
Duration / Starts: November 4, 2010
Ends: December 15, 2010
Required Text / Principles of Macroeconomics
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Authors: McConnell, Brue and Flynn
About the Instructor
Instructor / AKM Rezaul Hossain, Ph.D.
Office / Division of Business
Aquinas Hall
Room 200H
It is right above the Curtin Memorial Library
Office Hours / Tuesdayand Thursday 5:45-6:45
By appointment
Email /

Course Description

Economics, adiscipline in social science, focuses on understanding how society makes choiceof allocating its scarce resources to achieve alternative objectives. This disciplinecan be divided into two broad areas: microeconomics and macroeconomics. Whilemicroeconomics deals with the choice of individual agents and firms,macroeconomics is concerned with the decisions made at national levels. Thegoal of macroeconomics is to analyze economyas a whole by understanding behaviorof important macroeconomic variables. Some of the key macroeconomic variablesinclude gross domestic product (GDP), price level, unemployment rate, economic growth,and stability.

In this course, we will develop basic macroeconomicmodels to understand how changes in interest rate, money supply, and governmentspending and tax policies affect aggregate output, inflation, unemployment andgrowth. These models will help us understand the behavior of economy as whole andanalyze how policy makers may be able to improve certain macroeconomic outcomesusing monetary and fiscal policies.

Objectives

  1. Understand basic economic principles relating to operations of markets and the workings of the economy as a whole.
  2. Understand how to measure economic performance using key macroeconomic variables including Gross Domestic Products (GDP), Unemployment rate, Inflation rate, growth and stability.
  3. Utilize simple macroeconomic models to understand the relationship between different macroeconomic variables.
  4. Understand goals of monetary and fiscal policies of central governments to improve macroeconomic performance.

Required Skills

  1. You need to be comfortable with two-dimensional graphing and its interpretations.
  2. Pre-requisite for the course: Elementary function (Math 1100, 1120 or 2510) and basic algebra.

Tentative Outline

Month / Day / Date / Module / Chapter
November / Tuesday / 5 / Module 1 / Module 1: Economics the Study of Choice
  • Limits, Alternatives and Choices
  • The Market System and Circular Flow

Thursday / 7 /
  • Special Topic: Comparative advantage and Trade

Tuesday / 12 / Module 2 /
  • Test 1 on Module 1
Module 2: Demand, Supply and Market Equilibrium
  • Analysis of Demand
  • Analysis of Supply

Thursday / 14 /
  • Analysis of Market Equilibrium

Tuesday / 19 / Module 3 /
  • Test 2 on Module 2
Module 3: GDP, Growth and Instability
  • Introduction to Macroeconomics
  • Measuring Domestic Output and National Outcome

Thursday / 21 /
  • Business Cycle, Unemployment and Inflation
  • Economic Growth

Tuesday / 26 /
  • Test 3 on Module 3
Module 4: Macroeconomic Models and Fiscal Policy
  • Basic Macroeconomic Relationships
  • Aggregate Expenditure Model

Thursday / 28 /
  • Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply

December / Tuesday / 3 /
  • Test 4 on Module 4
Module 5: Analysis of Aggregate Supply and Current Issues
  • Extending the Analysis of Aggregate Supply

Tuesday / 10 /
  • Extending the Analysis of Aggregate Supply

Thursday / 12 /
  • Final Examination

Course Evaluation

Test / Points / Remarks
Test (5x20) / 100
Total Points / 100

Grade Distribution

Grade / Minimum Points Needed / Grade / Minimum Points Needed
A / 94 / C+ / 78
A- / 91 / C / 74
B+ / 88 / C- / 71
B / 84 / D+ / 68
B- / 81 / D / 60

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