01 econ 100b (spring 2015) syllabus

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Econ 100B Course Outline Department of Economics Spring 2015

1/14

Economics 100B: Economic Analysis – Macroeconomics

Professor Steven A. Wood

Administrative Detail:

Class Sessions: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., 155 Dwinelle

Textbook: Frederic S. Mishkin OR Frederic S. Mishkin

Macroeconomics: Policy and Practice Macroeconomics: Policy and Practice Custom Edition 2nd edition (Hardback) Pearson Learning Solutions, 2014 Pearson, 2015 ISBN: 126-969110-4 ISBN: 978-0-13-342431-7

The custom edition is a subset of the full textbook.

This is the second edition of the textbook. There are a number of important improvements from the first edition. Although I will cover the new material in class, if you use the first edition you will not have the textbook to fall back on for additional explanation.

Required Supplies: Yellow highlighter (for exams)

Set of colored pens or pencils (black, red, blue, and green)

Office: F502-H Haas School of Business

Office Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 12:45 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. and by appointment.

E-mail Address: [email protected]

Prerequisites: Economics 1, Economics 2 or PENR 1, and Math 1A or 16A.

Course Description:

This is a course in intermediate macroeconomics with an emphasis on real world applications. There are two main objectives for this course.

1. To develop simple models that can be usefully applied to generate realistic explanations about the behavior of important macroeconomic variables such as output and income, employment and unemployment, interest rates, the government budget balance, exchange rates and the current account balance, and inflation.

2. To apply these models to understand and interpret current and historical macroeconomic developments—including monetary and fiscal policy choices—and to make predictions about future macroeconomic events, primarily in the industrialized countries.


2/14

Discussion Section:

Discussion section is important. Lectures move quickly. Discussion section with your GSI is a key part of learning the material. Your GSI will go over the material in the text and from the lectures and answer any question you may have. News articles may also be discussed in section. Your active participation in section will enhance your understanding of the course material which should be helpful on problem sets and exams.

For your first discussion section, please write a letter of introduction to your GSI. This should include:

1. Your name (and a picture),

2. Your year,

3. Your major or intended major,

4. Why you are taking this course, and

5. Any other information that you would like your GSI to know about you.

This letter will help your GSI to get to know you better and more quickly.

Attendance:

Attendance will NOT be taken in class. You do not need to contact either me or your GSI if you will miss class.

Attendance WILL be taken at the first 2 discussion sections—even if the class has not yet met. You MUST be present at BOTH meetings or have an excused absence from the instructor. Otherwise, you WILL be dropped from the course in order to make room for someone on the waitlist.

If you want to change discussion sections, wait until AFTER the first week. All official section changes must be done through Tele-Bears.

Waitlist / Adding the Class:

I CANNOT add you to the class. Enrollment is handled automatically by Tele-Bears. The waitlist will stopped being processed after week 5. It is unlikely that the entire waitlist will be able to be enrolled. The Department’s procedures for adding students on the waitlist to the class can be found at http://www.econ.berkeley.edu/econ/ugrad/enrollmentproc.shtml.

“Instructor Approval” requests are handled exclusively by the Economics Department’s Head GSI who can be contacted at [email protected].

Students on the waitlist who are eventually added to the class are still responsible for all assignments due before they are formally admitted into the class. Therefore, you should participate in Problem Set #1. Your participation, however, does not guarantee that you will be admitted to the class.


3/14

Economics Tutoring:

The Department of Economics Tutoring webpage offers information on tutoring options for students. The Department offers tutoring services to undergraduates taking core courses: Econ 1, 2, 100A/B, 101A/B, 140, and 141. The Student Learning Center (SLC) offers Study Group and Drop-in Tutoring as well as Exam Reviews for Econ 1 and 100A/B. Also, a number of graduate students are available as tutors-for-hire.

Website:

We will use bCourses as our course website. This site will include this syllabus, my lecture notes, problem set assignments and answers (after the fact) for this semester, problem sets and answers from the previous semester, exams and answers (after the fact) for this semester, exams and answers from the previous semester, and any other information relevant to the class.

Slidecast:

This course is being slidecast, allowing you to listen to the lectures and review the slides (including my annotations) after class. You can access the slidecast through bCourses, through the Webcast sidebar.

Classroom Etiquette:

Class is from 2:10 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. I will make every effort to begin class promptly and to end class on time. If you arrive late and/or leave early, please make every effort to do so quietly. In consideration of your fellow students and the instructor, please refrain from talking with your neighbors during class.

The Use of Electronic Devices in Class:

Laptops and tablet computers may only be used in class for academic purposes related to this course. They should not be used for sending or receiving emails, surfing the Internet, checking Facebook or other social media, or any other activities not directly related to the class.

Cell phones should be turned off (or be on silent mode) and put away during class.

Email Policy:

Your first point of contact for questions regarding course material is your GSI. I am available to answer questions about course policy and course material. If you email me you should identify that you are taking Econ 100B. I will try to respond within 48 hours of receiving your email (which means that it is unlikely that I will respond in a timely manner to questions asked the day of an exam).


4/14

Learning Goals:

As part of Berkeley's Undergraduate Student Learning Initiative (USLI), the Economics Department has developed learning goals for the Economics major. See http://emlab.berkeley.edu/econ/ugrad/ugrad_goals.shtml\

The specific learning goals for this course aims to achieve are:

CT1. Apply economic analysis to evaluate everyday problems.

CT2. Apply economic analysis to evaluate specific policy proposals.

CT3. Compare two or more arguments that have different conclusions to a specific issue or problem.

CT4. Understand the role of assumptions in arguments.

PS1. Solve problems that have clear solutions.

CS1. Communicate effectively in written, spoken, and graphical form about specific economic issues.

LL2. Know how to locate and use primary data sources

LL3. Understand and evaluate current economic events and new economic ideas.

Responsibilities and Expectations:

1. As the instructor, my responsibilities are to come to class prepared to teach; to organize and present the material in a manner that facilitates your learning; to respond to and encourage questions; to oversee grading of assignments; to be available during office hours and for scheduled appointments; and to stimulate an enthusiasm for economics and for learning.

2. As a student, your responsibilities are to come to class prepared to learn and to participate in lectures and discussions; to complete the assigned readings before class (allowing time to re-read difficult material); to complete 6 problem set assignments on time, and to take 3 exams.

3. You are also responsible for complying with the UC Berkeley Honor Code. This Code requires each student to act with honestly, integrity, and respect for others in all academic activities. Lying, cheating, or plagiarism of published work, work posted on the Internet, or work done by professors or other students WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.

4. Actions that have negative effects on others WILL NOT BE TOLERATED in the classroom.


5/14

UC Berkeley Campus Honor Code / Assignment Affirmation:

“As a member of the UC Berkeley community, I act with honesty, integrity, and respect for others.”

Collaboration and Independence: Reviewing lecture and reading materials and studying for exams can be enjoyable and enriching things to do with fellow students. This is recommended. However, unless otherwise instructed, homework assignments are to be completed independently and materials submitted as homework should be the result of one’s own independent work.

Cheating: A good lifetime strategy is always to act in such a way that no one would ever imagine that you would even consider cheating. Anyone caught cheating on a quiz or exam in this course will receive a failing grade in the course and will also be reported to the University Center for Student Conduct. In order to guarantee that you are not suspected of cheating, please keep your eyes on your own materials and do not converse with others during the quizzes and exams.

Plagiarism: To copy text or ideas from another source without appropriate reference is plagiarism and will result in a failing grade for your assignment and usually further disciplinary action. For additional information on plagiarism and how to avoid it, see, for example: http://gsi.berkeley.edu/teachingguide/misconduct/prevent-plag.html.

Academic Integrity and Ethics: Cheating on exams and plagiarism are two common examples of dishonest, unethical behavior. Honesty and integrity are of great importance in all facets of life. They help to build a sense of self-confidence and are key to building trust within relationships, whether personal or professional. There is no tolerance for dishonesty in the academic world, for it undermines what we are dedicated to doing – furthering knowledge for the benefit of humanity.

Your experience as a student at UC Berkeley is hopefully fueled by passion for learning and replete with fulfilling activities. And we also appreciate that being a student may be stressful. There may be times when there is temptation to engage in some kind of cheating in order to improve a grade or otherwise advance your career. This could be as blatant as having someone else sit for you in an exam, or submitting a written assignment that has been copied from another source. And it could be as subtle as glancing at a fellow student’s exam when you are unsure of an answer to a question and are looking for some confirmation. One might do any of these things and potentially not get caught. However, if you cheat, no matter how much you may have learned in this class, you have failed to learn perhaps the most important lesson of all.

On every problem set, you will be asked to sign the following assignment affirmation: “On my honor, the answers on this problem set are entirely my own work. I neither copied from the work of others nor allowed others to copy from my work.”

Failure to sign this affidavit will result in a “zero” for that problem set.

On every exam, you will be asked to sign the following test affirmation: “On my honor, the answers on this test are entirely my own work. I neither gave nor received any aid while taking this test. I will not discuss the questions on this test until after [end of exam period] on [date of exam].”

Failure to sign this affidavit will result in a “zero” for that examination.


6/14

Grades and Grading:

There are four (4) graded assignments during the semester with the following weights.

Problem Sets: 25%

Exam #1: 20%

Exam #2: 25%

Exam #3 : 30%

Note that Exam #1 is scheduled for AFTER the deadline to drop classes.

Your problem sets and exams will be graded by your GSI. Your answers are graded solely on their content and not on their intent. This means that we do not grade what you “meant to say” but what you actually write, even if you “knew the answer but just could not say it right.” This also means that answers that are illegible, rambling, or poorly organized will not receive high scores.

Problem Sets:

There are 6 problem sets of which the highest 5 scores will count toward your final course grade. Problem sets will be posted on bCourses in Word format and you must complete your problem set on that template.

Problem set solutions are due at the BEGINNING of class on the due date. There is a 10-minute grace period.

1. Problem sets submitted after the grace period will NOT be accepted.

2. Problem sets MUST be word-processed although you may do graphs and equations by hand.

3. Problem sets MUST be stapled and have your name (last name first), SID number, and GSI’s name in the upper right hand corner.

Although you may work on problem sets with your classmates, the answers which you hand in are expected to be your own effort.

Each student MUST submit only his or her own work; copying and/or editing another person’s work from disk or paper are NOT permitted. In general, you should use study groups to figure out how to solve a problem, to make sure you have made your calculations correctly, and to discuss the answers to questions that ask you to summarize or draw conclusions from the exercise. On your own, you should write up your answers, making sure you understand how to solve the problem step-by-step and answering non-quantitative questions in your own words.

Graded problem sets will be returned in discussion section. Problem set scores will be posted on your GSI’s bCourses site. It is your responsibility to make sure that they are correct. Any discrepancies should be reported to your GSI immediately.


7/14

Exams:

Exam #1 is scheduled for Tuesday, February 24th in class; you will have the entire class time to complete it.

Exam #2 is scheduled for Thursday, April 2nd in class; you will have the entire class time to complete it.

Exam #3 is scheduled for Monday, May 11th at a location still to be determined; you will have from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. to complete it.

If you have or anticipate a conflict with the final exam schedule, you should DROP this course now and retake it in another semester. Conflicts include other exams, nonrefundable airline tickets, weddings, or other commitments that require you to leave campus before the end of Exam #3.

Each exam will cover the materials assigned for that section of the course (including the lecture immediately before the midterm exams). Although the exams are not intentionally cumulative, macroeconomics is, by its very nature, cumulative. The exams, and answers, from last semester are posted on bCourses.

Exams will be closed book and closed notes and are to be done without any outside help. No calculators, laptops, beepers, cell phones, other electronic devices, or “cheat sheets” are allowed during exams. You should not bring scratch paper into exams; it will be provided. However, you will need a set of colored pens or pencils and a yellow highlighter.

There should be no communications between students during exams, either one way (peeking at or copying someone else’s work) or two-way (sharing answers with or helping out another student).

There are no scheduled make-up exams. Students who miss an exam for any reason must communicate with me by email or phone no later than the start of the exam. You will need to provide valid medical and/or legal documentation explaining why you were unable to take the exam on schedule. Except under the most extreme circumstances, if you do not have an excused absence before the exam starts and you do not take the exam, you will receive a zero (0) on the exam.

Graded exams will be returned in discussion section. Exam scores will be posted on your GSI’s bCourses site. It is your responsibility to make sure that they are correct. Any discrepancies should be reported to your GSI immediately.


8/14

Exam Re-grade Requests:

The GSIs take great care in grading exams. However, if you believe there has been an arithmetic error in adding up the points on your exam, simply point this out to your GSI at the end of section when you receive your exam back. If you believe that there has been an error in the GRADING of your exam, here are the steps you must follow.

1. Within 7 days of the time that exams are first returned in section (which will be less than 7 days from the time you receive your exam if you missed section when exams were first returned), give your GSI your exam and a written (i.e., word processed) request of what question(s) you think should be re-graded and an explanation of why. Do not change the answers on your exam; type out your request separately and give both your request and your original exam to your GSI.

2. Your GSI reserves the right to re-grade your entire exam, not just the question(s) mentioned in your re-grade request. Scores on any question can be changed—increased or decreased. Therefore, it is possible that you could wind up with fewer points at the end of the re-grade than you had originally.

3. I have advised the GSIs to reject any re-grade request that is for only 1 or 2 points per question. It is simply not a good use of anyone’s time. If you are spending your (and your GSI’s) time challenging the grading of anything less than 3 points, please get out your principles textbook and study the section on opportunity cost.

It is important to remember that exams are not just assessment tools, they are also learning tools. I hope you will learn from the exams. You are welcome to talk with your GSI or with me about what concepts you missed or were confused about so that we can help you be clear on the material. Just remember that the reason for the conversation is not about changing points, it’s about helping you understand the material.


9/14

Course Letter Grades:

Your course letter grade will be determined solely from the weighted average percentage of your graded assignments -- the 5 highest scores on your problem sets and all 3 exam scores.

In determining their contribution to your final course grade, the scores from your problem sets and exams are converted to percentages. Each graded assignment percentage is then weighted by the weight for that assignment. There are no alternative weightings of graded assignments. There are no extra credit assignments.

Great care is taken to ensure that the SAME QUALITY OF WORK will, at the end of the semester, receive the SAME LETTER GRADE, regardless of who graded the work. Uniformity of grading standards (i.e., making sure that the same quality of work receives the same letter grade) is ensured by having students’ letter grades determined within their GSI’s discussion sections. This way, we are giving the SAME LETTER GRADE for the SAME QUALITY of work, rather than for the SAME NUMBER OF POINTS. This means that you do not have to worry if your GSI has lower scores than other GSIs because the course letter grades depend upon the quality of your work and not on the number of points you have scored. Experience shows that this process works!

There is no pre-set or common scale whereby a certain number of points corresponds to a certain letter grade. Nor is there a fixed curve dictating what share of students will receive a particular letter grade. The distribution of grades that I have given in previous semesters for Econ 100B and UGBA 101B is given below.

Students taking the course under the P/NP option must earn at least a C- in order to pass the course. Please note that if you are fulfilling a requirement for the economics or business administration majors, you cannot take this course P/NP.

You will be able to retrieve your final exam score, your course weighted average score, and your final course letter grade on bCourses. Course letter grades will also be available on BearFacts.

Your final exam will be held by the Economics Department for 12 months. Final exam scores cannot be re-evaluated once grades are submitted to the Registrar’s Office. You can look at your graded exam in 508-1 Evans Hall, generally beginning about 3 weeks after the end of the semester.

0

5

10

15

20

25

A+ A A‐ B+ B B‐ C+ C C‐ D F

Percent

Grade Distribution: Econ 100B and UGBA 101B 2006 ‐ 2014


10/14

Tentative Reading, Problem Set, and Exam Schedule:

The class-by-class reading, problem set, and exam schedules follow. The reading assignments are from the assigned text and are provided for both the Custom and Hardback editions of the book.

You are strongly urged to read the assigned materials in advance of the lectures. Additional handouts concerning current applications of macroeconomic theory and policy may be assigned and discussed as well. You are responsible for ALL assigned materials. Lectures will generally follow the textbook but NOT cover all of the material. In addition, I WILL add lecture material that is not in the textbook.

On occasion, the lectures will extend and/or modify the textbook material and handouts. Where differences occur between lecture and textbook or handout materials, the lecture will be deemed correct for grading purposes.

You should also read the business section of a major newspaper and/or weekly periodical to stay abreast of current macroeconomic issues. Recommended newspapers include the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. Recommended weekly periodicals include Business Week and The Economist.

Tentative Reading, Problem Set, and Exam Schedule

January 20, 2015 (Tuesday)

Class #1: The Policy and Practice of Macroeconomics

Reading Assignment: Custom edition: pp. 1 – 13; Hardback edition: Chapter 1.

January 22, 2015 (Thursday)

Class #2: Measuring Macroeconomic Data, Part 1

Reading Assignment: Custom edition: pp. 17 – 31; Hardback edition: Chapter 2, pp. 19 – 33.

January 27, 2015 (Tuesday)

Class #3: Measuring Macroeconomic Data, Part 2


January 29, 2015 (Thursday)

Class #4: Aggregate Production and Productivity



11/14

February 3, 2015 (Tuesday)

Class #5: Saving and Investment in Closed and Open Economies, Part 1


February 5, 2015 (Thursday)

Class #6: Saving and Investment in Closed and Open Economies, Part 2

Reading Assignment: Custom edition: pp. 87 – 95 and pp. 99 – 104;

Hardback edition: Chapter 4, pp. 84 – 97 and Chapter 4 Appendix (at www/pearsonhighered.com/Mishkin)


Class #7: The Sources of Growth and the Solow Model, Part 1


Problem Set #1 due.


Class #8: The Sources of Growth and the Solow Model, Part 2



Class #9: Drivers of Growth: Technology, Policy, and Institutions


Problem Set #2 due.


Class #10: Money and Inflation



Class #11: EXAM #1


Class # 12: Business Cycles: An Introduction



12/14

March 3, 2015 (Tuesday)

Class #13: The IS Curve


March 5, 2015 (Thursday)

Class #14: Monetary Policy and Aggregate Demand



Class #15: The Money Supply Process

Reading Assignment: Custom edition: pp. 131 – 147; Hardback edition: Chapter 5 Appendix.


Class #16: Aggregate Supply and the Phillips Curve



Class #17: The Aggregate Demand and Supply Model, Part 1

Reading Assignment: Custom edition: pp. 313 – 325; Hardback edition: Chapter 12, pp 299 - 307.

Problem Set #3 due.


Class #18: The Aggregate Demand and Supply Model, Part 2

Reading Assignment: Custom edition: pp. 325 – 337; Hardback edition: Chapter 12, pp. 307 - 322.


Spring Recess, No Class


Spring Recess, No Class


Class #19: The Financial System and Economic Growth


Problem Set #4 due.


13/14

April 2, 2015 (Thursday)

Class #20: EXAM #2

April 7, 2015 (Tuesday)

Class #21: Macroeconomic Policy and Aggregate Demand and Supply Analysis, Part 1

Reading Assignment: Custom edition: pp. 361 – 376; Hardback edition, Chapter 13, pp. 327 – 342.


Class #22: Macroeconomic Policy and Aggregate Demand and Supply Analysis, Part 2

Reading Assignment: Custom edition: pp. 377 – 398; Hardback edition, Chapter 13, pp. 343 – 364.


Class #23: Fiscal Policy and the Government Budget, Part 1


Problem Set #5 due.


Class #24, Fiscal Policy and the Government Budget, Part 2



Class #25, Exchange Rates and International Economic Policy, Part 1



Class #26, Exchange Rates and International Economic Policy, Part 2



Class #27, The Role of Expectations in Macroeconomic Policy


Problem Set #6 due.


14/14


Class #28: Where do Macroeconomists Agree and Disagree?

Reading Assignment: Custom edition: pp. 525 – 535; Hardback edition: Epilogue.

May 11, 2015 (Monday)

FINAL EXAM, 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. at a location still to be determined.

01 econ 100b (spring 2015) syllabus

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