eco 285 - principles of macroeconomics the w.a. franke college of business northern arizona...

ECO 285 - Principles of Macroeconomics

The W.A. Franke College of BusinessNORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY

Spring 2016 – 3 credit hours

web page: oak.ucc.nau.edu/dlf/e-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Dennis Foster Seq. #1542 (sec. #3)523-8178, FCB #308 M/W 2:20 pm – 3:35 pmOffice Hours – Monday, 10:00-11:00 am, 4:00-5:00 pm Wednesday, 10:00-11:00 am, 4:00-5:00 pm, and by appointment.

Room #334 - FCB

ECO 285 – Spring 2016 – Course Syllabus

Description: This class is concerned with the measurement of national economic variables; the determination of output, income, employment, and price levels through aggregate supply and demand analysis and related graphical techniques; business cycles, fiscal and monetary policy, and the global implications of international trade and production. Economics is the social science concerned with how society manages its scarce resources to address the unlimited wants of its members. We are concerned with how people, firms and governments make decisions and interact with one another in determining what is produced, how much and for whom. Macroeconomic theory is often used to justify particular government interventions in the economy. We will consider the rationales for, and criticisms of, this intervention. Students will develop their critical thinking and quantitative reasoning skills. Prerequisites: MAT 114 with a C or better, or math placement results (ALEKS/MATHA 50+; MATHC 50+; PLACE 55+).

ECO 285– Spring 2016 – Course Syllabus

Course Learning Goals: Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to:

1. Explain the differences and similarities among competing theories of aggregate supply, aggregate demand, and national income and output determination. (Quantitative reasoning, critical thinking)

2. Demonstrate how these theories explain business cycles. (Quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, impact of technology)

3. Demonstrate an understanding of fiscal and monetary policy. (Quantitative reasoning, critical thinking)

4. Describe how competing theories view the effectiveness of monetary and fiscal policy.

5. Describe the determinants of economic growth. (Quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, impact of technology)

6. Explain the basis for international trade. (Global Awareness, Quantitative reasoning, critical thinking)


IV. Course Materials: Materials for this course include the following:

No They Can’t by John Stossel (Threshold, 2012)

The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels by Alex Epstein (Portfolio/Penguin, 2014)

Meltdown by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. (Regnery, 2009)

There is no specific textbook for this class. Instead, on-line materials will be assigned.


V. Teaching Methods: Primary teaching methods for this course include class lecture, class discussion and assignments. Also included will be some use of group work. The use of current technologies will be expected of students. Students will have the opportunity to develop their interdisciplinary skills with regard to written/oral communication, critical thinking and working in a collaborative setting. Students will be exposed to a wide variety of perspectives involving international/global, ethical, political, social, legal/regulatory, environmental, technology and demographic diversity issues. Other critical skills that students will find enhanced through this course include communication, critical reading, quantitative/spatial reasoning, critical thinking, scientific logic, information retrieval and use of technology.


VI. Evaluation Tools: Evaluation inputs will include the use of homework assignments in-class quizzes and multiple exams. The majority of your letter grade will be the result of test scores. Your final letter grade will be based on your performance as follows:

Grading procedure – I will assume that your performance will follow a standard curve:

A: > 90% B: 80% - 89.9% C: 70% - 79.9% D: 60% - 69.9% F: < 59.9%

This curve reflects my general expectations of student performance based on the nature and difficulty of the course and the assignments. Should student performance vary significantly from what I expect, I reserve the right to curve individual exams and/or the final point total. Also, your final grade cannot be lower than the average of your three exams.

2 midterm exams @ 125 pts. = 250 10 of 12 homework assign. @ 25 pts. = 250 1Final exam = 200 Total points possible = 700


Make-up Assignment/Exam Policy – A make-up midterm exam will only be given for a serious and documentable excuse, as determined by me. If granted, it will consist of an alternate all essay exam. If you will miss an exam due to an “institutional excuse,” I must be informed ahead of time so that appropriate arrangements can be made.

Missed classes – It is your responsibility to keep up with material in the class. Only if you miss a class as a result of an “Institutional Excuse” will you be given an opportunity to make up any points missed for that class. If you miss a class for any other reason, a zero will be recorded for this missed work.

Late Work Penalty – All homework assignments are due in person at the beginning of the class period. See details below. If you are late to class with an assignment, a penalty will be assessed. No assignments will be accepted after the class period in which they are due.


Academic Integrity Policy – Unless otherwise noted, the work you do must be your own work. If not, a grade of zero will be given for the assignment/exam. Repeated offenses will result in expulsion from the class. Acts of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to, plagiarism, using unauthorized crib notes and copying test/quiz answers from other students. Details on NAU’s policy in this regard can be found here:

https://policy.nau.edu/policy/policy.aspx?num=100601 Other policies can be found in the appendices at the end of this syllabus. Student Conduct Policy – The W.A. Franke College of Business has a student code of conduct that you should be familiar with. It is printed below. Breaches of this code of conduct may result in zero credit for the class period (homework assignment, in class exercises, et al.), at my discretion. Behaviors I find especially egregious are coming into the classroom late, leaving the classroom early, getting up during class and leaving for a short period of time, and inattentiveness.

https://policy.nau.edu/policy/policy.aspx?num=100601


Miscellaneous: Food and beverages are not allowed in the classrooms. Computer laptops, tablets and cell phones must be kept out of sight and turned off unless you have some special circumstance that I need to be aware of. NAU supports and promotes a drug free environment. E-mail me: If you have questions/problems you want to ask about, you may see me during my office hours or schedule an appointment to see me. If you would like, you can also e-mail me with questions that you have. If you do this, please fill in the subject category as follows: mail-ECO285-last name. This will help me to react and respond in a timely fashion.


Learning Process: Each student must take personal responsibility for learning the material presented in this course. Successful students have two common traits that I have observed--a 100% commitment to the class and active study habits. Forming study groups, even on a casual basis can be helpful. Read and review the assigned material before the lecture. Feel free to consult with me any time regarding your progress in this class.

Course SI: There is an SI (Supplemental Instructor) for this course – Kimberly Shaffer. She will be attending class and holding multiple sessions for students each week. Generally, these will consist of calculation and graphical exercises. These will also serve as review sessions prior to the midterm exams and debrief sessions following these exams. Her hours and places will be posted up on my web page.


Midterm Exams - The dates are noted on the course outline. Each exam will consist primarily of multiple choice questions, but may include definitional questions, graphical problems, work problems and short essays, as the case warrants. The multiple choice portion will use Scantron sheets so you will need to bring a pencil. For the rest of the exam you may use a pen, or pencil, and a calculator. You may not share calculators. You may bring in one page of notes, 8.5 x 11 inch, one side only. You will be required to turn this in with your exam. Final Exam - The date is noted on the course outline. This exam will be just be the ‘final midterm’, covering the last portion of the course and following the same protocol outlined above. It will be longer and carries about twice the weight as the midterm exams.


Homework Assignments – Over the course of the semester there will be 12 homework assignments. Each assignment’s due date is shown on the course outline – H1, H2, H3, et al. These will generally consist of three parts:

1. Answers to take-home quiz (posted on-line) over the assigned readings. [10 pts.]2. A reaction essay to some reading/assignment – what you found new and interesting, what you thought suspect and why, what examples you found compelling, what additional examples that you know of that illustrate the same ideas (etc.). [5 pts.]3. An in-class quiz at the beginning of class over the assigned special readings (Stossel, Epstein & Woods). [10 pts.] These must be fully typed out and you must be present at the beginning of class when they are due in order to receive full credit. My intent is to use the beginning of class to discuss your answers. You are free (and encouraged) to make written notes on these papers during the discussion time, after which I will pick them up. Note that this is an individual assignment and the work you turn in must be your own. To provide some flexibility here, I will drop the lowest score from the first six assignments and the lowest score from the last six assignments. At the end of the term, you will have a total of 10 assignments counted, each at 25 points, for a total of 250 possible points.


Access to class materials – Homework assignments and the required reading assignments will be posted up on my Macroeconomics web page, accessed from my home page at this site:

http://oak.ucc.nau.edu/dlf/default.asp Extra Credit – There will be three specific opportunities for extra credit given for in-class activities, shown on the outline as “ec”. One is an in-class group exercises and your score will depend on the success of your group and your level of participation. The other two activities are class sessions reserved to show a video, where the extra credit is in the form of a quiz given at the end of the video. Each of these four activities are worth 10 points. There may be additional opportunities for extra credit over the course of the semester. If so this will be announced in class so that everyone will have the opportunity to participate. I will not offer any extra credit just to individual students.

http://oak.ucc.nau.edu/dlf/default.asp

ECO 285 – Spring 2016 – Course SyllabusCourse Outline: Readings:

18-Jan20-Jan Course overview & Intro. to Economics

25-Jan Supply & Demand; How Markets Work S1/S2 H127-Jan Gen'l equilibrium exercise; Intro. to Macro ec

1-Feb Intro. to business cycles; Circular Flow S3/S4 H23-Feb National income accounting

8-Feb GDP work problems S5/S6 H310-Feb Problems with GDP

15-Feb17-Feb Video - Greed ec

22-Feb Measuring unemployment S7-S9 H424-Feb Unemployment work problems

29-Feb Problems with unemployment measures S10/S11 H52-Mar Measuring inflation

7-Mar Inflation work problems S12/S13 H69-Mar Problems with inflation measures

21-Mar23-Mar Video - Is America #One? ec

28-Mar Money basics FF 1-2 H730-Mar Money creation

4-Apr Money creation problems FF 3-5 H86-Apr The Federal Reserve System & policies

11-Apr Critiquing the Fed; the gold standard FF 6-9 H913-Apr AS/AD Model I

18-Apr AS/AD Model II & fiscal policies W 1-3 H1020-Apr Monetary vs. Fiscal; Keynes vs. Say

25-Apr Fossil Fuels - a case study W 4-5 H1127-Apr Austrian Business Cycle Theory

2-May International Trade W 6-7 H124-May A review of current conditions

MLK holiday

Week 2

Week 1

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5Exam #1

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Spring Break - March 14-18

Week 9Exam #2

ECO 285 – Spring 2016 – Course Syllabus

Course Outline: Readings:

18-Jan20-Jan Course overview & Intro. to Economics

25-Jan Supply & Demand; How Markets Work S1/S2 H127-Jan Gen'l equilibrium exercise; Intro. to Macro ec

1-Feb Intro. to business cycles; Circular Flow S3/S4 H23-Feb National income accounting

8-Feb GDP work problems S5/S6 H310-Feb Problems with GDP

15-Feb17-Feb Video - Greed ec

22-Feb Measuring unemployment S7-S9 H424-Feb Unemployment work problems

29-Feb Problems with unemployment measures S10/S11 H52-Mar Measuring inflation

7-Mar Inflation work problems S12/S13 H69-Mar Problems with inflation measures

21-Mar23-Mar Video - Is America #One? ec

28-Mar Money basics FF 1-2 H730-Mar Money creation

4-Apr Money creation problems FF 3-5 H86-Apr The Federal Reserve System & policies

11-Apr Critiquing the Fed; the gold standard FF 6-9 H913-Apr AS/AD Model I

18-Apr AS/AD Model II & fiscal policies W 1-3 H1020-Apr Monetary vs. Fiscal; Keynes vs. Say

25-Apr Fossil Fuels - a case study W 4-5 H1127-Apr Austrian Business Cycle Theory

2-May International Trade W 6-7 H124-May A review of current conditions

Week 8

Spring Break - March 14-18

Week 9Exam #2

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Final Exam (Sec. 3): Wednesday, May 11; 12:30 pm - 2:30 pm

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15

ECO 285 - Principles of Macroeconomics

The W.A. Franke College of BusinessNORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY

Spring 2016 – 3 credit hours

web page: oak.ucc.nau.edu/dlf/e-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Dennis Foster Seq. #1542 (sec. #3)523-8178, FCB #308 M/W 2:20 pm – 3:35 pmOffice Hours – Monday, 10:00-11:00 am, 4:00-5:00 pm Wednesday, 10:00-11:00 am, 4:00-5:00 pm, and by appointment.

Room #334 - FCB

eco 285 - principles of macroeconomics the w.a. franke college of business northern arizona...

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