Macroeconomic Theory I

Course description This course is an introduction to advanced modern macroeconomics. Its goal is to provide an overview of the major theories concerning central questions in macroeconomics. A substantial portion will be devoted to models of long-term economic growth, and business cycles, as well as to issues related to open economy macroeconomics. Course Grading There will be a mid-term exam, worth 30% of your final grade, and final exam, worth 40% of your grade. You are also required to write and present a paper for 25 % of your grade. The presentation will take place on the week before the last week of classes. You are also required to read and present one paper from the list below. The presentation is worth 5% of your final grade. I will hand out problems from time to time. We will discuss some of these in class. Course Materials The course will be based on lecture notes but will draw on materials from the following books: The books are intended to provide students with supplemental reading on topics covered in lectures. Some lecture topics will not be covered in the textbooks. To provide students with an additional resource, I will place all my lecture notes on the course website in Blackboard before class. Additional journal articles will be recommended during lectures.

[1]  Edward C. Prescott,et al.  Great Depressions of the Twentieth Century , 2007 .

[2]  C. I. Jones,et al.  Why Do Some Countries Produce so Much More Output Per Worker than Others? , 1998 .

[3]  T. Kehoe.  Intertemporal General Equilibrium Models , 1989 .

[4]  William J. Baumol,et al.  The Transactions Demand for Cash: An Inventory Theoretic Approach , 1952 .

[5]  R. Boucekkine.  Overlapping-Generations Models , 2009 .

[6]  Real Business Cycle Models: Past, Present and Future , 2005 .

[7]  Rubén D. Almonacid.  The determinants of nominal income, output and the price level: A synthesis of the Keynesian and neo-classical views , 2003 .

[8]  D. Weil,et al.  A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth Author ( s ) : , 2008 .

[9]  Stephen L. Parente,et al.  Barriers to Technology Adoption and Development , 1994, Journal of Political Economy.

[10]  Elhanan Helpman,et al.  Endogenous Innovation in the Theory of Growth , 1993 .

[11]  E. Prescott,et al.  Postwar U.S. Business Cycles: An Empirical Investigation , 1997 .

[12]  Quantitative Aggregate Economics , 2006 .

[13]  Stephen D. Williamson.  Real business cycle research comes of age: A review essay☆ , 1996 .

[14]  X. Sala-i-Martin,et al.  The World Distribution of Income: Falling Poverty and … Convergence, Period , 2006 .

[15]  A. Dixit.  Optimization in Economic Theory , 1976 .

[16]  Olivier J. Blanchard,et al.  What do we know about Macroeconomics that Fisher and Wicksell did not , 2000 .

[17]  L. Summers.  The Scientific Illusion in Empirical Macroeconomics , 1991 .

[18]  R. Lucas.  On the Mechanics of Economic Development , 1988 .

[19]  P. Romer.  Increasing Returns and Long-Run Growth , 1986, Journal of Political Economy.

[20]  Roger Hartley,et al.  Stochastic Dynamic Programming , 1982 .

[21]  J. Geanakoplos.  Overlapping Generations Models of General Equilibrium , 2008 .

[22]  Rajnish Mehra,et al.  Recursive competitive equilibrium: A parametric example , 1984 .

[23]  R. Solow.  A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth , 1956 .

[24]  Peter A. Diamond,et al.  Aggregate Demand Management in Search Equilibrium , 1982, Journal of Political Economy.

[25]  Edward C. Prescott,et al.  The Computational Experiment: an Econometric Tool , 1996 .

[26]  M. Woodford.  Convergence in Macroeconomics: Elements of the New Synthesis , 2010 .

[27]  R. Lucas.  Methods and Problems in Business Cycle Theory , 1980 .

[28]  Nobuhiro Kiyotaki,et al.  Evil Is the Root of All Money , 2002 .

[29]  Thomas F. Cooley.  Frontiers of business cycle research , 1995 .

[30]  T. Sargent,et al.  Recursive Macroeconomic Theory , 2000 .

[31]  Charles I. Plosser,et al.  Real Business Cycles , 1983, Journal of Political Economy.

[32]  James A. Robinson,et al.  The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation , 2000 .

[33]  Randall Wright,et al.  The Labor Market in Real Business Cycle Theory * , 2012 .

[34]  K. Judd.  Numerical methods in economics , 1998 .

[35]  Ricardo J. Caballero,et al.  Macroeconomics after the Crisis: Time to Deal with the Pretense-of-Knowledge Syndrome , 2010 .

[36]  Karl Johan Åström,et al.  Stochastic Control Problems , 1977 .

[37]  Olivier J. Blanchard.  The State of Macro , 2008 .

[38]  F. Ploeg.  Back to Keynes , 2005 .

[39]  N. Kiyotaki,et al.  A Search-Theoretic Approach to Monetary Economics , 1993 .

[40]  Daron Acemoglu,et al.  Introduction to Modern Economic Growth , 2009 .

[41]  Rick Durrett,et al.  Stochastic Growth Models , 1987 .

[42]  M. Woodford.  Convergence in Macroeconomics: Elements of the New Synthesis , 2010 .

[43]  George Tauchen,et al.  Finite state markov-chain approximations to univariate and vector autoregressions , 1986 .

[44]  Edmund S. Phelps,et al.  Macroeconomics for a Modern Economy , 2007 .

[45]  R. King.  Will the New Keynesian Macroeconomics Resurrect the IS-LM Model? , 1993 .

[46]  Robert J. Barro,et al.  Human Capital and Growth , 2001 .

[47]  Nancy L. Stokey,et al.  Recursive methods in economic dynamics , 1989 .

[48]  E. Canton.  Economic growth and business cycles , 1997 .

[49]  E. Prescott.  Theory ahead of business-cycle measurement , 1986 .

[50]  Lant Pritchett,et al.  Divergence, big time , 1997 .

[51]  Howard Pack.  Endogenous Growth Theory: Intellectual Appeal and Empirical Shortcomings , 1994 .

[52]  Burkhard Heer,et al.  Dynamic General Equilibrium Modeling: Computational Methods and Applications , 2005 .

[53]  Peter J. Klenow,et al.  The Neoclassical Revival in Growth Economics: Has It Gone Too Far? , 1997, NBER Macroeconomics Annual.

[54]  Joseph E. Stiglitz,et al.  RETHINKING MACROECONOMICS: WHAT FAILED, AND HOW TO REPAIR IT , 2011 .

[55]  J. Wilson Mixon,et al.  The Solow Growth Model , 2007 .

[56]  Peter J. Klenow,et al.  Does Schooling Cause Growth , 2000 .