GRA 6634 Advanced Macroeconomics
GRA 6634 Advanced Macroeconomics
Macroeconomics is the study of the economy as a whole. The course offers an introduction to macroeconomics at an advanced level. It provides the students with analytical skills and applied insights to understand important macroeconomic variables such as consumption, investment, labor supply, productivity, and aggregate output – domestically as well as internationally. Throughout the course students will acquire insight into consumption and saving decisions, economic growth, sustaintability, inequality and international income convergence, investment, and labor supply and unemployment. It also discusses how to understand and analyze the macroeconomic effects of digitalization and robotization. Attention is paid to developing digital tools to help analyzing and understanding economic models.
By the end of the course, students will
- know the main theories of consumption and investment, and their empirical relevance. Important topics include the permanent-income hypothesis, consumption based asset pricing and the Q-theory of investment.
- understand the tradeoffs involved in consumption and investment and how the tradeoff depends on income, productivity, interest rates, and uncertainty.
- understand labor supply and unemployment.
- know the main theories of economic growth.
- be familiar with the main determinants of economic growth and how discounting affects costs and benefits of dealing with long-term challenges such as climate change.
- understand what is needed to get sustained economic growth and how digitalization affects economic growth.
- understand trends in income inequality.
Students will be able to:
- apply intertemporal macroeconomic models to analyze economic problems.
- develop basic general equilibrium macroeconomic models.
- calibrate and analyze models using MatLab and compare calibrated models with data.
This course should lead students to reflect about the forces that influence the economy as a whole. What determines consumption and investment? Why do some countries grow faster than others? Furthermore, this course prepares students for more advanced academic work. It is a prerequisite for both GRA 6639 Business Cycles and GRA 6631 Macroeconomic Policy.
The course covers the following topics:
- Consumption and saving
- Investment
- Labor supply and uinemployment
- Solow growth model
- Neoclassical growth model
- Inequality, digitalization, sustainability
Complementary learning tools will be used during the course. There will be tutorials with exercises in addition to lectures. The course will include a joint lecture with the GRA 6626 Decisions, Strategy and Information, during which students will analyze consumption theory problems under both a micro and macro perspective, while practicing with simulation methods using Matlab.
Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class.
All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have specific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.
Covid-19
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there may be deviations in teaching and learning activities as well as exams, compared with what is described in this course description.
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Invigilation Weight: 100 Grouping: Individual Support materials:
Duration: 3 Hour(s) Comment: Written examination under supervision. Exam code: GRA66342 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination when next scheduled course |
| Activity | Duration | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Teaching | 36 Hour(s) | |
Seminar groups | 6 Hour(s) | |
Student's own work with learning resources | 80 Hour(s) | |
Prepare for teaching | 30 Hour(s) | |
Group work / Assignments | 10 Hour(s) | |
Examination | 3 Hour(s) |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of at least 160 hours.