* Notice: Answers to the textbook questions can be found at my course webpage ( http://www.tulane.edu/~msyun/course.htm ).

Notice - Department of Economics Web Site: The Department of Economics maintains a comprehensive web site at http://www.tulane.edu/~economic/ . This should be your first stop for all your economics inquiries. On the web site you will find information about the major, the faculty, and internet resources in economics.  Other important links are Economics Research Resource Guide  (http://www.tulane.edu/~html/econ.htm ) and   Social Science Indexes and Abstracts (http://library.tulane.edu/restricted/socialsci.htm ) where you can find various sources of study including  Econlit , a comprehensive listing of articles in economics, the Social Science Citation Index,  and Statistical Universe.  The web site for this class can be accessed at http://www.tulane.edu/~msyun/course.htm .

Course Description: This class provides an understanding of the forces determining the performance of the aggregate economy along a variety of dimensions such as employment and output, interest rates, and inflation. By the end of this class you should have a solid understanding of many (not all!) important concepts and theories in macroeconomics.

Prerequisite: Economics 102. This prerequisite is taken seriously and you are expected to have a command over this material.

Office Hours: TTh 12:30-1:30 PM or by appointment. Room: Tilton Hall 310, 862-8356.   My email address is msyun@tulane.edu .

Teaching Assistant: Yedan Zhang ( yzhang4@tulane.edu )

Readings: The following should be available at the Bookstores:

Andrew B. Abel and Ben S. Bernake, Macroeconomics (4th Edition), Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 2001.

Dean Croushore, Study Guide to accompany Macroeconomics (4th Edition), Addision Wesley Longman, Inc., 2001.

The text above is one of the best  on the market. Given this praise, I must now qualify it. My organization may be a bit different, and I may lecture on some things that are not in the text. Also, for some topics, my treatment will be different than that of the text. The text should be viewed as a complement to the lectures, not a substitute. You are responsible for the material in the texts and in the lectures. I make every effort to have class attendance a necessary (though not sufficient) factor in performing well on examinations. Note that I have deliberately kept the amount of reading down. This is because I expect you to read and thoroughly understand all the material in the text.

Though I do not require to read any additional materials due to the reasons noted above, students may obtain interesting insights not offered by the textbook by reading various books, for example, books by Paul Krugman (The Age of Diminished Expectations - 3rd Edition : U.S. Economic Policy in the 1990s and Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in an Age of Diminished Expectations among others).  Note that I do not suggest that Paul Krugman's view is correct.  There is no shortage of  views on how economies work.   Students are also supposed to keep up with national and international economic conditions and events.  Students may apply theories learned in the classroom to real economies. Some good sources are the Wall Street Journal (http://www.wsj.com ), the Economist (http://www.economist.com ), the Financial Times (http://www.usa.ft.com ) and the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com ).

The questions at the end of each chapter in textbook are excellent  test of  your understanding of the material.  Please consider the questions in the textbook as your assignments.   I may give more specific instruction on which questions you're responsible for in class. Though you don't have to hand in your answers, I highly recommend to do the questions.  The Study Guide also provides numerous questions which will help you understand the material.

Lecture Topics: The following is a list of chapters which will be covered in this class. On some I will go into great detail, others I will but mention in passing.

• Ch. 1:      Introduction
• Ch. 2:      Measurement of Output
• Ch. 3:      Productivity, Output, and Employment
• Ch. 4:      Consumption, Saving and Investment (including appendix 4A)
• Ch. 7:      Money and Prices
• Ch. 9:      Framework for Macroeconomic Analysis
• Ch. 8:      Business Cycles
• Ch  10.    Classical Model
• Ch 11.     Keynesian Model
• Ch. 6:      Long-Run Growth
• Ch  12.    Unemployment and Inflation (if time allows)

Note:  I reserve the right to alter this schedule during the semester. All exams are cumulative. Of course,  new material covered since the last exam (chapters in bold) will be emphasized, but you are responsible for all the material.

Makeup Policy:  Students who simply do not show up for exams should not expect to be given a makeup.  You should present a valid documentation in order to avoid receiving zero points on the missing exam.

There are no extra-credit assignments. There is no way to ex post improve your grade on an examination. Plan to do well on the required material.

Some Warnings, Advice and Hints:

1. If you are having problems, please seek out help early. Come in prepared, having gone over the lectures, text, and problems in the text. If you have missed any classes, make sure you have gotten the missed notes from classmates. In cases like this, it usually pays to get the notes from at least two of your class mates.
2. Some students slack off. The readings, after all, seem pretty minimal. They aren't! Macroeconomics is deceptive. The only way to learn it is to keep going over it, work the problems in your text, and THINK about what you are doing at each step. I suggest that you first read through the entire book. This will help you to begin to think about macroeconomics. Go over the lectures and think about what problems I raise and what problems are raised in the book. A good exercise is to pick up the newspaper and come up with alternative explanations of various "business" and "economic" news. Furthermore, let me urge you to read as much of the material as possible early on in the course. You will find this will help you develop a perspective on the course material and lead to a better understanding of macroeconomics.
3. Do not wait until after I have lectured on something to read the material work on it yourself. Come to class prepared !
4. The emphasis in this class is on developing your ability to apply analytical techniques and on your understanding of fundamental concepts. Exams will emphasize this. They will not test whether you remember what the balance of trade for the U.S. was in 1978. They will assume you have a complete understanding of the lectures, text and study guide, and will ask you to apply what you have learned to "new" circumstances.
5. The course material builds on earlier work. It is essential that you master every part of the material. I will integrate the material as we go along, but you will be ahead of the game if you make extended efforts to learn and integrate it yourself.