Macro-economics for Policy Analysis

Summary

Economics is about how we work, what we produce, how we interact, cooperate and compete, and how we distribute and ultimately use what we have produced. Because the economy is too important to be left to the economists, this course provides an introduction to economics that explains how a market economy works and develops, why it often does not work as well as we would like, how its macro-economic performance can be improved by regulation and (fiscal, monetary or other public) policy. Particular attention is given to conflicts between achieving different goals of macroeconomic policy at the same time and to different theoretical (modelling) approaches. The course reviews: the neoclassical macro model; the (post-)Keynesian macro model; the IS-LM model; the multisector input-output model; the model of a balance-of-payments constrained developing economy; and a model of a technologically dual economy. The course does not assume that the student has any prior knowledge of economics.