Huachen Li

This course studies national economic performance. Building upon the microeconomic theories of consumer and producer behavior developed in ECON 101, the course introduces models that focus on the questions of unemployment, inflation and growth. Topics covered include measurement of national income and inflation, macroeconomic models, saving and investment, money and banking, fiscal and monetary policy, and international trade and finance. This course is required for the major. Prerequisite: ECON 101. Offered every spring semester.

This course is a theoretical and applied study of the level of national income and employment. Prices, interest rates, unemployment rates, international trade relations, business cycles and the long-run growth of income significantly affect our standards of living. Diverse schools of macroeconomic thought are distinguished by theoretical concepts, priorities in performance goals, and empirical evidence. The course considers a variety of approaches and emphasizes the microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic theory. Government actively manages both domestic and international aspects of the macroeconomy, and the course considers current public policy issues. This course cannot be taken as pass/D/fail. This course is required for the major. Prerequisite: ECON 101 and ECON 102, and a college level calculus course or a score of 4 or 5 on the AP calculus exam. Offered every spring semester.

Econometrics is the application of statistical techniques to test economic models. This course offers an introduction to the theoretical and practical aspects of econometrics. Emphasis is given to linear regression techniques, special problems associated with linear regression, and the interpretation of results. In short, economic explanations of behavior are quantified and hypotheses are tested with data using statistical techniques. Students make extensive use of Stata, a statistical software package that is popular among economists, to create and modify data sets and obtain experience learning to apply appropriate econometric methods. This course cannot be taken as pass/D/fail. This course is required for the major. Prerequisite: ECON 101, 102 and a college course in statistics or a score of 4 or 5 on the AP statistics exam. Generally offered every semester.

This course examines the determination of national incomes, price levels, interest rates and exchange rates using open-economy macroeconomic models. The course begins with an intensive study of balance of payments accounting and the foreign exchange market, followed by a consideration of the law of one price, purchasing-power parity, and uncovered and covered interest parity. The second half of the course is spent deriving several open-economy macroeconomic models and using them to discuss important international financial policy issues. These discussions highlight the interaction of domestic policymakers with important international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements. This counts toward an elective for the major. Prerequisite: ECON 101 and 102. Generally offered every other year.