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MARIETTA COLLEGE

Spring 2005

ECON 375: Intermediate Macroeconomics

Dr. Jacqueline Khorassani

Office: 104 Thomas

Office Hours: 10:00-10:50 MWF, 11:00-11:50 TTH and by appointment

Voice: 376-4621 (Office), Fax: 376-7501
E-mail: khorassj@marietta.edu
Web: http://www.marietta.edu/~khorassj

Course Description and Objectives

Macroeconomics is concerned with the behavior of the economy as a whole. The main objective of this course is to help you understand how the macroeconomy works. Specifically, you will learn about factors contributing toward the increase in total output of goods and services and employment over long periods of time (that is, economic growth). You will also learn about the way monetary and fiscal policy might be used to reduce the short-run fluctuations in the level of output and employment (that is, the business cycle). You will learn how we measure macroeconomic variables such as consumption, investment, the trade balance, wage and price inflation, the federal budget, the money stock, interest rates, and the national debt. Moreover, you will learn about policies that affect the behavior of macroeconomic variables. Macroeconomics is interesting because it deals with issues that affect everyone's life regardless of what he/she does for a living. But it is fascinating and challenging too, because it reduces complicated details of the economy to manageable essentials. Those essentials are in the interactions among the goods, labor, and assets markets of the economy and in the interactions among national economies that trade with each other.

Prerequisite

Econ. 211 (Principles of Microeconomics) & Econ. 212 (Principles of Macroeconomics)

Texts

1) Miller, Roger LeRoy and David VanHoose, Macroeconomics: Theories, Policies, and International Applications, Third Edition, 2004.

2) Financial Times (hard copy only)

3) Short articles from various journals will be distributed in class

Means of Communication

Our main means of communication is the classroom. You are expected to attend classes on a regular basis and take notes on the upcoming assignments and their due dates. In addition, I may also communicate new information to you via my web page/email/voice mail/and campus mail when necessary. Similarly, please feel free to visit me in my office or e-mail me to discuss your concerns and questions.

Continuos Improvement

I am a firm believer in the system of checks and balances. I will try to give you feedback on how you are doing in class as frequently as possible. If your performance in class does not meet your expectation, please feel free to ask me for help. Together, we should be able to find a way to increase your productivity. Similarly, I am asking you to give me feedback on how I am doing as your instructor. To make it easier for you to share your concerns with me, I have made it possible for you to send your comments to me anonymously via my web page. I will read your comments and respond to them on my web page.

Attendance Policy

Attendance in this class is mandatory. If you miss a class in which an in-class assignment was given, you will not be given a chance to turn in that assignment later. Also, missing a class affects your participation grade. This holds unless you have an excused absence. Classes missed due to participation in college-sponsored co-curricular events are considered excused absences. In order for the absence to be excused, I must receive notification before you miss the class. If you miss a class because of illness or other personal reasons, I will need a written note from the Office of Provost or the Office of Student Life in order to excuse your absence. Regardless of the nature of your excuse, it is your responsibility to contact me immediately after you miss a class to find out about the new out-of-class assignment and everything else you have missed.

Grading

The following table shows the weight of different assignments in your final grade.

Three Exams (100 points each)	300 pts.
MACRO & micro Articles (50 points each)	100 pts.
In Class Assignments (5 points each)	30 pts.
Out of Class Assignments (20 points each)	100 pts.
Class Participation	20 pts.
Total	550 pts.

</div>The students will be evaluated as follows:<div align="center"></div><div align="center">

Total Points	Grade	Total Points	Grade
540-550	A+	429-439	C+
506-539	A	396-428	C
495-505	A-	385-395	C-
484-494	B+	374-384	D+
451-483	B	341-373	D
440-450	B-	330-340	D-
		Below 330	F

All students start the semester with total of 550 hypothetical points or a grade of A+. As the semester continues you can either maintain your points or lose them. You are responsible to keep track of your points. To help you out with this task, I post your grades on my web page. To maintain your privacy, however, your points are going to be listed according to a secret code of your choice rather than your names.

Exams

You will be given four exams according to the following schedule. Of the four exams, only your top three scores will count. All exams are comprehensive. That is, they cover everything up to the end of the last class before an exam. Exams may consist of multiple choice questions, short analytical questions, and graphical or numerical problems. You may use in-class assignments, out-of-class assignments, examples given in class, textbook problems as a guide to the types of questions that will appear on exams.

Exam 1	Exam 2	Exam 3	Exam 4*
Wednesday, February 2	Wednesday, March 2	Wednesday, April 6	Monday, April 25 (12:00-14:30)

* If you have more than two exams on this day, contact me.

Make-up Policy

If you miss one of the first three exams and have an excused absence (as described in attendance policy above), the weight of the missed exam will be added to the exam immediately following the missed exam. If you miss the final exam and have an excused absence, I will have to meet with you individually to discuss your options. If you miss an exam because of an unexcused absence, you will receive a grade of zero on that exam.

Academic Dishonesty

"Dishonesty within the academic community is a very serious matter, because dishonesty destroys the basic trust necessary for a healthy education environment. Academic dishonesty is any treatment or representation of work as if one were fully responsible for it, when it is in fact the work of another person. Academic dishonesty includes cheating, plagiarism, theft, or improper manipulation of laboratory or research data or theft of services. A substantiated case of academic dishonesty may result in disciplinary action, including a failing grade on the project, a failing grade in the course, or expulsion from the College" (Marietta College Undergraduate Programs, 2004-2005 Catalog, p. 132).

Assignments

A) Study Assignment: I believe that straight lecturing is not the most effective way to teach economics. Thus, I am not going to stand here and repeat the chapters of your textbook everyday. This is a task you can (and are expected) to perform on your own. At the end of each class you will receive a study assignment (over and beyond a reading assignment). When you come to the next class, I assume that you are ready to discuss and/or answer simple questions regarding the study assignment. The goal of some of the in-class-assignments will simply be to test whether or not you have studied the assigned material. My task is to clarify the economic concepts discussed in your textbook and give you numerous opportunities to test your ability to apply these concepts to different problems.

B) Out-Of-Class Assignments: You will be given six out-of-class assignments consisting of numerical and analytical questions. Each OCA has carries 20 points. I will collect and grade these assignments, both for content and the disposition of the content. Unless otherwise indicated in class, all out-of-class assignments must be typed. Depending on their length and degree of difficulty, these assignments may be due in two days to one week. You may work on these assignments in groups, but each student must write up his/her assignment separately (That is, no photocopies or duplicate papers are accepted.) Occasionally, however, you will be allowed to turn in one assignment for the entire group. A penalty of 5 points will be imposed on those who turn in their assignments one day pass the due date. No assignments will be accepted beyond the day after the due date.

C) In-Class Assignments: During this semester I will frequently require you to take five to ten minutes to complete a short writing assignment or exercise in class. I will randomly collect and grade seven of these assignments. Notice that missing a class due to an unexcused absence (see the attendance policy above) automatically results in missing the opportunity to turn in an in-class assignment. If you have an excused absence, the weight of the missed ICA will be added to the ICA immediately following the missed ICA.

MACRO & micro Articles: Some of you are aware that I am the editor of a newsletter called "MACRO & micro". This newsletter, which is the result of the collaboration between the EMA Department at Marietta College and the Economic Roundtable of the Ohio Valley, is published 4-5 times during the year and is mailed to all the members of the Economic Roundtable and a few other interested entities. One of the goals of this newsletter is to give our students the opportunity to publish their short economic articles.

To this end, I am requiring you to write two short articles (3-7 pages, double line space, in times new roman font size 10) on macroeconomic topics of your choice. You are, however, required to have your topic approved by me before you start working on the article. The absolute deadlines for the completion of the final draft of these articles are February 25 and April 15.

If the first draft of the either article is not acceptable, you will have to revise it and resubmit it. The process of revision and resubmission will continue until either your article becomes acceptable or we reach the above deadlines. To encourage you to submit your papers early, however, for every day prior to the above deadlines that you submit the final (acceptable) version of your paper I will give you 1 bonus point on the paper. If, for example, you submit the final version of your first article on February 20, you will earn 5 bonus points on your paper. Most accepted articles will be published in MACRO & micro

D) Bonus Assignments: This semester, you will receive a few bonus assignments. These assignments will give you a chance to make up for missed and/or poor assignments

Have A Disability?

If you need accommodations due to documented disability, contact the Academic Resource Center (Andrews Hall, Third Floor, 376-4700) at the beginning of the semester for further instruction.

Tentative Course Outline

Our plan is to cover all sixteen chapters of the book in order. A weekly detailed outline will be posted on the web.