Course 2024-2025 a.y.

-       Introductory definitions - GDP, inflation, unemployment - and data analysis

-       The goods market: composition of GDP, equilibrium output, investment, and saving

-       Financial markets: demand and supply of money and monetary policy

-       The labour market, wage and price setting, the natural rate of unemployment: the short and medium-term behavior of aggregate supply.

-       Policies implemented to affect economic activity, employment, and inflation

-       Open economy: trade dynamics, the balance of payments, and exchange rates

-       The long run: what determines economic growth?

-       Macroeconomic implications of technological developments

At the end of the course students will be able to...

• Define and explain the main macroeconomic terms and variables (including, for instance, national income, gross domestic product, unemployment, money, depreciation, government budget)
• Understand the main macroeconomic models that have been developed to explain the evolution of macroeconomic variables and the impact of fiscal and monetary policies
• Recognize, explain and summarize the most important points of macroeconomic reports and analyses issued by governments, central banks, and international institutions
• Identify and describe the main economic mechanisms lying behind the most relevant political issues
• Assess whether empirical aggregate data is consistent with the predictions of the main macroeconomic theories

At the end of the course student will be able to...

• Understand and follow more specific and advanced courses in economics and political economy
• Search and use empirical data in order to make predictions on the evolution of different macroeconomic variables
• Understand the main tradeoffs faced by policymakers when implementing fiscal and monetary policies.
• Read/listen critically to articles/discussions on the media that deal with macroeconomic issues
• Apply the theories learnt in class in order to assess the likely macroeconomic implications of different forms of technological progress.

• Lectures
• Practical Exercises
• Collaborative Works / Assignments

Practical Exercises: review questions on the various topics covered in class will be provided by the instructor and discussed in class

Collaborative works / assignments: students will be divided into groups of 4-5 students. They will choose a topic related to the issues discussed in class, they will collect data on the topic, and they will prepare a series of data visualizations. Good data visualizations are important to make sense of data. Each group will be required to deliver a report at the end of the course, summarizing the chosen topic, describing the data collected, and presenting the data visualizations.

With the purpose of measuring the acquisition of the above-mentioned learning outcomes, students’ assessment is based on two main components (for both attending and non-attending students):

1. in-class participation and group assignments aimed to test the students’ ability to interact in a constructive way, think critically and analyze current macroeconomic issues;

2. written exam, consisting, for example, of exercises, open questions, multiple-choice questions, aiming at assessing students’ ability to describe the key macroeconomics concepts illustrated during the course. Students can take a partial written exam and complete the written exam at the end of the course. In this case, the weight is: 50% for the partial exam and 50% for the second partial exam. Alternatively, students can take a final written exam that accounts for 100% of the final grade.

- Slides/handouts prepared by the teacher.
- O. BLANCHARD, A. AMIGHINI, F. GIAVAZZI, Macroeconomics - A European Perspective, Pearson Education Limited, 2021, 4th Edition.
- Suggested readings
- Exercises