VWL 4: Macroeconomics [10184-01]

[Current Issues | Books | Lecture Notes | Reader | Problem Sets | Data | Eviews | Links]

Information

Get the complete syllabus (v 1.3.2010).

Current Issues

This section is meant to provide students with background material concerning issues that are currently discussed. Unless it is otherwise specified in the official Reader, these documents are not mandatory reading. I might nevertheless be referring to some of these issues in class. Generally speaking, I strongly recommend that you keep an eye on real-world events and debates.

1. The current business cycle
   • Financial Stress, Downturns, Recoveries WEO 10.2008.pdf
   • Housing and the Business Cycle WEO 04.2008.pdf
   • ChangingDynamicsofGlobalBC_IMF.pdf
   • GlobalProspects_IMFWEO_Oct2009.pdf
   • Impact_oil_prices_IMF2007.11.05.pdf
   • OECD Outlook Nov2009.pdf
2. Macroeconomics and finance: the mortgage crisis and its consequences
   
   • Gaps in Regulation.pdf
   • IMF on Policies.pdf
   • Is the US Subprime Crisis so Different.pdf
   • Valuation Problems.pdf
   • Pressreview Subprime Crisis Feb 08.pdf
   • BIS 2009.pdf
3. Macroeconomic unbalances and the US dollar
   • JPM_Vol29_N5_2007.pdf
4. Swiss Issues
   • Seco_Ertragsbilanz_d.pdf
   • Swiss CA OECD.pdf
   • Die Geschichte der CH Zyklen
   • Switzerland IMF 2009.pdf
     

Videos and podcasting on current issues:

1. The current business cycle:
   
   • China and India: Expanding Roles in the World Economy, IMF Webcast
2. The mortgage crisis and its consequences:
   • Historic Drop in U.S. Home Prices, NYTimes
   • A Test for the Fed Chairman, NYTimes
   • Mortgage Crisis Triggers Sell-Off, NYTimes
   • Dow Falls 387 Points on Loan Fears, NYTimes
   • ECO, SF

Interviews with leading economists:

1. Robert Barro on growth [barro.mp3]
2. Robert Lucas on growth and poverty [lucas.mp3]
3. Milton Friedman on money [friedman.mp3]
4. Paul Romer on growth [romer.mp3]
5. Paul Collier on the Bottom Billion [collier.mp3]
6. Edward Leamer on Outsourcing and Globalization [leamer.mp3]
7. Dani Rodrik on economics, globalization, institutions and growth [IMF Webcast]
8. David Henderson on why economists disagree [henderson.mp3]
9. Daron Acemoglu on the Financial Crisis [acemoglu.mp3]
10. John Cochrane on the Financial Crisis [cochrane.mp3]
11. Steve Fazzari on Keynesian Economics [fazzari.mp3]
12. Robert Higgs on the Great Depression [higgs.mp3]
13. Arnold Kling on Credit Default Swaps, Counterparty Risk and the Political Economy of Financial Regulation [kling.mp3]
14. Mike Munger on Middlemen [munger.mp3]
15. Arnold Kling on Freddie and Fannie and the Recent History of the U.S. Housing Market [kling.mp3]
16. Robert Shiller on Housing and Bubbles [shiller.mp3]
17. James Hamilton on Debt, Default, and Oil [hamilton.mp3]

Books

The Textbook for this class is

• Andrew B. Abel, Ben S. Bernanke and Dean Croushore, Macroeconomics, 6th edition, Addison Wesley, 2007.

According to the wholesaler, enough copies of the book should be available at Karger Libri.

Other books

• Frederic S. Mishkin, The economics of money, banking and financial markets, 8th edition, Addison Wesley, 2007.
• Robert J. Barro, Macroeconomics: A modern approach, Thomson, 2008.
• Gregory Mankiw, Macroeconomics, Worth Publishers.
• J.B. DeLong and M. Olney, Macroeconomics, Mcgraw-Hill.
• Roger E.A. Farmer, Macroeconomics, Thomson.

Dictionaries

Lecture's slides are in German but you will be confronted with various documents in English. Here is a class glossary (from Prof. Yvan Lengwiler) that will help you out. Very good economics and finance specific English dictionaries can be found on the web as well. Here are some examples:

• Finance, English and German:
• http://tradition.axone.ch/
• Finance, English only:
• http://www.anz.com/edna/dictionary.asp
• http://www.investopedia.com/dictionary/default.asp
• http://www.bloomberg.com/invest/glossary/bfglosa.htm
• Economics, English-German:
• http://www.dict.cc/englisch-deutsch/economics.html
• Economics, English only:
• http://www.economist.com/research/Economics/
  
  

Lecture Notes

Here you will find the lecture slides for this course. The slides will be uploaded in advance and I recommend that you print them and bring them to class.

Reader

Here is a list of papers and press articles relating to the class topics. Documents signalled with the M symbol are mandatory readings.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Practice exam questions

This is to give an idea of the type of questions which may be asked in the exam.
The solution can be found here.

Problem Sets

Here you will find the problem sets for this course. 

ProblemSet1.pdf  |  Slides  |  Solutions Excel  |  SolutionsProblemSet1.pdf

ProblemSet2.pdf |  Slides (ppt), Slides (pdf)    | Solutions (xls) | Solutions (pdf)

Data

Our Database

These excel files contain a number of time series concerning the Swiss economy. They might be used for class purposes as well as for Problem sets.

• Database Index [xls]
• International Data [xls]
• Long Series [xls]
• Survey Data [xls]
• Swiss Data [xls]

Other data sources

There are plenty of data sources. Some of them, however, are accessible only to subscribers. Here are some sources that do provide free data.

• For Switzerland: SNB, Seco
• For the US: WebEc, RFE, St. Louis FED
• For Europe: Eurostat
• For international comparisons: Penn World Table, OECD

Software

Hodrick-Prescott filter add-in for excel from Yvan Lengwiler.

E-views

Getting started with E-views

http://www.eviews.com/eviews4/eviews41s/evstud41.html

• 4.1 student version: this is a reduced version of the program which is made available to students in order to allow them to get started. Price: 39.95 US$.
• Note that a free copy of the 4.1 student version of E-views is included in several introductory econometrics text books. It might be worthwhile thinking about exploiting this opportunity.
• E-views user and programming manuals are very good. But they are quite expensive and it does not make fully sense to buy them until you purchase a full version of the program (currently E-views 6). However, a cheaper and friendly handbook is available: EViews Illustrated by Richard Startz. The unit price is 40 US$. Joint orders will allow us to bring down the unit price as low as 30 US$ (excluding shipping costs). Here is the address of the nearest distributor: http://www.eviews.com/general/distributor.html
• To get a taste of the book, here are the first three chapters: [#1, #2, #3]
  
  

Links

Useful links

•  News, these are just some suggestions, based on my preferences.
  • NZZ
  • Financial Times
  • New York Times
  • The Economist 
• Financial markets
  • Yahoo/Finance
  • Bloomberg
• Swiss Federal Administration
  • Bundesamt für Statistik
  • Seco
• Central Banks
  • Schweizerische Nationalbank
  • European Central Bank
  • Federal Reserve Board
  • Bank of England
  • Bank of Canada
  • Reserve Bank of New Zealand
  • Reserve Bank of Australia
  • Complete list of central banks' links can be found on the BIS Central Bank Hub
• International institutions
  • Bank for International Settlements
  • International Monetary Fund
  • OECD
  • International Labour Organisation
  • World Bank
  • WTO