Intermediate macroeconomics
Undergraduate · Economics
Syllabus focus
Topics typically covered
Standard syllabus
Growth and long-run macro
- Solow growth model: capital accumulation and steady state
- Technological progress and convergence debates
- Overlapping generations / Ramsey survey (as taught)
- Labor markets in the long run
- Money neutrality and classical dichotomy
- Empirical growth facts and development contrasts
Short-run dynamics
- IS–LM or modern IS–MP frameworks (course-dependent)
- AD–AS with expectations
- New Keynesian building blocks survey
- Consumption theories: Keynesian, PIH, life-cycle
- Investment: accelerator and q-theory intro
- Real-business-cycle vs Keynesian narratives
Policy and open economy
- Monetary policy rules (Taylor rule intro)
- Fiscal policy, deficits, and sustainability
- Time inconsistency and credibility
- Mundell–Fleming / open-economy IS–LM (as taught)
- Exchange-rate regimes and crises survey
- Stabilization case studies
STEM / applied
Modeling skills
- Solving for steady states and transitions qualitatively
- Phase diagrams where required
- Log-linear intuition for growth accounting
- Spreadsheet simulation of Solow dynamics
- Reading FRED data against model predictions
- Deriving multipliers in simple frameworks
Applications
- Compare Fed/ECB policy episodes with models
- Critique forecast narratives
- Sovereign debt and inflation case write-ups
- Bridge to monetary theory or international macro
- Present a model → evidence → policy memo
- Capstone: calibrate a toy model to a country episode
Notes
Prerequisite usually principles + calculus/stats. Exact model set (IS–LM vs NK) follows the instructor.