Intro macroeconomics
Undergraduate · Economics
Syllabus focus
Topics typically covered
Standard syllabus
Measurement and long run
- Circular flow and national income accounting
- Real vs nominal variables; price indexes
- Unemployment measurement and natural rate
- Economic growth: capital, labor, productivity, institutions
- Loanable funds and saving–investment identity (intro)
- Money functions and historical monetary systems survey
Short-run fluctuations
- Aggregate demand and aggregate supply frameworks
- Keynesian cross / expenditure models (as taught)
- Multipliers and automatic stabilizers
- Inflation–unemployment short-run tradeoffs
- Expectations and credibility (intro)
- Business-cycle stylized facts
Policy and open economy
- Fiscal policy tools and budget deficits/debt
- Central banking, reserves, and interest-rate targeting (intro)
- Monetary transmission mechanisms
- Exchange rates and net exports (intro)
- Twin deficits intuition
- Policy debates with model discipline
STEM / applied
Data and graphing
- Reading FRED charts for GDP, CPI, unemployment
- Constructing AD/AS stories from shocks
- Calculating growth rates and contributions
- Spreadsheet labs for multiplier scenarios
- Interpreting Fed statements at survey level
- Exam graph labeling practice
Applications
- Current-events briefings with model maps
- Compare recessions using indicators
- International comparisons of growth/inflation
- Communicate policy tradeoffs to non-economists
- Critique media macro claims
- Capstone: country macro dashboard write-up
Notes
May be taught before or after micro. Calculus is usually light; algebra and graphs dominate.