Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit Convenor
Natalia Ponomareva
Contact via natalia.ponomareva@mq.edu.au
E4A 428
Monday 2-3 or by appointment
Lecturer
Marjan Nazifi
E4A 425
Thursday 4-5
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Credit points |
Credit points
3
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
(ECON201 or ECON204) and (ECON232 or ECON241)
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
This unit is concerned with the formulation and implementation of macroeconomic policy. Topics include: measurement of the business cycle, inflation targeting, monetary policy rules, the cash rate as the instrument of monetary policy in Australia and how it is set, the impact of economic shocks and the appropriate policy response in both a closed and open economy setting, economic bubbles and the stock and housing markets, the fiscal outlook and public debt and the role of technology and ideas in generating rising living standards. Short-run economic policy will be discussed in the framework of the AD-AS model with an interest rate rule. A version of Romer's model that emphasises the role of ideas is used to explain sustained rises in living standards.
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Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
Name | Weighting | Due |
---|---|---|
Class test | 30% | Week 7 |
Assignment | 20% | Week 9 |
Final Examination | 50% | University Examination Period |
Due: Week 7
Weighting: 30%
Your midsession exam is one 1 hour 20 minutes plus 10 minutes reading time. It will be based primarily on the exercises covered in the last hour of lectures presented from weeks 1 to 6.
No material is allowed in the exam except for a non-programmable calculator.
Due: Week 9
Weighting: 20%
Description: Provide a short answer to questions either of an analytical nature and/or based on Australian data.
Provide a clear analytical framework in which to express your answers. You may need to reference Australian data. You do not need to provide an extensive list of references in your answers.
Submission: Submit in BESS and turnitin. Keep a copy of your assignment. The submission date will be announced on iLearn and in class. There will be no extensions. In the case of unavoidable circumstances students should apply for a special consideration.
Penalties: 4 marks (out of 20) will be deducted for each (calendar) day late.
Due: University Examination Period
Weighting: 50%
Description: Two (2) hours (plus 10 minutes reading time)
To be held in the University Examination Period for Session 2, 2014.
The final exam will be based on lectures from Weeks 1 to 13 with an emphasis on material presented after the midsession examination.
No material is allowed except for a non-programmable calculator.
Note that in order to pass the unit you have to get at least 40% in the final exam.
There is one three-hour lecture per week. The timetable for classes can be found on the University web site at: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au/
VICTOR ARGY PRIZE FOR ECON311
This prize commemorates Victor Argy who was Professor of Economics at Macquarie University from 1973 until his death in 1993. The prize, to the value of $350, is awarded for proficiency in ECON311 and is open to all candidates proceeding to the degree of Bachelor.
The prescribed text for the unit is:
Jones, Charles I., Macroeconomics, Third Edition, International Student Edition, Norton 2014.
Up-to-date commentaries and data on the Australian economy can be found in the following:
Reserve Bank of Australia, Bulletin, published monthly: http://www.rba.gov.au Department of the Treasury, Economic Roundup, AGPS, Canberra, published quarterly (available online at http://www.treasury.gov.au/)
Data relating to Australia and other countries are also available on the Internet. Useful sites include the following:
There are no special technology requirements in this unit.
Unit Web Page
Course material is available on the learning management system (iLearn).
The following information will be available on iLearn:
Unit Outline | Announcements |
Lecture slides and exercises | Lecture exercises solutions |
Information on Assessments | Contact details |
Consultation hours | Other relevant material |
You are strongly encouraged to regularly visit the website and use it as a resource centre to assist with your learning.
This unit is taught in a three hour block as a lecture. However, part of the last hour of the lecture will generally be allocated to working through assigned questions either from the textbook or developed by the lecturer. The purpose of this is to reinforce the material covered in the lecture.
• Lectures – large group learning (3 hour block each teaching week)
Lectures are intended to provide overviews of the conceptual framework and economic data that are critical to the core themes of the unit namely, the design and implementation of macroeconomic policy in Australia and elsewhere. Students are expected to read the relevant chapters and assigned readings before each lecture.
• Independent learning – learning by doing (about 7 hours each teaching week and 10 hours each week during the 2-week mid-semester recess)
ECON311 relies heavily on independent learning where students read the relevant chapter and assigned journal articles, revise the lecture notes, prepare answers to the assigned questions covered in the last hour of the lecture and extend themselves by doing additional reading, questions, exercises, problems and sourcing macroeconomic data.
At the end of each week, solutions to the assigned questions worked through in the last hour of that weeks lecture will be posted on the unit website.
Week |
Lecture |
1 |
Trends and Cycles in Macroeconomic Data |
2 |
Economic Shocks and Short-Run Fluctuations in Economic Activity Contemporary Monetary Policy |
3 |
The Operating Procedures of the Reserve Bank of Australia and Inflation Targeting |
4 |
Stabilization Policy and the AS/AD Framework. Stabilization Policy and Taylor Rules |
5 |
The Global Financial Crisis |
6 |
Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Models |
7 |
Class Test |
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Mid-semester Break |
8 |
No class |
9 |
Assignment Due Consumption Fiscal Policy and Government Debt |
10 |
Exchange Rate Regimes and Macroeconomic Policy |
11 |
Economic Growth I: Capital Accumulation and the Solow Growth Model |
12 |
Economic Growth II: Determinants of Long-run Economic Growth: Romer’s Idea’s Model |
13 |
Macroeconomic Policy: The Current Consensus and Unresolved Issues |
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Assessment Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html
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This graduate capability is supported by:
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We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.
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Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.
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This unit gives you practice in applying research findings in your assignment and provides you with the background to conduct your own research.