University of Minnesota

Spring 2009 ECON 4731H

Macroeconomic Policy

Section 1: Tuesday and Thursday 4:00-5:15PM Blegen Hall 220

 

 

Contact Information

Instructor: Justin Barnette

Office: 3-129 Hanson Hall

Phone: (612)-625-2024

E-mail: barnette@econ.umn.edu

Website: www.econ.umn.edu/~barnette

Office Hours: Fridays 11:00AM to 1:00PM

 

Note on Communication:  The best way to contact me is through email.  I will try to respond to emails within 24 hours.  Additionally, I will contact the class occasionally by email.

 

Final Exam Tuesday May 12 4:00PM-6:00PM

 

Announcements

·         Submit all material related to the paper/presentation via email. 

·         Please indicate your preference for presentation date with your final problem statement.

·         I have posted the grading guide for the paper/presentation. 

·         See the new timeline below.

·         Based on your requests, I have assigned topics for your presentations and papers.  See your topic below which is sorted by the last three digits of your student ID.

·         As Holly mentioned in lecture, the Star Tribune wrote a nice summary on the stimulus package:

o   787_Billion_Stimulus_Plan_Story_Star_Tribune.pdf

o   787_Billion_Stimulus_Plan_Numbers_Star_Tribune.pdf

·         See the notes below on the paper/presentation.  Be sure to read the section on the importance of a question since you will be submitting three questions Thursday February 19.  Notice that the due date for the rough draft is different and instead I will expect an outline with a final problem statement on March 12.

·         PS1 is online.

·         Chari, V.V. and Patrick Kehoe. “Optimal Fiscal and Monetary Policy.” Handbook of Macroeconomics: Volume 1C. Ed. Taylor, J.B. and M. Woodford. North Holland. 1999. Ch.26 available at: http://minneapolisfed.org/research/SR/SR251.pdf

·         Syllabus available for download here: Syllabus_Econ_4731_Macro_Policy.pdf

 

Homework

·         HW is always due at the beginning of lecture of the due date unless I note otherwise.

o   PS4 Due April 28: PS04-S09.pdf

o   PS3 Due April 7: PS03-S09.pdf

o   PS2 Due March 5: PS02-S09.pdf

o   PS1 Due February 17: PS01-S09.pdf

 

Paper & Presentation

·         Submit all material related to the paper/presentation via email. 

·         Please indicate your preference for presentation date with your final problem statement.

·         Grading Guideline on Paper/Presentation: Paper_Presentation_Grading_Econ_4731.pdf

·         Statement on the assignment: Paper_Presentation_Statement_Econ_4731.pdf

o   See Due Dates Below.

Name

Date

Slot

Acheson, Graham

30-Apr

6

Chung,Allen Evan

30-Apr

2

Delisi,Meghan Marie

30-Apr

3

Ditah,Francis N

28-Apr

5

Heinz,Kevin R

28-Apr

4

Kim,Hong Joong

30-Apr

1

Lahd,Holly Lauren

5-May

2

Lewis,Brett R

5-May

5

McAdaragh,Shea Patrick

28-Apr

6

Nareico,Roman

28-Apr

2

Obeng,Albert Kwabena

28-Apr

7

Olsen,David Edward

5-May

4

Patton, Tony

28-Apr

8

Pieper,Ross John

28-Apr

1

Rolson,Sarah Michelle

5-May

6

Schwan,Jacob M

30-Apr

7

Sloss,Jesse Lawrence Barnes

5-May

3

Stitzel,Jan Paul

5-May

7

Thomason,John Gordon

30-Apr

5

Ushurova,Shoistakhon

30-Apr

4

Winter,Samuel Louis

28-Apr

3

Wong,Teck Ching

5-May

1

 

Economics Blogs:

·         Keep an eye on these blogs for insightful economic analysis:

·         http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/

·         http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/

·         http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/

 

·         This blog is fun:

·         http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/

 

 

 

Timeline

 

I will try to keep this timeline current…

 

Date

Topic

Reading

Homework

Paper/Presentations

20-Jan

 Introduction

 

 

 

22-Jan

Neoclassical Growth Model (Sequential Form)

 

 

 

27-Jan

Neoclassical Growth Model (Arrow-Debreu)

 

 

 

 

Fiscal Policy

 

 

 

29-Jan

Ramsey Optimal Fiscal Policy with Commitment

CK 8-15

 

 

3-Feb

Commodity Taxation and Elasticities

CK 15-17

Problem Set 1

 

5-Feb

 

 

 

10-Feb

Tax Distorted Competitive Equilibrium

 

 

 

12-Feb

 

 

 

17-Feb

Optimal Taxation in Neoclassical Growth Model

 

PS1 Due/PS2

 

19-Feb

 

 

Question Due

24-Feb

Capital Taxes

CK 35-41

Return PS1

 

26-Feb

Snow Day

 

 

Decide Topics

3-Mar

Victor's Guest Lecture

 

 

 

5-Mar

Consumption and Labor Taxes

 

PS2 Due

 

10-Mar

Consumption and Labor Taxes

 

Post PS3

 

12-Mar

Cash in Advance Model

 

 

Final Statement/Rough Outline Due

 

SPRING BREAK

 

 

 

 

Monetary Policy

 

 

 

24-Mar

Ramsey Approach to Optimal Monetary Policy

 

Return PS2

Return Statement/Outlines

26-Mar

PS2

 

 

 

31-Mar

Cash-Credit Goods Model

 

 

Final Outline Due (if needed)

2-Apr

 

 

 

7-Apr

Utility Function with Money Model

 

PS3 Due

 

9-Apr

 

 PS4

Return Final Outlines

14-Apr

PS3

CK 76-81

 

 

16-Apr

Utility Function with Money Model

CK 87-91

 

Rough Draft Due

21-Apr

New Keynesian Model

 

 

 

23-Apr

New Keynesian Model

 

 PS4 Due

Return Rough Drafts

28-Apr

Student Presentations

30-Apr

Student Presentations

5-May

Student Presentations

7-May

Review for the Final Exam

 

Return PS4

Final Draft Due

12-May

Final Exam