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Eric Doviak
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Doviak.net
Economics and Public Policy
Analysis
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Macro 710 -- Message
Board
Exam Submission
(posted: 20 May 2009 at 16.25)
Postal
mail is the preferred method of exam submision, but several of you have
asked when you could drop off your exam at my place.
Thursday and Saturday after 6:30 pm would be fine.
Under
normal circumstances, Friday evening would also be fine, but I have a
meeting in the City at 4:00 pm and I do not know what time I will be
back. So if you come on Friday evening, you do so at your own risk.
...
Inflation vs. Deflation
(posted: 13 May 2009 at 18.45)
The current issue of the
Economist magazine has an article on inflation and deflation. (
original and
PDF).
...
Lecture Notes, Neftci Lecture and more
(posted: 03 May 2009 at 16.45)
Dear Students,
Wingka scanned
my notes on Lucas' "Imperfect Information Model." Thanks Wingka!
I have also uploaded
my notes on the Svensson article, which we will discuss in class on Thursday (07 May). On Thursday, I will also give you a copy of
your final exam.
Because
I will not be able to attend class on the last day (Thurs. 14 May), I
would like yotu to watch Prof. Salih Neftci's lecture on the current
financial crisis. To watch it, go to this
fora.tv webpage register
for the site and then click on the download link. You'll then download
a 276 MB file of Prof. Neftci's lecture. It's in MP4 format, so you can
play it with VLC. It's
an excellent lecture that explains the roots of the current crisis, the
monetary policy mistakes that allowed the crisis to occur and his
thoughts on the future of finance and central banking.
One student has already watched the video and he suggested that I provide an explanation of "Monolines." Fortunately for me,
Wikipedia has provided a better explanation than I could possibly give.
If you'll forgive me for throwing one more article at you ... I would also like you to read a
paper that I wrote on Asset Price Bubbles. You can also read
the presentation
that accompanies it. Both are written in very simple and concise
language, so it shouldn't take you too long to read them and it has
some great material for the final exam.
See you on Thursday,
- Eric Doviak
...
Extension and Lecture Notes
(posted: 24 April 2009 at 13.45)
Dear Students,
As
we discussed in class yesterday, anyone who would like a one week
extension on their midterm exam may take it. There will not be any
penalty associated with taking the extension.
The only thing
that I ask is that you only submit ONE exam, so that there is no
confusion about which exam I should grade. In other words, if you
submitted an exam yesterday and you want to take the extension, then
please remove your previously submitted exam from the pile when you
submit your new exam on Thursday.
Also, Ylli was kind enough to scan the Lecture Notes once again, so here are links to:
Have a great weekend,
- Eric Doviak
...
End of Semester Planning
(posted: 22 April 2009 at 13.05)
Students,
As
you know, your exams are due in class on Thurs. 23 April. We covered a
lot of material and I'm looking forward to seeing what you wrote.
As
I mentioned on the first day of class, the trade-off associated with
conducting an in-depth discussion of growth theory is that it leaves
little time to cover the classical topics of macroeconomics: the
effects of fiscal and monetary policy on aggregate output inflation and
unemployment.
Given the current crisis, I'd also like to
macroeconomic policy in response to the dangers that we face, so -- as
we approach the end of the semester -- I'd like to do: a "fiscal
lecture," a "monetary lecture" and a "crisis lecture." There won't be
much time to discuss each topic, but the discussions that we do have
will be rewarding.
To that end, I would like you to read chap. 5 of Romer's textbook for class on Thurs. 23 April.
We'll
discuss monetary policy in class on Thurs. 30 April. (I haven't decided
which chapters/articles to assign yet, but I will let you know
tomorrow).
Then on Thurs. 7 May, I'd like to discuss the Svensson (JEP, 1992) article.
Unfortunately,
I will not be able to attend class on the last day (Thurs. 14 May), so
I will ask Prof. Salih Neftci -- who passed away last week -- to
post-humously give the final lecture for me.
So go to this
fora.tv webpage register
for the site and then click on the download link. You'll then download
a 276 MB file of Prof. Neftci's lecture. It's in MP4 format, so you can
play it with VLC.
It's
an excellent lecture that explains the roots of the current crisis, the
monetary policy mistakes that allowed the crisis to occur and his
thoughts on the future of finance and central banking.
See you tomorrow,
- Eric Doviak
...
Midterm Exam
(posted: 29 March 2009 at 12.15)
Students,
On
Thurs. 02 April, we will discuss Research and Development models (D.
Romer, chap. 3A) and -- at the end of class -- I will distribute a copy
of the midterm exam. Then on Thurs. 16 April, you will submit
type-written answers to the questions.
Click HERE to download a copy of the exam.
Also,
I have uploaded the copies of my (handwritten) notes that Ramon and
Ylli scanned for me. The links are in the "Links and Files" section of
this page (just below this message).
Thanks again to Ramon and Ylli!Good Luck!
- Eric Doviak
...
class on Tues. 10 Feb. at 8:20 pm
(posted: 06 Feb 2009 at 13:20)
Students,
Due
to the class scheduling conflict that affects 41 percent of you (11 out
of 27), we cannot hold a normal class on Tues. 10 Feb. I cannot
penalize you for circumstances beyond your control.
Instead of
cancelling Tuesday's class however, I've decided to conduct a math
review session. The idea here is to remind you of what you learned in
your calculus courses. This allows me to assist you with the course
material without penalizing the students who cannot attend.
To that end, I've posted a set of
"Calculus Tricks" that I use with my undergraduate students. Those notes will form the basis of my lecture on Tues. 10 Feb.
Finally, if you have any ideas about other material that I should cover on Tues. 10 Feb., please feel free to propose them.
Any thoughts on how we can take these lemons and make lemonade would be greatly appreciated.
Have a great weekend,
- Eric Doviak
...
Welcome Message for Spring 2009 Students
Welcome to the course website. Please check this site regularly.
I've posted a copy of the syllabus. Please read it and become familiar with it.
In terms of textbooks, you should purchase:
- Romer, David. Advanced Macroeconomics. McGraw-Hill. 1996. ISBN: 0-07-053667-8
Most of the required reading comes from Romer's textbook, but there are also a few journal articles (see syllabus), which you can obtain from the library's electronic journals collection.
The
reading list is short. I have not padded the list with the original
classics in cases where the textbook's treatment will suffice. The list
is reasonable. I expect you to read all of the material listed on the
syllabus.
For supplemental material, you may also want:
Blanchard
and Fischer's text is commonly used in graduate-level Macroeconomics
courses. I did not select it for our primary text however, because it
does not contain much material on economic growth and development.
My Lecture Notes
were designed for undergraduate students. They contain a lot of
information and they explain my approach to macroeconomic theory, but
they are not a substitute for a graduate-level textbook.
I also recommend that you purchase a copy of The MIT Dictionary
of Modern Economics, edited by David W. Pearce. After all, learning
the vocabulary of economics is a fundamental part of any introductory course
and I will test you on your understanding of the vocabulary.
You're going to learn a lot this semester and I'm looking forward
to working with you.
All the best,
Eric Doviak