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Description

This half semester class presents an introduction to macroeconomic modeling, focusing on the theory of economic growth and some of its applications. It will introduce a number of models of non-stochastic and stochastic macroeconomic equilibrium. It will use these models to shed light both on the process of economic growth at the world level and on sources of income and growth differences across countries.

Objectives

The objectives of this course are:

• to familiarize you with a set of issues and questions that are central to macroeconomics, and that are also (hopefully) exciting and important;
• to develop some of the most important tools of dynamic economics useful in macroeconomics as well as in a number of subdisciplines of economics including general equilibrium theory, political economy, industrial organization and contract theory; and
• to provide you with a number of workhorse models useful in multiple areas of macroeconomics.

Prerequisites

The prerequisites for this course are 14.451 Dynamic Optimization Methods with Applications or permission of the instructor.

Textbook

The course will draw heavily on this textbook:

Acemoglu, K. Daron. Introduction to Modern Economic Growth. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780691132921.

Grading