Foundations
- Introduction: Models vs. data, course overview (≈1 lecture)
- A simple general equilibrium model (Robinson Crusoe, ≈1 lecture)
Part I: Long Run and Economic Growth
Solow growth model (≈4 lectures)
- Aggregate production function, saving, and capital accumulation
- The economy as an ODE: steady state and dynamics, golden rule
- Human capital and exogenous technological progress
- Empirical applications: conditional convergence, cross-country income differences, growth
accounting
Neoclassical growth model, or Ramsey model (≈4 lectures)
- Preferences and technology, the planner’s problem, welfare theorems
- The economy as two ODEs: Phase diagram, steady state and dynamics
- Applications and policy implications
Endogenous growth and determinants of productivity (≈2 lectures)
- Externalities and learning by doing
- R&D and intellectual property rights
- Biased technological change and income inequality, discussion of AI
Part II: Short Run and Business Cycles
Real Business Cycle (RBC) model—supply-driven fluctuations (≈3 lectures)
- Ramsey model with shocks: from long-run growth to short-run fluctuations
- Supply vs. demand shocks, irrelevance of aggregate demand
New Keynesian (NK) model—demand-driven fluctuations (≈8 lectures)
- Foundations of aggregate demand: consumption (permanent income hypothesis,
borrowing constraints), investment (MPK, Q theory, borrowing constraints) - Aggregate supply revisited: nominal rigidities
- Inflation, output gaps, monetary and fiscal policy
Recent macroeconomic developments (≈2 lectures)
- Fiscal policy and inflation, tariffs, central bank independence
