Unit information: Introduction to Macroeconomics in 2011/12

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Unit name Introduction to Macroeconomics
Unit code ECON10011
Credit points 20
Level of study C/4
Teaching block(s) Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director Dr. Duck
Open unit status Not open
Pre-requisites

A-level Mathematics (or equivalent)

Co-requisites

None

School/department School of Economics, Finance and Management
Faculty Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

Macroeconomics is the analysis of aggregate or average economic variables such as total employment, total output and the average level of prices. It analyses how the various broad sectors of the economy - the financial sector and the labour market for example - interact to create the movements in output, unemployment, inflation and interest rates that we observe in any economy. In the first part of the unit we use simple economic principles to construct a model of this interaction. In the second we use that model to explain the behaviour of the main macroeconomic variables - unemployment, inflation, interest rates and output - focussing on each in turn. In the final section we consider what macroeconomic policy framework might best deliver desired values for these variables.

The emphasis throughout the unit is on using theory to explain current and past macroeconomic problems.

ECON 10011 assumes no prior knowledge of macroeconomics. The exposition is mainly diagrammatic but at times uses simple algebra and a certain amount of differential calculus.