COURSE INFORMATION Course Title: MACROECONOMICS II

Code	Course Type	Regular Semester	Theory	Practice	Lab	Credits	ECTS
ECO 204	B	4	3	0	0	3	5

Academic staff member responsible for the design of the course syllabus (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature)	Dr. Arjona Lami acela@epoka.edu.al
Main Course Lecturer (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours:	Dr. Arjona Lami acela@epoka.edu.al , Friday 8:30-10:30
Second Course Lecturer(s) (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours:	NA
Language:	English
Compulsory/Elective:	Compulsory
Study program: (the study for which this course is offered)	Bachelor in Economics (3 years)
Classroom and Meeting Time:	D101
Teaching Assistant(s) and Office Hours:	NA
Code of Ethics:	Code of Ethics of EPOKA University Regulation of EPOKA University "On Student Discipline"
Attendance Requirement:	75%
Course Description:	Macroeconomics II: The aim of this course is to introduce the basic concepts of macroeconomic analysis. The course presents the theory of short-run economic fluctuations which provides the basis for understanding most discussions of monetary and fiscal policy. Also the course gives ample attention to long-term topics including economic growth, the natural rate of unemployment, persistent inflation and government debt. Topics include money supply and money demand, the open economy, the theory of economic fluctuations and debates over various macroeconomic issues. Macroeconomics is a theoretical as well as an empirical discipline, motivated and guided by a wide array of experience. In line with this approach, the course is conducted on the basis of examples related to current issues in Albania.
Course Objectives:	This is one of the two macroeconomics courses that the students of faculty of economics and administration sciences are required to take. This course will teach students the basic tools of macroeconomics and apply them to real world economic policy. The goals of the course are for students to (a) understand how to evaluate macroeconomic conditions such as unemployment, inflation, and growth (b) understand how monetary policy and fiscal policy can be used to influence short-run macroeconomic conditions By analyzing macro economic theories, discussing the validity of macroeconomic topics is the aim of this course. It is concerned with the study of real life economic issues and problems. Thus, in this course, the examples from real life will be introduces to the students. It deals with national income, employment and so on. The aim of the class is to develop some basic concepts and tools to study macroeconomics.

BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE COURSE

1	Gross domestic product (GDP), the total value of goods and services produced in an economy, is the broadest measure of economic activity
2	We calculate national saving by summing private saving and government saving
3	Solow growth model explains how saving rates and population growth determine capital accumulation, which in turn determine economic growth.
4	Endogenous growth theory explains why advances in technology endogenously (from within the system) fuel sustained economic growth.
5	The IS curve traces out the points at which the goods market is in equilibrium.
6	The monetary policy (MP) curve indicates the relationship between the real interest rate the central bank sets and the inflation rate.
7	The negative relationship between unemployment and inflation they found for many countries became known, naturally enough, as the Phillips curve
8	Fiscal policy uses government expenditures and taxes as instruments
9	The unemployment rate measures the percentage of the labor force that is unemployed.
10	In modern economies, the two most important factors of production are labor and capital

COURSE OUTLINE

Week	Topics
1	Welcome and Syllabus
2	Chapter 4. Saving and Investment in Close and Open Economies Pg67-93 In this chapter, we answer these questions by tracing the relationship between saving and investment. We take a long-run perspective in which wages and prices are flexible. We will see that lower saving leads to lower investment, slowing the growth of the capital stock and indeed making the United States poorer in the future. We will also see that lower saving leads to greater borrowing from foreigners, requiring future debt payments that reduce the wealth of Americans.
3	Chapter 3. Aggregate Production and Productivity Pg47-66 This chapter provides a framework for understanding production in the overall (aggregate) economy. After examining the fundamental factors of production, we will look at what determines their prices and the income they generate, as well as their share of national income
4	Chapter 6. The Sources of Growth and the Solow Model Pg144-167 Discovering why countries like South Korea and the United States thrive while countries like Haiti stagnate is one of the most important goals of macroeconomics. As Nobel prize winner Robert Lucas has put it, “The consequences for human welfare involved in questions like these [about economic growth] are simply staggering. We start the chapter by examining growth accounting, which builds on the production function we discussed in Chapter 3. From there, we explore the Solow growth model, the basis of all modern research on economic growth, and its limitations. We then go beyond the Solow model in the following chapter to look in more detail at the role of technology and institutions in promoting economic growth.
5	Chapter 7. Drivers of Growth: Technology, Policy, and Institutions Pg175-197 Why do capital and productivity grow at rapid rates in some countries but not in others? To answer this question, we start the chapter by discussing how technology differs from the conventional production inputs of capital and labor, which we discussed in the previous chapter. We will then explore policies to promote productivity growth, such as building physical infrastructure (roads and ports), increasing the knowledge and skills of workers, and providing incentives to stimulate research and development.
6	Chapter 9 The IS curve Pg222-239 In this chapter, we develop the first building block to understand aggregate demand, the IS curve, which describes the relationship between real interest rates and aggregate output when the market for goods and services (more simply referred to as the goods market) is in equilibrium. We begin by deriving the IS curve and then go on to explain what factors cause the IS curve to shift. With our understanding of the IS curve, we can examine why the economic contraction during the Great Depression was so deep and how the fiscal stimulus package of 2009 affected the economy. Then in later chapters, we make use of the IS curve to understand the role of monetary and fiscal policy in economic fluctuations.
7	hapter 10 Monetary Policy and aggregate demand Pg240-259 The short-run model of the aggregate economy that we are building step by step will allow us to analyse how a central bank’s policy decisions affect the economy. We start this chapter by explaining why monetary policy makers set interest rates to rise when inflation increases, leading to a positive relationship between real interest rates and inflation, which is called the monetary policy (MP) curve. Then using the MP curve with the IS curve we developed in the previous chapter, we derive the aggregate demand curve, a key element in the aggregate demand/aggregate supply model framework used in the rest of this book to discuss short-run economic fluctuations.
8	Review for midterm exam
9	Midterm exam
10	Chapter 11. Aggregate Supply and the Phillips Curve Pg 267-283 The Phillips curve provides the intuition for the aggregate supply curve, First, we will see how the economic profession’s views on the Phillips curve evolved over time and how it has affected thinking about macroeconomic policy. Then we can use the Phillips curve to derive the aggregate supply curve, which will allow us to complete our basic aggregate demand/aggregate supply framework for analyzing short-run economic fluctuations in the next chapter.
11	Chapter 12. The Aggregate Demand and Supply Model Pg 284-312 Aggregate demand and supply analysis is a powerful tool for studying short-run fluctuations in the macroeconomy and analyzing how aggregate output and the inflation rate are determined.
12	Chapter 16. Fiscal Policy and the Government Budget Pg 396-422 Taken broadly, fiscal policy involves decisions about government spending and taxation. In this chapter, we first examine the relationship between the government budget and the growth of government debt. Then we look at the long- and short-run economic effects of budget deficits, tax cuts, and increased government spending.
13	Chapter 20. The Labor Market, Employment, and Unemployment Pg514-539 This chapter begins with a general look at the U.S. labor market over the last halfcentury. It then develops a supply and demand model of the labor market and examines the sources of unemployment. With this analysis, we then start answering many of the questions posed previously.
14	Reveiw for final exam

Prerequisite(s):	Knowledge of principles of macroeconomics.
Textbook(s):	Macroeconomics: Policy and Practice - 2nd Edition; Frederic S. Mishkin
Additional Literature:
Laboratory Work:	N.A.
Computer Usage:	N.A.
Others:	No

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

1	Students will use macroeconomics knowledge to understand the macroeconomic issues
2	They will learn macroeconomic models of growth, aggregate demand, aggregate supply, open economy, and other extensions
3	They will learn about open economy with government intervention using fiscal policy
4	Students will learn the macroeconomic equilibrium using diagrams
5	They will learn how to end the recessionary and inflation gap using fiscal policy
6	They will learn how monetary policy transmission effectively stabilize the inflation
7	Students will learn the money multiplier and quantitative theory of money
8	They will learn how monetary policy effectively stabilize the exchange rate

COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO... PROGRAM COMPETENCIES (Blank : no contribution, 1: least contribution ... 5: highest contribution)

No	Program Competencies	Cont.
Bachelor in Economics (3 years) Program
1	Students define the fundamental problems of economics	5
2	Students describe key economic theories	4
3	Students critically discuss current developments in economics	3
4	Students appropriately use software for data analysis	3
5	Students critically contextualize the selection of an economic problem for research within scholarly literature and theory on the topic	4
6	Students apply appropriate analytical methods to address economic problems	4
7	Students use effective communication skills in a variety of academic and professional contexts	4
8	Students effectively contribute to group work	3
9	Students conduct independent research under academic supervision	4
10	Students uphold ethical values in data collection, interpretation, and dissemination	4
11	Students critically engage with interdisciplinary innovations in social sciences	3
12	Student explain how their research has a broader social benefit	4

COURSE EVALUATION METHOD

Method	Quantity	Percentage
Midterm Exam(s)	1	40
Quiz	0	0
Final Exam	1	45
Attendance		15
	Total Percent:	100%

ECTS (ALLOCATED BASED ON STUDENT WORKLOAD)

Activities	Quantity	Duration(Hours)	Total Workload(Hours)
Course Duration (Including the exam week: 16x Total course hours)	16	3	48
Hours for off-the-classroom study (Pre-study, practice)	16	2	32
Mid-terms	1	5	5
Assignments	1	6	6
Final examination	1	14	14
Other	2	10	20
Total Work Load:			125
Total Work Load/25(h):			5
ECTS Credit of the Course:			5

CONCLUDING REMARKS BY THE COURSE LECTURER

As our students transition from this academic phase to the next stages of their academic career, I am confident that the skills and knowledge they have acquired in Macroeconomics II will serve them well.