FINA4621: The Global Economy (Macro)

The course is intended to help you develop a global perspective on the economy. You will develop a set of skills and concepts that will permit you to understand and to analyze the foundations of the economy at large. We want to understand the main drivers of economic growth over time and across countries. Key skills and conceptual take-aways from this course: 1. Explain how an economy, firms, labor, and finance fit together. 2. Able to use the Solow and Romer growth models: i) to understand long term growth, ii) to predict shock effects, iii) to measure TFP iv) to examine GDP differences across countries 3. Understand labor market using supply and demand, and using the bathtub model 4. Able to analytically derive the classical gains from free trade. Understand key benefits and drawbacks to globalization. The lectures are structured as Foundations, Growth, Labor, Globalization. We start by setting up a foundation that stresses the fact that things have to fit together coherently. We need to be careful about how we measure things. The role of firms and financial markets are frequently misunderstood so we devote special effort to why these exist and what role they play. Next we turn to the overall evolution of the economy – sometimes called mega-trends. People open underestimate the amount of economic variation from one decade to the next and hence may not adequately prepare. A key purpose of this course is to help you understand key drivers of economic growth, and the wealth difference across time and between countries. This will provide context for you to think about some potentially forthcoming major changes. The role of labor deserves special attention since it connects directly to human beings. The treatment of, and returns to labor are critical to human welfare. We will consider the labor market in general, unemployment, and inequality both within and across countries. Finally we will examine the role of globalization and international trade. We will formally develop the classical gains from free trade. We will also discuss the reasons for controversies surrounding trade and globalization. prereq: 3001 or 3001H, CSOM major or Math major/Act Sci, or Management minor.

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