School of Economics at Fudan University
Macroeconomics (A), Fall 2013
Instructor: Dan Li
Classroom: H6402
Class time: 6-8 sessions, Wednesdays
Office Hours: 10:00-11:30 AM, Wednesdays or by appointment if necessary
Office address: Room302, School of Economics, 600 Guo Quan Rd.
Office phone: 021-3530-6539
Email:danli.fudan@gmail.com
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syllabus-dan_li_fall_2013.pdf
Course Description:
Economics is the study of how society deals with the problem of allocating scarce resources across competing uses. Every economic system must answer a few central questions, e.g. what goods to produce, how much of eachgood to produce, in what way should they be produced, and who gets the goods. Macroeconomics is dealing these issues form a macro perspective. At the end of this course, you will understand
1)Why the living standards in different countries vary so much
2)Why different countries have different price levels
3)Why economic fluctuations occur
4)What kind of policies can be employed to address economic fluctuations
To achieve the study goals, first, we will briefly go over the basic concepts of microeconomics that we learned in the previous semester and achieve a basic understanding of various countries from perspective of macroeconomics; Second,we will learn all necessary macroeconomic terminologies, theories and models; Finally,several classes are designed to provide students opportunities apply what theylearn to analyze the real world.
Textbooks:
Mankiw,Gregory N., Principles of Economics, 6th Edition (InternationalEdition), South-Western, 2011.
Blanchard,Olivier and David, R. Johnson, Macroeconomics, 6th edition, (Global Edition),Pearson, 2012.
Preparingfor Class:
In my view, the most effective and efficient use of classroom time is reinforcing, clarifying and applying what the student has learned or tried tolearn on an individual or group basis before entering the classroom. Inpreparing for class, read the assigned section of the text ahead of time. Youdo not have to memorize every detail. After class,review you learn during the class to make sure that you understand the concepts and can apply themto real-world policy analysis.
Lecture Format:
Lecture will be conducted through PowerPoint presentation. You will need to take notes based on my presentation. Remember: No pain, no gain! Making your own notes canhelp you think through the lecture materials, which is the most important part in the learning process. Merely listening to my presentation and reading the lecture notes cannot help you learnthe materials well.
AttendanceRequirement:
Economic is a very systematic subject. Missing classes will make students feel difficult to follow up. Therefore, I strongly suggest you not to miss one single class.
Our classis a harmonious and friendly society. Being late or leaving early will disrupt the study process of your fellow classmates. I request every student to be polite and show your respect to your fellow classmates. So please do not belate or leave early.
Exams:
There are one mid-term and one final exams. Please take notes of the datesfor the exams (see the following course schedule).The midterm exams will cover the material we learnbefore each exam. The final exam is CUMULATIVE.
Makeup exams: There will be no makeup exams for the midterm. If you miss the midterm due to a documented medical emergency, then the points for the midterm will be added to your final exam. In suchcase, a certified note from a doctor is required. If you miss a midterm for any otherreason (excluding family emergency), you will be given a grade of zero and itwill count in the final grade calculation. If you sleep through an exam(including the final exam) no makeup will be given and you will receive a zeroscore, so I suggest that you set more than one alarm clock. Also, please notethat under no circumstances will the final exam or midterm be administered on a different date than scheduled because of travel plans or family events (if,though, there is a family medical crisis, you must contact me about this and Imay approve adding those points to your final exam). Any changes to anannounced exam date, time, or place will be announced in class and emails will also be sent to the class (but if your email account is full, you may not getthe email). It is the responsibility of the student to be aware of these changes (if you miss the exam due to missing the announcements in lectures and not reading emails or simply not getting the email due to a full email box, then no makeup exam will be given). If a student misses the final due to a documented illness I must be contacted atleast one week before the day of the exam and the student/ his(er) family members should try every effort to contactthe undergraduate student office to arrange a makeup final exam at the beginning of the next semester. The instructor is not responsiblefor arranging the makeup exam and the student who wants to have a makeup finalexam (or if you fails the class) should contact the undergraduate studentoffice for the details of the arrangement.
Grading:
ClassParticipation 5%
PosterSession 15%
ProjectPresentation 15%
Midterm Exam 25%
Final Exam 40%
Accommodation for Special Circumstances or Special Needs:
If you have special needs because of alearning problem or other condition that requires special arrangements fortesting or meeting assignments, please let me know as soon as possible.
AcademicConduct:
The student is responsible for their own academicmisconducts. Casesof suspected misconduct will be referred tothe Dean’s Office; in addition, acts of plagiarism or cheatingwill be penalized with failing grades, or even moreseriously, be expelled from school.
Miscellaneous:
I encourage students to attend myoffice hours to discuss questions either on class material, problems on exams orrelated subject matter. If you are not free during my office hours you can sendme an e-mail for an appointment. Thisclass requires a lot of work. Please, speak with me if you are havingdifficulties meeting the requirements for this course. Together we will workout a solution.
