Syllabus

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Program


1 - Welcome to Julia & Pluto

2 - Mathematical and Statistical recap

3 - The main stylized facts of business cycles

4 - Filters and Impulse Response Functions

5 - Solving Rational Expectations models

Mid-term test

6 - Credibility and commitment in monetary policy

7 - The optimal choice of policy instruments **

8 - The New Keynesian model

9 - The Real Business Cycle model **

** These two points are expected not to be covered this year due to a lack of time.

Final test


Textbook

There is no adopted macroeconomics textbook for this course. Lecture notes will be provided for each topic. Nevertheless, good companion textbooks can be those of:

  • Gali, J. (2015). Monetary Policy, Inflation, and the Business Cycle, 2nd ed., Princeton University Press.

  • Wickens, M. (2012). Macroeconomic Theory: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Approach, 2nd ed., Princeton University Press

This course uses the programming languages Julia and/or Python as supporting tools for learning modern macroeconomics. Four excellent sources about Julia and Python are the following:


Assessment regimes

Option A:

  • Midterm test: one test covering the materials taught during the first 5 weeks of the semester, weighting 35% on the final grade.

  • Final test: one test covering all materials taught in this course, but with more emphasis on the materials covered during the last 5 weeks of the semester. It has a weight of 35% on the final grade.

  • A group assignment based on a topic closely related to the syllabus with a weight of 30% on the final grade.

  • The grade in any of these tests cannot be less than 8 points (on a scale from 0 to 20 points)

  • This regime requires the attendance of at least 80% of classes.

Option B:

  • One final exam: weight of 100% on the final grade.

  • Covers all materials taught during the entire semester.

  • There will be a re-sitting test for those that fail in option A or/and option B. This test includes all materials and represents 100% of the final grade.


Open-book assessments

  1. Tests and exams in this course are undertaken under the open-book assessment norm. Students can refer to their own resources during the test/exam. These resources could include the textbook, individual notes (handwritten or typed), Pluto and/or Marimo notebooks, and other individual electronic resources (such as PDF files).

  2. Tests and exams will be undertaken on one’s laptop using Pluto or Marimo notebooks. These notebooks will be a fun, handy tool for learning, teaching, and conducting evaluations.

  3. During a test/exam, students are strictly prohibited from practicing any of the following acts:

    • Interact in any possible way (digital or other) with any other student (or any other person) to obtain or provide any information concerning the contents of the test or exam.

    • Interact with general internet sources and chatbots (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and any other) in any way possible.

    • Copy+paste from unspecified “collective” sources. If two (or more) students submit answers that are, beyond any reasonable doubt, the result of copying from a collective source, their tests will be annulled, and the corresponding disciplinary consequences will follow.

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