Syllabus
Principles of Macroeconomics

Principles of Macroeconomics

ECON-2301

Summer 2012
06/04/2012 - 07/06/2012

Course Information

Section 019
Lecture
MTWTh 12:00 - 14:10
HEH1 D102
Van Savage

Office Hours

No office hours have been entered for this term

Course Requirements

   

Instructor: Van Savage

 

  

COURSE ATTENDANCE

Regular attendance is expected. Frequent exposure to an instructor's explanations is an important factor in a student's ability to master the material covered.  We will engage in daily, in-class, written activities so plan to attend!

 

 NOTICES

 

Scholastic dishonesty: Acts prohibited by the college for which discipline may be administered include scholastic dishonesty, including but not limited to cheating on an exam or quiz, plagiarizing, and unauthorized collaboration with another in preparing outside work. Academic work submitted by students shall be the result of their thought, research or self-expression. Academic work is defined as, but not limited to tests, quizzes, whether taken electronically or on paper; projects, either individual or group; classroom presentations, and homework.

Students with disabilities: Each ACC campus offers support services for students with documented physical or psychological disabilities. Students with disabilities must request reasonable accommodations through the Office for Students with Disabilities on the campus where they expect to take the majority of their classes. Students are encouraged to do this three weeks before the start of the semester. 

Academic Freedom: Each student is strongly encouraged to participate in class discussions. In any classroom situation that includes discussion and critical thinking, particularly about economic and political ideas, there are bound to be many differing viewpoints. Students may not only disagree with each other at times, but the students and instructor may also find that they have opposing views on sensitive and volatile topics. It is my hope that these differences will enhance class discussion and create an atmosphere where students and instructor alike will be encouraged to think and learn. Therefore, be assured that your grades will not be adversely affected by any beliefs or ideas expressed in class or in assignments. Rather, we will all respect the views of others when expressed in classroom discussions.

   

Readings

INSTRUCTIONAL COURSE MATERIALS

 

Required

Macroeconomics, 10th Edition by Parkin. Addison-Wesley publisher.  

 

Read Chapters 1 - 14.  We will cover Chapter 15 if time allows.

 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Learning objectives for each chapter you will be assigned are listed at the beginning of each chapter in the textbook. Read them carefully before you read the chapter. They are there to help you read the chapter. They are there to help you focus your mind on the important concepts and theories discussed in the chapter. The multiple-choice exams will test your knowledge of and ability to apply these learning objectives. Knowing this will help you efficiently allocate your mental energies. 

READING

Reading the textbook thoroughly is the key to doing well in this course. You must rely almost completely on the textbook to help you understand the material. This is why reading, and re-reading the text is so essential.

I recommend that you take these steps in reading each chapter.

Step One:Skim the chapter. Spend three to five seconds looking over each page of the chapter.

Step Two:Quickly read over the chapter again reading only the title of the chapter, the learning objectives, all the headings and sub-headings in the chapter, all the words in bold print, and all the words in the left column of each page in the chapter.

Step Three:Read the introduction of the chapter, the first paragraph of each section or subsection in the chapter and the first sentence of all of the other paragraphs in the section or subsection. Finally read the summary of the chapter.

Step Four:Without referring back to the chapter make a list of all the important concepts, terms, ideas, theories, and laws that you can remember.

Step Five:  Read the introduction, the learning objectives, and the summary of the chapter in the "end-of-chapter" section of the textbook.

Step Six:Revise and improve your list and then use it to make the outline/map of the chapter.

Step Seven:Read the chapter in the text completely and thoroughly.

Step Eight:Revise and improve your outline/map once again. This time add the key terms to the appropriate places in your outline/map if they had been included before this time.

Step Nine:Complete a Study Plan for the chapter in MyEconLab.

Step Ten:Revise your outline/map one more time.

Step Eleven:Review your outline/map every four or five days until the exam and then use it to prepare for the exam.

If you read your textbook in this structured and disciplined way, you will learn much more than if you approach your reading task in an unorganized manner, and you will do much better on the exams than you would otherwise do. 

Course Subjects

 INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this course is to familiarize the student with the generally accepted principles of macroeconomics. Macroeconomics is concerned with such things as, economic growth, unemployment, inflation, and the business cycle. Though ultimately based on the actions of individual households and business firms (microeconomics), macroeconomics deals with aggregates--i.e., consumers as a whole, producers as a whole, exporters and importers as a whole, fiscal policy --the effects of government spending and taxation, and the monetary policy of the central bank.

The course is subdivided into several major areas as follows: (1) microeconomic foundation; (2) national income accounting; (3) growth; (4) inflation; (5) unemployment; (6) money and banking; (7) international trade and the exchange rate; (8) the business cycle; (9) national income determination with the effects of fiscal and monetary policy included; (10) an explanation of our current situation. 

Student Learning Outcomes/Learning Objectives

 Course Description, Rationale, and Common Course Objectives/Student Outcomes 

as established by the economics department:

1.  Course Description- Principles of Macroeconomics deals with consumers as a whole, producers as a whole, the effects of government spending and taxation policies and the effects of the monetary policy carried out by the Federal Reserve Bank. Macroeconomics is concerned with unemployment, inflation, and the business cycle.

2.  Course Rationale- This course is meant to give students insight into the dynamics of our national economy. The knowledge gained in the course will make students better informed citizens and allow them to follow the debates over national economic policy reported in the news media. This course is also a foundation course that will prepare students to be successful in upper division finance, marketing, business administration, economics, government, and social work courses.

3.  Common Course Objectives/Student Outcomes.

Students who complete this course will be able to understand:

  • the meaning of unemployment and inflation data and how that data is collected and computed;
  • the meaning and components of the National Income Accounts, especially GDP;
  • the meaning of the business cycle and its phases;
  • and to manipulate the basic Aggregate Supply, Aggregate Demand model of the macro economy;
  • how fiscal policy operates, its tools, and its advantages and drawbacks;
  • how a fractional reserve banking system works;
  •  how monetary policy operates, its tools, and its advantages and drawbacks.

GRADING

GRADING

Grading will be based on the following weighted elements:

  1. MyEconLab = 40%
  2. Daily Journal and other in-class written activities = 25%
  3. EXACTLY Five Page Paper = 25%
  4. Final Exam = 10%

Final letter grades will be distributed according to the following scale:

 

 

Letter Grade

Percent

A

[100-90%]

B

(90-80%]

C

(80-65%]

D

(65-55%]

F

(55-0%]

  

INCOMPLETES

INCOMPLETES

Incompletes are discouraged. They will be given only when extraordinary events intervene so as to make completion of the course impossible. If you want an incomplete, these events must be documented. To receive an incomplete the student must have completed a majority of the course with a C or better. The student must also come by my office to fill out an incomplete form. If the form is not filled out, an incomplete grade will not be given.

Incompletes will not be given to students who are behind schedule when the semester nears its end. Nor will incompletes be given to students who need just a few more points to make the next higher letter grade. Plenty of opportunity exists during the semester to accomplish your goals.

If you find yourself way behind or many points short toward the end of the semester you may withdraw without a grade penalty subject to deadlines.   Please read the following note about withdrawals. 

WITHDRAWALS

WITHDRAWALS

Students are responsible for withdrawing themselves from this course if that is what their personal situation requires. This means that if you have taken no tests or only a few of the tests and the semester ends without you having withdrawn yourself, then you will receive an F in the course. The instructor makes no promise either implicit or explicit to withdraw students from the course. 

In addition, students should be aware of a change in the law regarding Withdrawals passed by the Texas Legislature in thespring of 2007. Starting in the Fall of 2007, entering freshman arerestricted to six non-punitive withdrawals for the whole of their undergraduate careers while attending state colleges.

The last day to withdraw from this course without penalty is June 28, 2012.

http://www.austincc.edu/support/admissions/pdfs/acacal12.pdf