Economics 102
Principles of Macroeconomics
Required Text: Karl E. Case, Ray C. Fair and Sharon M. Oster, Principles of Macroeconomics, (11th Edition)
Recommended: Each chapter of the textbook ends with a problem set that ask you to check your comprehension of what you have learned in the chapter. A student version of power point slides is available from the textbook’s companion website at (www. Prenhall.com/case) or Click on "power points" link which is located at the bottom of the menu column of this page. For essay questions and answers click on "Essay Q&A"
Course Objective: One purpose of general education is to inform students about the world and thereby make them better citizens. The study of economics, as much as any discipline, serves this objective. More of this course is devoted to provide you with an overview of the principles of macroeconomic analysis. We will study factors which determine, among other things, the levels of the aggregate gross domestic product, the long-term economic growth, the rate of inflation, and the overall unemployment rate. Attention will be paid to the macroeconomic policy issues and their implications on the performance of the economy.
Economics is divided into microeconomics and macroeconomics. The subject matter of microeconomics deals with the behavior of households, consumers, firms or the functioning of individual markets. Macroeconomics is a branch of economics which studies the economy as a whole. It is the study of national and global economies and the factors that shape them.
Modern macroeconomics began during the Great Depression. At that time, massive unemployment was the major economic problem, so the focus of macroeconomics was initially on short-term problems, such as high unemployment. Then the focus has changed so that long-term problems, such as economic growth, also are considered vital. Recently (since the Great Recession of 2008) macroeconomics research and policy analyses of short-run economic fluctutions have increasingly became the focus of macroeconomists.