Economics
8346 |
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NOTE: I will travel a fair amount in the fall. The class is scheduled for 10-11.30 Mo-We, but some days we will start in advance. We will like also have some ad hoc make-up classes, in particular the last week of teaching for student presentations.
Scheduling: Classes to be rescheduled so far 8/22, 8/24, 10/3, 10/5.
Make-up: 8/26 1-2.30, 9/19 3.30-5.
Friday Oct 14th, 3.00-4.30 and Friday
Oct 28th, 3.00-4.30.
Final --- **** Friday December 2nd at 3pm
****.
Midterm: Monday October 17th.
Midterm exam 2007 (not graded)
Topics (chapters in Ljungqvist and Sargent, unless otherwise noted):
Davit – growth 10/12
Chris – optimal unemployment insurance 10/14
Emiliano – optimal taxation 10/19
Bin – fiscal-monetary theories of inflation 10/24
Jarrod – fiscal pol in the gr model (ch 11) 10/26
Volodomyr – (ch 22, cred govt policy) 10/28
Wen --- Credit and Currency ch 25, Pt I 10/31
Fatma -- Credit and Currency, ch 25, Pt II 11/2
Amrita – Search, ch 6 11/7
Carlos – asset pricing 11/9
Randall - Obst-Rogoff pp 297-99, 319-32 11/14
Mahboobeh --- RBC…SEE BELOW 11/16
NOTE: No class on Nov 21st. Double feature on the 28th, Please arrive at 9.30.
Gokce --- Chapter 16, Self-Insurance 11/28
Mesrur --- Chapter 10, Ricardian Equivlence 11/28
Articles for Mahboobeh presentation (you may have to be on campus to download):
Current Real-Business-Cycle Theories and Aggregate Labor-Market Fluctuations
Background:
Time
to Build and Aggregate Fluctuations:
Indivisible Labor and the Business Cycle
Course structure:
A midterm and 5+ homeworks followed by in-depth student presentations (a full class each, which in practice means that I do half the talking to help make things understandable to the rest of the class).
(I insist on homeworks and midterm because my experience is that too many people do not not study properly without these proddings.)
Topics covered (I will start with the first one which is just one lecture to get you to think about the role of empirical work).
1) Introduction (empirical methods in macro,)
2) GMM (how to do, applied perspecitive---I will not prove any econometrics results)
3) VAR (focus on interpretions of structural VARs and applications in macro)
4) Introduction to dynamic programming (Sargent and Ljungquist)
1) A Midterm
2) In previous years, we have done student presentations after midterm – with students choosing a chapter from Sargent-Ljungquist (large chapter can be 2 students) because this is an influential text written in a different style than most students are used to so it is good if we get exposed as much as possible to this. Or a recent working paper that fits with the material of the class. This year I want to have some computational stuff which I haven’t done before so we will decide as we go along how much time to spend on that.
Notes on Empirical Methods in Macro (I don’t cover this, which is a little dated, but you can read it you wish.)
Some papers on IV-estimation that you may want to consult (if you do IV, you SHOULD read):
Panel Data Program from Ostergaard, Sorensen, Yosha JPE 2002. the data
The data are in GAUSS format and you should download to the PC and unzip. You will need to change the paths for loading and the outfile.
GMM Notes
part 3 (Revised November 29th. The first 2 pages are the
most important. The theory is not going to be on exam.)
Hansen-Singleton GMM program, the data
Homework 1: Read the article The
Scientific Illusion in Empirical Macroeconomics by
Lawrence
H. Summers,