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Section 1: Economic Growth
Week 1 (1 October): Solow Growth Model
- Required reading: Romer, David. 2012. Advanced Macroeconomics. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill., Chapter 1.
- Required reading: Parker, Coursebook, Chapter 3.
- Required reading: Mankiw, N. Gregory, David Romer, and David N. Weil. 1992. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth." Quarterly Journal of Economics 107 (2):407-37.
- Optional advanced reading: Barro, Robert J., and Xavier Sala-i-Martin. 2004. Economic Growth. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, Chapter 1. (A similar level exposition of the Solow model.)
- Optional reading (seminal work): Solow, Robert M. 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth." Quarterly Journal of Economics 70 (1):65-94.
Week 2 (8 October): Growth with Optimal Saving
- Required reading: Romer, Chapter 2.
- Required reading: Parker, Coursebook, Chapter 4.
- Optional advanced reading: Barro, Robert J., and Xavier Sala-i-Martin. 2004. Economics Growth, Second edition. Chapters 2 and 3. (A slightly more mathematical treatment of the Ramsey growth model than the Romer text.)
Week 3 (15 October): Endogenous Growth
- Required reading: Romer, Chapters 3 and 4.
- Required reading: Parker, Coursebook, Chapters 5 and 6.
- Optional advanced reading: Barro, Robert J., and Xavier Sala-i-Martin. 2004. Economics Growth, Second edition. Chapters 4 through 7. (This analysis of endogenous growth models follows the seminal literature more closely than Romer’s, and is considerably more detailed and mathematically rigorous.)
- Optional advanced reading: Aghion, Philippe, and Peter Howitt. 1995. Endogenous Growth Theory. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, Chapters 1 through 3. (An introduction to the Schumpeterian models of endogenous growth.)
- Optional reading (seminal work): Romer, Paul M. 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth." Journal of Political Economy 94 (5):1002-37.
- Optional reading (seminal work): Lucas, Robert E., Jr. 1988. "On the Mechanics of Economic Development." Journal of Monetary Economics 22 (1):3-42.
Week 4 (21 October): Money and Inflation in Economic Growth
- Required reading: Romer, Chapter 11, Sections 11.1 and 11.2.
- Required reading: Parker, Coursebook, Chapter 8, emphasizing Sections G and H.
- Optional reading (seminal work): Sidrauski, Miguel. 1967. "Inflation and Economic Growth." Journal of Political Economy 75 (6):796-810.
Section 2: Economic Fluctuations
Week 5 (5 November): Traditional Keynesian Models and the Phillips Curve
- Required reading: Romer, 4th edition, Chapter 6, Part A (Sections 6.1 through 6.4).
- Required reading: Romer, 3rd edition, Chapter 5, Section 5.2.
- Required reading: Parker, Coursebook, Chapter 9 (and review Chapter 2 as necessary).
- Optional reading (seminal work): Hicks, John R. 1937. "Mr. Keynes and the 'Classics'." Econometrica 5 (2):147-159. (The original IS/LM model.)
- Optional reading (seminal work): Phillips, A.W. 1958. "The Relation Between Unemployment and the Rate of Change of Money Wage Rates in the United Kingdom, 1962-1957." Economica 25 (100):283-299. (The original paper on the Phillips curve.)
Week 6 (12 November): Models of Price Stickiness
- Required reading: Romer, 4th edition, Chapter 6, Sections 6.5 through 6.8.
- Required reading: Cooper, Russell, and Andrew John. 1988. "Coordinating Coordination Failures in Keynesian Models." Quarterly Journal of Economics 103 (3):441-63.
- Required reading: Parker, Coursebook, Chapter 10.
- Optional, but recommended, reading: Ball, Laurence, and David Romer. 1990. "Real Rigidities and the Non-neutrality of Money." Review of Economic Studies 57 (2):183-203. (The original version of the model Romer presents in Section 6.7.)
- Optional reading (seminal work): Mankiw, N. Gregory. 1985. "Small Menu Costs and Large Business Cycles: A Macroeconomic Model." Quarterly Journal of Economics 100 (2):529-38. (The original paper on “menu costs.”)
Week 7 (19 November): New Keynesian Models
- Required reading: Romer, Chapter 7.
- Required reading: Parker, Coursebook, Chapters 12 and 13.
Week 8 (26 November): Unemployment
- Required introductory reading: Rocheteau, Guillaume. 2006. “Understanding Unemployment.” Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Economic Commentary (October 15).
- Required reading: Romer, Chapter 10.
- Required reading: Parker, Coursebook, Chapter 14.
- Required reading: Nickell, Stephen, Luca Nunziata, and Wolfgang Ochel. 2005. “Unemployment in the OECD since the 1960s: What Do We Know?” Economic Journal 115 (500):1-27.