Spring 2020 De-Xing Guan

MACROECONOMICS (I)

This course is concerned with the application of macroeconomics and recursive methods to the study of various problems such as asset pricing, risk transfer, growth and development, and income distribution. The Smith-Coase framework in economics is also useful and will be used repeatedly in the study of these problems.

Requirements

Four homework assignments: 20% Midterm/Final exam: 40% for each

Office Hours

Tuesdays, 2:00-3:00 p.m. (Social Sciences Building 302); otherwise, by appointment Web: http://web.ntpu.edu.tw/~guan

Course Outline

Introduction to Recursive Methods (or Dynamic Programming)

Nancy L. Stokey, Robert E. Lucas, Jr., and Edward C. Prescott, Recursive Methods in Economic Dynamics , Press, 1989, Ch. 3. Lars Ljungqvist and Thomas J. Sargent, Recursive Macroeconomic Theory , 4th edition, MIT Press, 2018, Ch. 3.

Risk Transfer and the Efficient Market Hypothesis

Daniel Bernoulli, “Exposition of a New Theory on the Measurement of Risk,” Econometrica , 1954, pp. 23-36. Robert E. Lucas, Jr., “Asset Prices in an Exchange Economy,” Econometrica , 1978, pp. 1429-1445. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game , Random House, 2018 ( 中譯: 不對稱陷阱, 大塊文化, 2018), Ch. 3 and 19.

1 Introduction to the Smith-Coase Framework in Economics

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations , 5th edition, 1789; Modern Library, 1994, Bk. I. Ronald H. Coase, The Firm, the Market, and the Law , Press, 1988, Ch. 1, 2, and 4. Ronald H. Coase, “Durability and Monopoly,” Journal of Law and Economics , 1972, pp. 143-149.

Midterm Exam

Economic Growth and Development

Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations , Modern Library, 1994, Bk. III, Ch. III. Paul M. Romer, “Endogenous Technological Change,” Journal of Political Economy , 1990, pp. S71-S102. W. Arthur Lewis, “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour,” The Manchester School , 1954, pp. 139-191. Robert E. Lucas, Jr., “What Was the Industrial Revolution?” Journal of , 2018, pp. 182-203. Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, The Narrow Corridor , Penguin Press, 2019 (中譯: 自由的窄廊, 衛城, 2020), Ch. 1-6.

Income Distribution and Inequality

David Autor, Claudia Goldin, and Lawrence F. Katz, “Extending the Race between Education and Technology,” AEA Papers and Proceedings , 2020, pp. 347-351. Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century , Harvard University Press, 2014 (中譯: 二十一世紀資本論, 衛城, 2014), Ch. 1, 5, and 10.

Natural Resources and the Climate Change

Charles Jones and Dietrich Vollrath, Introduction to Economic Growth , 3rd edition, Norton, 2013, Ch. 10. William D. Nordhaus, “Climate Change: The Ultimate Challenge for Economics,” , 2019, pp. 1991-2014.

Final Exam

2