Economics 2 - Principles of Macroeconomics; Santa Monica College, Spring (1st 8-weeks) 2009 Sections #1757 meets ONLINE: 8/31/09 – 10/23/09 (8 weeks) Professor: Bruce Brown; [email protected]; messages: 909.869.5074 http://homepage.smc.edu/brown_bruce/
Two websites will be used: - SMC eCollege platform at: http://smconline.org/ - Aplia website at: https://econ.aplia.com/af/servlet/login COURSE KEY: 8E3G-RJDJ-8YSN
This class is conducted exclusively via the Internet - including assignments, quizzes, and tests. Note: all deadlines are completely inflexible. No deadlines will be individually adjusted. In the event of a technical problem with one of the two websites above, deadlines may be adjusted in a uniform way for all students. There will be no adjustment for difficulties which any individual student may have with their computer or internet connection. Use your SMC email account when sending an email to me (e.g., the required paper). Emails send from foreign countries or “hotmail’ accounts may be deleted by SMC’s spam filter – and not received. Be sure you and your computer are ready for an online class. If you have any difficulty with the browser test at: http://smconline.org/index.real?action=Tech make the necessary adjustments or do not enroll in this class.
Required Material: 1) Text: Macroeconomics - Principles & Applications by Robert Hall and Marc Lieberman 4th ed., WITH APLIA ACCESS, ISBN 0324544812. Students will EITHER purchase i) a NEW text shrink-wrapped with the Aplia access code, OR ii) online access to eText only through Aplia (cost = $80).
2) Aplia economics instructional software. This serves two connected functions: i) a means to obtain an electronic version of the text, accessible online, and ii) for completion of required assignment assignments.
Course Description: We first cover fundamental concepts in Chapters 1-3 including scarcity, opportunity costs, efficiency, production possibilities curve, supply, demand and equilibrium. These topics are also covered in microeconomics, and so will be a review for those who have already completed microprinciples. Chapters 4 - 6 introduce aggregation, macro vs. micro economic distinction, national output (“GDP”), economic fluctuations, (expansions, and contractions = recessions and/or depressions), unemployment, and inflation. Chapters 7 and 8 provide a long run classical view of growth in aggregate output and spending, investment, saving, lending, interest rates, productivity, and potential output. Chapters 9 and 10 present a short run “Keynesian” aggregate planned expenditure model. The text uses this approach to explain national output, unemployment, income, consumption, investment; and historical episodes of business cycles such as the Great Depression. Chapters 11-13 focus on money, banking, the Federal Reserve; and aggregate demand and supply. Chapter 14-15 consider monetary and fiscal policy. Chapter 16 presents the interrelation between policy and exchange rates. We will not cover Chapter 17 (regarding international trade). We will follow the text very closely. Online quizzes primarily cover material from the text. Aplia assignments are also tied to the text. The online final will cover text material and all material from the two websites.
Course Goals for Students: i) Gain a basic understanding of economic ways of thinking and approaching questions. ii) Be able to use simple theory to analyze real world issues. For example, understand and be able to use the production possibility frontier; supply and demand, circular flow model, aggregate supply and demand, and the Keynesian aggregate expenditure model. iii) Understand the role of “simple” and necessarily untrue models in describing the real world. iv) Understand and be able to use the terminology of economics. For example: scarcity; opportunity cost; efficiency; production; supply; demand; equilibrium; government spending; regulation; short run; long run; interest rate, unemployment rate, inflation, Consumer Price Index (CPI), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), expansionary and contractionary policy, monetary and fiscal policy, aggregate expenditures, consumption function, investment, savings, policy rules versus policy discretion, trade deficit and trade surplus, budget deficit and budget surplus, debt, autonomous, exogenous, endogenous, potential output and natural rate of unemployment. v) Appreciate the relative strengths and weaknesses of the economic approach in analyzing real world phenomena (e.g., production; consumption; trade; income and wealth differences; business behavior; and government policy), in comparison to approaches found in other social sciences. vi) Contrast the different economic explanations for economic downturns such as the Great Depression of the 1930s. Distinguish between the Classical, long run approach (chapters 7 and 8), and the Keynesian, short run approach (Ch. 9 and 10). Understand how this provides a reason for disagreement between economists about how the economy works and the desirability of particular government policies. vii) Identify the tools of Monetary Policy and Fiscal Policy, and how and when they should be used. Calculate the effect of changes in monetary policy tools (required reserve ratio, discount loan policy, open market operations) on the money supply using the demand deposit multiplier (i.e., simple money multiplier), assuming constant currency holdings, and banks hold no excess reserves. viii) Understand how assumptions can be useful to clarify complicated real world phenomena, but how different assumptions may lead to different implications. Relate one’s beliefs regarding appropriateness of particular assumptions to their beliefs regarding government policy and individual behavior (e.g., how those who think consumers are well- informed and rational and markets are competitive, are more likely to believe selfish behavior of one person in a particular situation will help rather than hurt others).
E-mail Please provide a correct e-mail address and inform the SMC admissions office immediately of any changes in your e-mail address. Do not send changes in your e-mail address to me as I cannot make the necessary changes to your account. Please do not use email to ask content questions, but rather use the threaded discussion boards. My goal is to rely as much as possible on the websites (e.g., discussion boards) for both content and communication. You may wish to email another student in class (for example if you notice in the introduction that you are both transferring to the same university, and/or will have the same area of study). If the student asks that you not email, respect their wishes. It is best if you do not emails to the entire class. I will send emails to the entire class, but intend to do this only as needed. Technical questions should be sent to: Tech Support E-mail: [email protected], and the technical support phone number is 1-303-873-0005. Be aware that class emails may fail to reach you if you use “Spam” filtering software. Class emails may be perceived as junk email because they are addressed to a group.
Dropping/Withdrawing: If you plan to drop the class you must do so officially through the admissions office. Otherwise, your name will appear in the roster at the end of the term and I will have to assign you an F in the class. Note, to receive an I grade, you must file a physically verifiable reason with Admissions and Records, otherwise I would be prevented from entering an I grade even if I wanted. Realize deadlines for the 8-week session are reached very quickly.
Updating Student Profile Information It is essential that your current, correct email address be registered with both, the www.smconline.org system and the www.smc.edu system. If you wish to make any modifications/updates on your student contact information please follow the directions below. Be sure you update your email address at both sites as indicated below: First ….. Log on to www.smc.edu Click on Current Students button to the left. Click on Student Self-Service System Enter your SMC Student I.D. number (6-digit number assigned by SMC) and Click on Enrollment Records (dark blue box on upper left of screen) Enter current semester and click on Submit Click on View/Update Student Information and make appropriate changes Second ….. Log on to www.smconline.org Click on Login Enter your SMC Student I. D. number (6-digit number assigned by SMC) and password (6-digit date of birth) and click on Login Click Go To Class Click on User Profile (top right of screen) Change required information Click Update New Values Grades will be determined by the following: Points Percent 1) Online Final Exam taken between Tu 10/20 and Th 10/22 150 30% 2) Online quizzes (highest 5 of 6 quizzes) 150 30% 3) Aplia Assignments (Aplia points will be adjusted) 150 30% 4) Discussion Board Participation 20 4% 5) Short Student Essay/Paper 30 6%
The final exam must be taken between 8 AM Tuesday 10/20/09 and 11 PM Thursday 10/22/09. The final exam will be cumulative with questions from all 16 chapters we cover as well as material from text-extenders and discussion board. In may be taken only ONE time, and has as three hour time limit. Quizzes will have 30 questions each and can be retaken. Questions will be randomly selected from a question pool, so students will typically have different questions to answer. Assignments will be taken on the Aplia website, and the points adjusted so that 150 points is the maximum. There will be no individual adjustments or individual extra credit possibilities. All grades will be objectively and transparently determined by points alone. Course Grade will be determined as follows: A: 425-500 points 85 % - 100 % of total possible B: 350-424 points 70 % - 84.9 % “ “ C: 300-349 points 60 % - 69.9 % “ “ D: 250-299 points 50 % - 59.9 % “ “ F: 249 or fewer points below 50 % No assignments are accepted late. If an assignment is not completed by the due date and time, a score of 0 is entered. There will be no “make-up quizzes or assignments.” The lowest of the six quizzes will be dropped. Thus, a student may miss only one quiz without penalty. If a student misses more than one quiz for a verifiable reason which I determine to be acceptable, this zero score may be replaced by their score on the cumulative final exam.
Online Quizzes: Each of the six quizzes will consist of 30 objective questions (e.g., multiple choice). They may be retaken. Questions will be randomly selected from a question pool, so students will have different questions. The SMC Online = eCollege system retains only the score on a student’s last attempt. If the student earns a lower score on a later try, this replaces the earlier score. Quizzes will necessarily be “open book,” however students must read the relevant material before taking the quizzes (it is more difficult to “find” material in the text while taking the quiz than to learn the material before starting the quiz). The deadline for submitting completed quizzes is 11 PM Sunday evening pacific standard time (PST).
Aplia Assignments: Aplia assignments will be completed on the Aplia website: https://econ.aplia.com/af/servlet/login. These assignments come in pairs of practice assignments and graded assignments. Practice assignments give you immediate feedback and an explanation of the correct answer. Practice sets do not count toward your Aplia score. Use them to check your understanding of the material. If you feel confident, you can go directly to the graded set and refer to the practice set only if you want some help. You may change your answers up until the due date so do the assignments early, and do them often (check your answers if you have time and change them before the due date). These assignments will count for 30% of the course grade and must be taken very seriously. Timely completion of these assignments will both enhance student understanding of the material and serve to monitor student effort and understanding. At the end of the course all the Aplia points will be re-waited so as to be out of a total of 150 points (e.g., if there are 328 total assignment points at the end of the course, the Aplia point total would be multiplied by 150/328 to transform the 328 possible points to 150). Have a calculator and pad of paper available when completing these assignments; some questions require calculations. Each assignment has equal weight. At the end of the class I will drop each student’s three lowest Aplia assignments, and the lower of the “pre-test” and “post-test” assignment. Although some Aplia answers are “randomized” so different students have different numerical answers, working in a group with others will likely benefit a student’s score. Discussion Board and Essay: There will be two discussion boards on the eCollege course site. Students are required to post an introduction by 11 PM Sunday 9/13/09 (the end of our second week), and one post to the General Discussion Board before the end of 6th week (10/11). For a post to count it must be substantive (NOT “I agree with Jim’s last post,” “ditto,” or “isn’t Professor Brown a great guy doing a great job?”). The two posts will be worth 20 points. Good posts will refer to economic concepts from the text, perhaps referring to them by page number, and/or ANSWERING the substantive questions of other students. Students must also write one short essay which will be submitted within the body of a post to the DB Essay “discussion board.” This essay is worth a maximum of 30 points and is due Tuesday 10/20, 11 PM.
Econ 2 - Online, Spring, Aug31 Start, first 8-week session, Fall 09, Section #1757 This class covers and entire semester of material in 8 weeks and therefore goes very fast. If you have fallen behind by the end of week 1, you should drop the class. Aplia problem sets are due Saturdays by 11:45 PM, and Quizzes Sundays 10 PM (except week 6)
Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Ch 1 - Introduction to Economics Ch 4 - Introduction to Macroeconomics Ch 7 - Classical Long Run Ch 2 - Scarcity and PPF Ch 5 - Production, Income, Employment Ch 8 - Growth and Living Standards Ch 3 - Supply and Demand Ch 6 - Money, Prices, Inflation
Assignments Pts Time Due Assignments Pts Time Due Assignments Pts Time Due Quiz 1 (Ch 1-3) 30 9/13/09, 11 PM Quiz 2 (Ch 4-6) 30 9/20 11PM Quiz 3 (Ch 7-9) 30 9/27 11PM Post Introduction 10 9/13/09, 11 PM Aplia problem sets Aplia problem sets Aplia problem sets Intro (10) 9/12, 11:45 PM Posttest (35) 9/19, 11:45 PM Ch 7 - II (17) 9/26 11:45 PM Pretest (35) 9/12, 11:45 PM Ch 4 - II (10) 9/19, 11:45 PM Ch 8 - II (22) 9/26 11:45 PM Ch 2 - II (15) 9/12, 11:45 PM Ch 5 - II (26) 9/19, 11:45 PM Productivity (4) 9/26 11:45 PM Tradeoff Article (5) 9/12, 11:45 PM Measure GDP (5) 9/19, 11:45 PM Ch 3 - II (24) 9/12, 11:45 PM Ch 6 - II (20) 9/19, 11:45 PM Bird Flu (5) 9/12, 11:45 PM Katrina & Gas P 9/19, 11:45 PM
Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Ch 9 - Business Cycles Ch 11 - Banking System and Money Ch 14 - Monetary Policy and Inflation Ch 10 - Short-Run Macro Model Ch 12 - Money Market and Interest Ch 15 - Fiscal Policy, Federal Budget Ch 13 - Aggregate Demand and Supply Ch 16 - Exchange Rates
Assignments Pts Time Due Assignments Pts Time Due Assignments Pts Time Due Quiz 4 (Ch 9-10) 30 10/4, 11PM Quiz 5 (Ch 11-13) 30 10/11 11PM Quiz 6 (Ch 14-16) 30 10/18 11PM Aplia problem sets Post General DB 10 10/11 11PM Aplia problem sets Ch 9 - II (7) 10/3 11:45 PM Aplia problem sets Ch 14 - II (20) 10/17 11:45PM Ch 10 - II (26) 10/3 11:45 PM Ch 11 - II (21) 10/10 11:45 PM Fed Trans (5) 10/17 11:45PM Ch 12 - II (19) 10/10 11:45 PM Fed & Interest (7) 10/17 11:45PM Week 8 - Review Chapters 1-16 Ch 13 - II (19) 10/10 11:45 PM Ch 15 - II (13) 10/17 11:45PM Essay due 30 Tu 10/20 11PM Tax Cuts (7) 10/17 11:45PM ON-LINE Final Exam Ch 16 - II (23) 10/17 11:45PM Ch 1-16, 75 ques. 150 Tu 10/20 - Th 10/22