Monetary Theory and Policy (Eco 403)

Learning Objectives: Monetary Theory and Policy (Eco 403)

Money, Inflation, and Interest. Students will learn the various monetary indicators (interest rates, inflation, etc.) that are mentioned everyday in the press and used daily by people everywhere. Students will learn to calculate these measures as well as their strengths and weaknesses.
Monetary Policy. Students will learn how monetary policy is implemented, both at the aggregate level (how the money supply is determined) and the institutional level (how the Federal Reserve regulates banks).
Interesting Monetary Episodes. Students will learn to apply the knowledge gained in the class to interesting monetary episodes such as hyperinflation in Brazil in the 1980s.

Quantitative Skills. Students learn quantitative skills by working with the mathematical models that relate monetary policies to their effects on the monetary economy.
Problem Solving Skills. Problem solving is emphasized, by giving students a set of government policies and asking them to predict the effects on the economy or the reverse.

Money, Inflation, and Interest. Outcomes are assessed using one homework and one exam.
Monetary Policy. Outcomes are assessed using one homework and two exams.
Interesting Monetary Episodes. Outcomes are assessed using one exam.

Quantitative Skills. All homeworks and exams are quantitative in nature. Students are given formulas on exams, but must do the calculus themselves.
Problem Solving Skills. Almost all homeworks and exam questions are problems. No multiple choice (or similar) questions are assigned. Most problems are of the type where students must apply what they know to new and unfamiliar problems, enhancing their ability to use knowledge gained in the class in the outside world. This is especially true of the last exam, which covers applications of the topics learned in class.