MACROECONOMICS 2

Academic year
2018/2019 Syllabus of previous years
Official course title
MACROECONOMICS 2
Course code
EM2Q04 (AF:278914 AR:160858)
Modality
On campus classes
ECTS credits
7
Degree level
Master's Degree Programme (DM270)
Educational sector code
SECS-P/02
Period
2nd Semester
Course year
1
Where
VENEZIA
Moodle
Go to Moodle page
This course belongs to the fundamentals teaching activities of the Master programme in "Economics and Finance" curriculum "Economics - QEM". In line with the educational objectives of the programme, this course focuses on the analysis of macroeconomic models and their empirical validation and thus presents the main conceptual tools necessary for the analysis of microeconomic phenomena. The purpose of the course is to introduce a set of concepts, tools, and techniques used in modern dynamic macroeconomics. Students will learn intertemporal consumption choice models and gain insights about the role of uncertainty, with complete or incomplete markets, and of precautionary saving. They will learn labour market's dynamics with search and matching externalities. Students will become familiar with some important macroeconomic issues, such as aggregation of individual functions and the role of demographics, and will develop competencies to analyze empirical results from the literature and macroeconomics stylized facts. A particular attention will be devoted to the use of formal language and methodological rigor.
Regular and active participation in teaching activities offered by the course and individual study will enable students to:

- analyze intertemporal dynamic optimization choices;
- gauge the role of uncertainty, complete/incomplete markets, assumptions on individual preferences in determining consumption and saving choices;
- examine steady state equilibrium and dynamics in labour markets in presence of labour market frictions;
- detecting empirical issues in the analysis of aggregate data;
- analyse empirical results from the literature and macroeconomics stylized facts.

Probability and Statistics, Static and Dynamic Optimization, Macroeconomics I, Microeconomics I.
Part A.
• Dynamic Programming under Uncertainty
• Search, Matching, and Unemployment
• Exchange economies with complete markets
• Overlapping Generations Models
• Ricardian Equivalence
• Recursive Competitive Equilibrium

Part B.
• Empirical facts on consumption and wealth
• Intertemporal choice under uncertainty: Complete markets
• Intertemporal choice and uncertainty: Certainty equivalence
• Intertemporal choice and uncertainty: Precautionary saving
• Job matching and Unemployment dynamics: Steady state and dynamics
Main references:

PART A
- Ljungqvist and Sargent, “Recursive Macroeconomic Theory”, MIT Press. The course covers material from chapters: Ch. 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12 (third edition)

PART B
- Tullio Jappelli and Luigi Pistaferri, “The Economics of Consumption – Theory and Evidence", Oxford University Press, 2017;
- Fabio-Cesare Bagliano and Giuseppe Bertola, “Models for Dynamic Macroeconomics”, Oxford University Press, 2004.


A webpage for the course will be active on the e-learning platform at moodle.unive.it. The page will contain references for additional readings from scientific journals, exercises, details on the weakly program and lectures and other materials.
Grading students on a final written exam.

In each academic year, there are 4 exam sessions. The first session takes place during the first semester. It is articulated in a midterm partial written examination on the contents of Part A, administered at the end of the first teaching period, and a final partial written examination on the contents of Part B, administered at the end of the second teaching period. The final written evaluation is obtained as the average of the two partial examinations. The remaining sessions (from June until January) present a single comprehensive examination on the full contents of the course. Questions and exercises are chosen to test whether students have acquired the knowledge about the foundations of the macroeconomic analysis and ability to apply to concepts to the analysis of macroeconomic phenomena.
The course follows a conventional teaching approach, based on lectures, exercise sessions, and discussions.
English
Accessibility, Disability and Inclusion
Accommodation and support services for students with disabilities and students with specific learning impairments

Ca' Foscari abides by Italian Law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) regarding support services and accommodation available to students with disabilities. This includes students with mobility, visual, hearing and other disabilities (Law 17/1999), and specific learning impairments (Law 170/2010). If you have a disability or impairment that requires accommodations (i.e., alternate testing, readers, note takers or interpreters) please contact the Disability and Accessibility Offices in Student Services: disabilita@unive.it.
written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development

Definitive programme.
Last update of the programme: 31/10/2018