MACROECONOMICS 2

This course belongs to the fundamentals teaching activities of the Master programme in "Economics and Finance" curriculum "Economics - QEM". The course focuses on tools that are used in many macroeconomic problems as well as, in fact, in numerous other areas of economics. In terms of applications, the course will focus on the determinants of individual and aggregate consumption and savings in dynamic economies, but also study the behavior of investment and asset prices along the way. The aim of the course is to acquaint students with the set of concepts and techniques used in modern dynamic macroeconomics.

Regular and active participation in teaching activities offered by the course and individual study enable students to:

- analyze intertemporal dynamic optimization choices;
- analyze the role of uncertainty, complete/incomplete markets, assumptions on individual preferences in determining consumption and saving choices, and asset values;
- compare the different ways used by macro-financial economists to give value to money and understand their consequences;
- analyze financial crises and the design macroeconomic policies.

Part A:
Probability and Statistics, Optimization, Macroeconomics I, Microeconomics I

Part B builds on Part A. Furthermore, you are expected to be comfortable with basic undergraduate course in theory of finance and econometrics.

The first part of the course will cover dynamic programming theory and applications in both deterministic and stochastic environments and will develop tools for solving such models on a computer using Matlab.
The second part of the course will focus on various extensions and further applications, including consumption-savings problems, job search, asset pricing, public finance and models with heterogeneous households and firms.

There is no required text for the course. But if you would like to use a text to supplement the class notes, the best fit for this course is:

⋄ Ljungqvist and Sargent (2018): Recursive Macroeconomic Theory. 4th Edition. MIT Press.

A closely related set of material is available on the Quantitative Economics website by Sargent and Stachurski.

The following books are also useful, especially for the first half of the course:

. Bagliano and Bertola (2007): Models for Dynamic Macroeconomics. Oxford Press
⋄ Miranda and Fackler (2002): Applied Computational Economics and Finance. MIT Press.
⋄ Stokey and Lucas with Prescott (1989): Recursive Methods in Economic Dynamics. Harvard University Press.

Finally, the course will also draw on various journal articles and working papers. I will post copies of these articles and all other course material to MOODLE.

In each academic year, there are 4 exam sessions. The first session takes place right after the end of the course. It is articulated in a midterm written exam on the contents of Part A, a final written exam on the contents of Part B, and in a group assignment. The final evaluation is obtained as a weighted average of these three parts. The remaining sessions (from June until January) consist of 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 macro-financial analysis and the ability to apply to concepts to the analysis of macro-financial phenomena.

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The course follows a rather conventional teaching approach, based on lectures, tutorial sessions, and discussions.

Problem sets are an important part of this course. Students are encouraged to work on them in groups but must turn in your own individual work.

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.