Advanced Macroeconomics

In this course, students learn about some of the most important questions in economics: What are the determinants of economic growth? What can policy makers do to encourage economic growth? How effective is fiscal policy? What determines aggregate labor supply? All these questions are crucially important for students who want to understand how the economy functions on a deeper level.

During the course we will develop a solid theoretical foundation rooted in modern economic theory and supplement theoretical models with state-of-the-art empirical research on key research topics in economics.

Language of instruction is English.

It is highly recommended that students have taken at least one mathematics course for business and economics (for example ØAMET1000 Matematikk 1 at OsloMet) and are familiar with constrained optimization using Lagrangean methods.

None

After completing the course, the student should have the following overall learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student has in-depth knowledge of

• economic trends that matter for the economy today and in the future
• models that can be used to analyze economic growth and models that can be used to understand how household behavior affects macroeconomic outcomes
• the current research frontier on selected topics within macroeconomics and labor economics
• how policy makers can affect the macroeconomy in the short and in the long run

Skills

The student is capable of

• using the modern macroeconomic theoretical framework to analyze questions of high importance to macroeconomic development
• analyzing how economic policy can influence economic variables such as capital accumulation and aggregate labor supply
• assessing current economic policy
• understanding how to evaluate model predictions empirically, and how to evaluate empirical facts in light of economic theory

General competence

The student can

• discuss macroeconomic issues with other economists, policy makers and the general public
• critically evaluate popular hypothesis about topics in macroeconomics, based on both theory and empirical research

Plenary lectures with in-person attendance on campus. There will also be a set of voluntary exercises which will be reviewed by the course lecturer.

No coursework requirements or compulsory activities.

The exam in the course is a supervised exam of 4 hours.

The following aids are permitted:

• One dictionary (either first language-English/English-first language or English/English)
• Digital calculator (in the exam system)

Grade scale A-F

The exam papers are assessed by one internal and one external examiner.

At least 25% of the exam papers will be assessed by two examiners. The grades awarded for the papers assessed by two examiners form the basis for determining the level for all the exam papers.