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- Code:
- ECOM-G312
- Field:
- Macroeconomics
- Target:
- Master’s students
- Organiser:
- University of Helsinki - Economics
- Instructor:
- Niku Määttänen
- Period:
- Period 1
- Format:
- Lecture
- Method:
- Contact teaching
- Venue:
- Economicum
- Enrollment:
In case of conflicting information consider the Sisu/Course/Moodle pages the primary source of information.
Aalto and Hanken economics students can enroll in their home university’s SISU! Further instructions can be found on the How to enroll page, also for other students.
Before taking and completing the course make sure that the credits can be counted towards your degree at your home university by checking which courses are included in your curriculum or by contacting your home university’s student/learning services.
Content
This course provides analytical tools and a modern macroeconomic framework to understand economy-wide phenomena such as aggregate saving, employment, investment, inflation, fiscal policy, monetary policy and growth. It uses mainly two-period models to study the intertemporal choices of households and firms, the interactions of their decisions, and the design of fiscal and monetary policies. The course is also intended to act as a bridge between typical intermediate macroeconomics and more advanced courses that rely heavily on dynamic infinite-horizon models.
Learning outcomes
After the course, the student should
- understand how the consumption smoothing motive, interest rates and borrowing constraints shape households’ consumption and savings behaviour.
- be able to analyse how different taxes and transfers affect households’ labour supply and savings incentives.
- understand the firms’ factor demand behaviour and how market forces determine wages and interest rates in a simple general equilibrium framework.
- be able to describe when and how fiscal policy affects aggregate demand.
- understand the foundations of the Phillips curve and how the monetary policy is conducted in the inflation targeting monetary policy regime.
- be able to analyse fiscal sustainability using the intertemporal budget constraint of the government.