- 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, Hanken and UH economics students can enroll through their home university’s SISU. Further instructions are available on the How to enroll? page, also for students from other universities.
If you would like to count the credits towards your degree, please check your curriculum or contact your supervisor or student services for guidance.
- To access the Moodle course area, use all the features and participate in the activities (assignments, discussions), you must have successfully registered for the course in Sisu and logged in with your UH user ID.
- For more information on how to activate your UH user ID and register for a Moodle course area, click here.
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.