Money and Monetary Policy (5 cr)

Code:
ECOM-434
Field:
Macroeconomics
Targets:
Master’s students Research Master's students PhD students
Organiser:
University of Helsinki - Economics
Instructor:
Antti Ripatti
Period:
Period 3
Format:
Lecture
Method:
Contact teaching
Venue:
Economicum building

In case of conflicting information consider the Sisu/Courses/Moodle pages the primary source of information.

The goal of the course is to provide an introduction to monetary macroeconomics and the role of money and monetary policy in the economy. After describing what monetary macroeconomics is about, students will learn how the money supply is determined in the economy and how it changes. The course emphasizes price stickiness as the key factor underlying the short-run effectiveness of monetary policy. Different models are used to show how an economy can fall into a liquidity trap (zero lower bound) and what the potential measures are through which policy makers can try to lift an economy from the liquidity trap. The core of the course is optimal monetary policy. Different models also show how the time inconsistency of the optimal pre-commitment policy emerges when policy makers are dynamically optimising their policy choices and how the inflation and stabilisation bias bedevil optimal discretionary monetary policy. The aim of the course is to learn to use analytical tools to understand basic features of money and monetary policy from the point of view of the short-run macroeconomic equilibrium of an economy.

  • Schedule: can be found in Course Page and Sisu
  • Study materials: can be found in Moodle
    • For some courses, it is enough to register in Sisu and you can access directly the Moodle area, please note, however, that it may take up to two hours after registration to enter the Moodle area.
    • Log in with your UH username to be able to use all the features of the course workspace
    • More tips for enrolling in Moodle can be found here

Please register for the course in the UH Sisu with your UH username. Further instructions can be found here.

Aalto University Students
  • Code: no equivalent code

  • Target groups: MSc / rMSc / PhD

  • Credit points: 5

  • Credit transfer: apply for inclusion in Sisu

Further information on credit transfer can be found here.

Hanken Students
  • Code: 2697

  • Target groups: MSc / rMSc / PhD

  • Credit points: 5 cr

  • Credit transfer: apply for substitution in Sisu

Further instructions on credit transfer can be found here.

University of Helsinki Students
  • Code: ECOM-434
  • Target groups: MSc / rMSc / PhD students: please contact your supervisor/program director to be sure that the course credit can be counted towards your degree
  • Credit points: 5
  • AGERE students: Before taking and completing this course make sure that the credits can be counted towards your degree by checking which courses are/can be included in your curriculum. You can also contact your planning officer Simo Riikonen (firstname.lastname@helsinki.fi).
FDPE Students Students
  • Please contact your supervisor/program director to be sure that the course credit can be counted towards your degree

  • Credit transfer: please apply for credit transfer according to your home university’s procedures

Further instructions can be found here.

After the course, the student should:

  • Understand the role of the central bank in a fiat money system
  • Be able to show how the supply of money is determined
  • Be able to analyse the macroeconomic equilibrium of an economy using a standard New-Keynesian model
  • Understand the problems related to zero lower bound of nominal interest rate and potential ways to take the economy out of them
  • Be able to analyse optimal monetary policy using Kydland-Prescott, Barro-Gordon or New Keynesian monetary macromodels
  • Understand the basic concepts of optimal monetary policy: discretion (re-optimisation), pre-commitment, time consistency, inflation bias, stabilisation bias