MA Advanced Macroeconomics, 2012

This is the website for MA Advanced Macroeconomics (ECON 41620) taught by Prof. Karl Whelan (University College Dublin). The focus in this course will be on how modern macroeconomists attempt to use theory to model and understand time series fluctuations in the major macroeconomic variables. Later lectures focus on modelling the interactions between the financial sector and the macroeconomy.

Here is a syllabus and reading list for the module.

This handout describes the format for the final exam and provides some sample questions. Here is last year’s final exam.

Final Exam: This will take place on Saturday May 12 at 3PM at the RDS Simmonscourt and will last for two hours.

 

Lecture Notes

1. Introduction: Time Series and Macroeconomics

2. Vector Autoregressions

3. VARs with Long-Run Restrictions

4. Solving Models with Rational Expectations

5. The Real Business Cycle Model

6. The Phillips Curve

7. The Modern New-Keynesian Model   (Technical Notes)

8. Risky Lending and Banks

9. Systematic Risk and Macroprudential Regulation

10. Credit Rationing

 

Readings and Useful Links

John Cochrane (2005). Time Series for Macroeconomics and Finance (Chapters 2, 3, 5 and 7).

Christopher Sims (1980). Macroeconomics and Reality. (JSTOR).

Charles Bean (2009). The Great Moderation, the Great Panic and the Great Contraction.

Marta Bańbura, Domenico Giannone, and Lucrezia Reichlin (2008). Large Bayesian VARs.

Kilian, Lutz (2009). Not All Oil Price Shocks Are Alike: Disentangling Demand and Supply Shocks in the Crude Oil Market. (Working paper)

James Stock and Mark Watson (2001). Vector Autoregressions.

Olivier Blanchard and Roberto Perotti (2002). An Empirical Characterization of the Dynamic Effects of Changes in Government Spending and Taxes on Output (JSTOR).

Olivier Blanchard and Danny Quah (1989). The Dynamic Effects of Aggregate Demand and Supply Disturbances (JSTOR).

 

Jordi Gali (1999). Technology, Employment and the Business Cycle: Do Technology Shocks Explain Aggregate Fluctuations? (JSTOR).

 

Karl Whelan (2009). Technology Shocks and Hours Worked: Checking for Robust Conclusions.

 

Robert Lucas (1976). Econometric Policy Evaluation: A Critique.

 

Harald Uhlig (1995). A Toolkit for Analyzing Nonlinear Dynamic Stochastic Models Easily.

 

Timothy Cogley and James Nason (1995). Output Dynamics in Real-Business-Cycle Models.

 

Milton Friedman: The Role of Monetary Policy (Not available outside UCD. Go through UCD Connect and the Library Page.)

 

Richard Clarida, Jordi Gali, and Mark Gertler (1999). The Science of Monetary Policy: A New Keynesian Perspective.

 

Jordi Gali and Mark Gertler (1999). Inflation Dynamics: A Structural Econometric Analysis

 

Jeremy Rudd and Karl Whelan (2005). Modelling Inflation Dynamics: A Critical Review of Recent Research

 

Documentation for the Basle 2 Internal Ratings Based model.

 

Patrick Honohan (2008): Bank Failures: The Limits of Risk Modelling

 

Philipp Hildebrand (2008): Is Basel II Enough? The Benefits of a Leverage Ratio

 

New York Times: Risk Mismanagement

 

Karl Whelan (2009): Containing Systemic Risk (Paper submitted to European Parliament.)

 

Ben Bernanke: Implications of the Financial Crisis for Economics

 

Joshua Coval and Erik Stafford (2007). Asset Fire Sales (and Purchases) in Equity Markets.

 

Tobias Adrian and Hyun Song Shin (2008). Liquidity and Leverage.

 

Andrew Crockett (2000): Marrying the Micro- and Macro-Prudential Dimensions of Financial Stability

 

Douglas Diamond and Raghuram Rajan (2010): The Credit Crisis: Conjectures about Causes and Remedies

 

Samuel Hanson, Anil Kashyap and Jeremy Stein: A Macroprudential Approach to Financial Regulation

 

Basle 3 Agreement

 

Bank of England (2009). RAMSI Model Working Paper.

 

Joseph Stiglitz and Andrew Weiss (1981). Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information.

 

Olivier Blanchard, Giovanni Dell’Ariccia, and Paolo Mauro (2010): Rethinking Macroeconomic Policy

 

Ricardo Cabellero: Macroeconomics after the Crisis (2010): Time to Deal with the Pretense-of-Knowledge Syndrome