Monetary Economics

                                            Syllabus – Spring 2013
 

Instructor:  Dr. Juan Yang            Office:   C411            Phone:    0755-26032257           eEmail: yangjuan@szpku.edu.cn

Office Hour
       Tuesday and Friday 10:00 to 12:00 am.   Open door policy.  If unavailable, please schedule an appointment by email or phone.
 
Objectives 
            The objective of this course is to guide students in the development of critical
thinking skills in economics as applied to the topics of monetary theory.  Basically it
is a monetary theory and policy course.  The course will focus on the modeling of monetary
policy, the evaluation of its performance, and the measurement of its effects.
This course will provide coverage of the most important topics in monetary economics and of some of the models that have been employed to understand the interactions between real and monetary factors. This course is meant to give students ideas for dissertation research.
 
Process
The primary purpose of the classroom presentation and discussion will be to explain the basic concepts.  Many of the detailed "facts" will be learned through working the homework problems and projects.  You will need to become familiar with new terminology and principles as well as the logic and process of addressing monetary problems. Assigned problems and projects will help develop your thought processes when addressing financial and monetary problems in the "real world.
 
Prerequisites
The prerequisites for this course are General Economics and Intermediate Macroeconomics.  Students not having met these prerequisites are advised not to enroll in this course.  Students are also assumed to understand a number of modeling tools that have been covered in the macroeconomics before attending this class.
 
Grading
 
Grades will be assigned on the basis of student performance and weighted as follows:
 

Homework	40 percent
Discussion	20 percent
Final Exam	40 percent
Total	100 percent

 

Textbook
 
Basic Textbook:  Monetary Theory and Policy by Carl E. Walsh, 2^nd edition.
In addition, I find these two books are very useful for you to better understand monetary economics and class lectures.
Towards a New Paradigm in Monetary Economics, Stiglitz and Greenwald, Cambridge
Monetary Policy, Inflation, and the Business Cycle, Jordi Gali, Princeton University Press
 
 
Course Outline
1.  Empirical Evidence of Money, Prices and Output
2.          Money-in-the-Utility Function
3.  Money and Transactions           
4.  Money and Public Finance
5.   Money, Output and Inflation in the Short-Run
6.   Money and the Open Economy
7.   The Credit Channel of Monetary Policy
8.   Discretionary Policy and Time Inconsistency
 
Student Responsibilities
Attend ALL Classes (except for strictly serious reasons, of course). You are now in a graduate school, and your work ethics should be the same as what it would be in a high responsibility job.
 
Prepare for Class Reading happens before coming to class, not after.  Class serves to structure, discuss and summarize the material.  It is a complement, not a substitute to reading the material. 
 
Critical Thinking: open mind, train your critical, independent and creative thinking on the real world issues.
 
Stay on Top of the News especially as they relate to Monetary Economics.  This is something you can expect to be tested on, possibly on the home-works, the midterm and final.
 
Keep Time: Be punctual; you must stick to the class schedule and deadlines.