Study program / study programs: Information systems

Type and level of studies: Undergraduate applied studies

Subject: MACROECONOMICS

Status: compulsory

ECTS points: 8

Course objective

The aim of studying this subjects is introducing the students to the most important macroeconomic aggregates and models, and economic policies based upon them, as well as the methods for measuring the most important macroeconomic aggregates and their relationships in the use and distribution of social product, and the concepts of economic equilibrium. Special focus is placed on the analysis of macroeconomic schools and their fundamental disagreements, which have been present for an entire century. Emphasis is also placed on the components of economic policy and the coordination between said components. The course covers the basic theoretical models (IS-LM, the Phillips curve, AS-AD and others) and the macroeconomic policy concepts based upon them – monetary and fiscal, especially in the global open macroeconomic landscape.

Course outcome

The students will learn about the functions of money, the types of monetary aggregates, monetary mass, the role of the Central Bank, money multiplier, open market operations, inflation, monetary equilibrium. They will learn how to calculate shoe-leather costs, menu costs, the basics of commercial balance, the elements gross domestic product, the forms of direct foreign investments, portfolio investments, appreciation and depreciation of currency, purchasing power parity. You will learn whether monetary policy should be implemented through regulations or through discretion, whether the Government should ensure that the budget is balanced, whether tax law should be reformed in order to stimulate savings and how the creators of monetary and fiscal policies can stabilize the economy.

Course content

  Theoretical classes:

  • Contemporary macroeconomic theories that have developed after the period of classical economics (Keynesianism, monetarism, new classical macroeconomics, the new Keynesians)
  • Keynesian method of determining the equilibrium level of income, Kaynesian spending and saving functions
  • The basic macroeconomic aggregates and how they are derming, presenting the Injection – Leakage; IS – LM model, AS – AD model and Phillips curve as the main macroeconomic models
  • Savings, investments and the financial system
  • The role of money in macroeconomics – the ways of forming money demand and supply, the concept of multiplication and the roles and responsibilities of a country’s central bank
  • The role of fiscal policy – taxes as the state’s main source of income, public spending and budget, budget deficit financing methods and the role of inflation tax
  • The major theories and types of inflation and anti-inflation strategies
  • The concept of the balance of payments and the ways to determine deficit and surplus
  • The role of IMF in global economy