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Macroeconomics
Understand the economy at the scale that shapes policy, business, and everyday life. GDP, inflation, unemployment, and the forces connecting them.
What You'll Learn
A full semester of macroeconomics — completed at your own pace, with no deadlines or fixed class times.
What You'll Be Able to Do
- Acquire and articulate a comprehensive understanding of macroeconomic principles and theories, emphasizing their relevance in contemporary economic scenarios
- Apply key economic concepts such as opportunity cost, supply and demand, and equilibrium to practical and global economic situations, including international trade and specialization
- Analyze and evaluate economic shocks and their consequences, utilizing economic data and indicators to assess and predict economic trends
- Understand and critically assess the role of government policies and macroeconomic policies in shaping economic outcomes and their societal impacts
- Develop and demonstrate strong problem-solving and critical-thinking skills in economic analysis, communicating complex economic concepts effectively
- Prepare for advanced studies or careers in economics and related fields, applying economic reasoning to both global economic issues and personal financial decision-making; and engage in informed discussions on macroeconomic issues, recognizing and addressing global economic challenges with a well-rounded macroeconomic perspective.
Major Course Topics
Course chapters and lessons
Macroeconomics has 8 chapters across 65 instructional hours, as listed in the course syllabus. Expand any chapter to see the lessons inside it.
- Chapters
- 8
- Lessons
- 82
- Instructional hours
- 65 hrs
- Semester hours
- 3
Chapter 1
Introduction to Economics and Macroeconomic Perspectives
- 1.1 Measuring the Size of the Economy: Gross Domestic Product
- 1.2 Adjusting Nominal Values to Real Values
- 1.3 Tracking Real GDP over Time
- 1.4 Comparing GDP among Countries
- 1.5 How Well GDP Measures the Well-Being of Society
Chapter 2
Economic Growth and Unemployment
- 2.1 The Relatively Recent Arrival of Economic Growth
- 2.2 Labor Productivity and Economic Growth
- 2.3 Components of Economic Growth
- 2.4 Economic Convergence
- 2.5 Introduction to Unemployment
- 2.6 How Economists Define and Compute the Unemployment Rate
- 2.7 Patterns of Unemployment
- 2.8 What Causes Changes in Unemployment over the Short Run
- 2.9 What Causes Changes in Unemployment over the Long Run
Chapter 3
Inflation and International Trade and Capital Flows
- 3.1 Tracking Inflation
- 3.2 How to Measure Changes in the Cost of Living
- 3.3 How the U.S. and Other Countries Experience Inflation
- 3.4 The Confusion Over Inflation
- 3.5 Indexing and Its Limitations
- 3.6 Introduction to the International Trade and Capital Flows
- 3.7 Measuring Trade Balances
- 3.8 Trade Balances in Historical and International Context
- 3.9 Trade Balances and Flows of Financial Capital
- 3.10 The National Saving and Investment Identity
- 3.11 The Pros and Cons of Trade Deficits and Surpluses
- 3.12 The Difference between Level of Trade and the Trade Balance
Chapter 4
The Aggregate Demand/Aggregate Supply Model and Macroeconomic Perspectives
- 4.1 Macroeconomic Perspectives on Demand and Supply
- 4.2 Building a Model of Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply
- 4.3 Shifts in Aggregate Supply
- 4.4 Shifts in Aggregate Demand
- 4.5 How the AD/AS Model Incorporates Growth, Unemployment, and Inflation
- 4.6 Keynes’ Law and Say’s Law in the AD/AS Model
- 4.7 Introduction to the Keynesian Perspective
- 4.8 Aggregate Demand in Keynesian Analysis
- 4.9 The Building Blocks of Keynesian Analysis
- 4.10 The Phillips Curve
- 4.11 Introduction to the Neoclassical Perspective
- 4.12 The Building Blocks of Neoclassical Analysis
- 4.13 The Policy Implications of the Neoclassical Perspective
- 4.14 Balancing Keynesian and Neoclassical Models
Chapter 5
Money, Banking, and Monetary Policy
- 5.1 Defining Money by Its Functions
- 5.2 Measuring Money: Currency, M1, and M2
- 5.3 The Role of Banks
- 5.4 How Banks Create Money
- 5.5 Introduction to Monetary Policy and Bank Regulation
- 5.6 The Federal Reserve Banking System and Central Banks
- 5.7 Bank Regulation
- 5.8 How a Central Bank Executes Monetary Policy
- 5.9 Monetary Policy and Economic Outcomes
- 5.10 Pitfalls for Monetary Policy
Chapter 6
Exchange Rates, International Capital Flows, and Government Budgets
- 6.1 How the Foreign Exchange Market Works
- 6.2 Demand and Supply Shifts in Foreign Exchange Markets
- 6.3 Macroeconomic Effects of Exchange Rates
- 6.4 Exchange Rate Policies
- 6.5 Introduction to Government Budgets and Fiscal Policy
- 6.6 Government Spending
- 6.7 Taxation
- 6.8 Federal Deficits and the National Debt
- 6.9 Using Fiscal Policy to Fight Recession, Unemployment, and Inflation
- 6.10 Automatic Stabilizers
- 6.11 Practical Problems with Discretionary Fiscal Policy
- 6.12 The Question of a Balanced Budget
Chapter 7
Government Borrowing, Macroeconomic Policy, and Globalization
- 7.1 How Government Borrowing Affects Investment and the Trade Balance
- 7.2 Fiscal Policy and the Trade Balance
- 7.3 How Government Borrowing Affects Private Saving
- 7.4 Fiscal Policy, Investment, and Economic Growth
- 7.5 Introduction to Macroeconomic Policy around the World
- 7.6 The Diversity of Countries and Economies across the World
- 7.7 Improving Countries’ Standards of Living
- 7.8 Causes of Unemployment around the World
- 7.9 Causes of Inflation in Various Countries and Regions
- 7.10 Balance of Trade Concerns
- 7.11 Introduction to International Trade
- 7.12 Absolute and Comparative Advantage
- 7.13 What Happens When a Country Has an Absolute Advantage in All Goods
- 7.14 Intra-Industry Trade between Similar Economies
- 7.15 The Benefits of Reducing Barriers to International Trade
Chapter 8
Globalization, Protectionism, and Advanced Economic Models
- 8.1 Protectionism: An Indirect Subsidy from Consumers to Producers
- 8.2 International Trade and Its Effects on Jobs, Wages, and Working Conditions
- 8.3 Arguments in Support of Restricting Imports
- 8.4 How Governments Enact Trade Policy: Globally, Regionally, and Nationally
- 8.5 The Tradeoffs of Trade Policy
These chapters come straight from the official course syllabus, which also sets out the graded assignment and the proctored final exam.
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Structured College-Level Course
Structured lessons covering every topic — designed as a standard Macroeconomics college-level course.
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