Required in stage
Optional in stage
Second term
Both terms
Not organised
This year
Next year
Alternating years
External
Prerequisites
Identical coursesMacroeconomics (B-KUL-HBE05E)
Maes Marjan (coordinator) | Maes Marjan Aims
Regarding the general learning outcomes to be achieved at the level of the program:
Students
-know and understand the leading concepts in economics, and are able to use them to analyse and solve typical problems from an economic conceptual framework.
-can describe and interpret the behaviour of economic actors and can assess their consequences for an organisation and society at large.
-can communicate clearly in the language of the programme as well as in two foreign languages.
-recognise the international dimensions of business management and policy making, and can analyse (business-)economic issues as part of an international framework.
-develops a professional attitude and professional and academic skills that allow him/her to offer a meaningful contribution to society.
-In his/her acting and thinking, the student pays attention to the environment, the human being and society and he/she develops a critical attitude in this context
Regarding the specific learning results of this course:
The aim is that the student familiarizes himself with a coherent integrated framework of major macroeconomic models that allows them to analyse and to grasp diverse macro-economic phenomena and problems. In doing so, he adopts a critical science-based attitude. The student...
- interprets and analyses, on the macro-economic level, the behaviour of the different economic agents (consumers, firms, governments) on the various domestic and foreign markets (goods market, money and financial market, exchange market and labor market)
- Defines, explains and uses, both graphically and model-based, macro-economic concepts and variables (e.g. GDP, economic growth, inflation, unemployment, devaluation, balance of payments, competitiveness, intrest rate, …)
- Analyses a simultaneous equilibrium model and explains how the economy evolves towards a state of equilibrium, using both a graph as well as explaining the economic intuition in words
- Evaluates the effectiveness of government intervention (fiscal and monetary policy, labor market policy, exchange rate policy)
- Understands macro-economic articles in the daily press and macroeconomic events in the real world and is able to situate them critically in the field of macroeconomics
Previous knowledge
It is required that students previously passed the course Economics II (HBE02U) in 1st stage of BBEng.
Is included in these courses of study
Activities
5 ects. Macroeconomics (B-KUL-HBE05e)
EnglishFormat: Lecture
15 
First termContent
The course starts with a quick review of some basic macro-economic concepts such as GDP, growth, unemployment, labor markets and inflation (Module 1, chapter 1 and 2).
In the second module, the course develops a closed economy short run model for the goods and financial market. Chapter 3 determines demand and equilibrium in the goods market. Chapter 4 reviews equilibrium in financial markets. The mechanisms that lead to a joint equilibrium in goods and financial markets (IS LM Model) are then studied in chapter 5. The final chapter of module 2 adds concepts like the risk premium and the difference between real and nominal interest rates to better understand what happened since the economic crisis of 2008.
In the third module, the focus shifts to the medium run. Starting from equilibrium in labor markets (chapter 7), chapter 8 shows how the trade-off between unemployment and inflation fades out in the medium run. This allows to determine the natural rate of unemployment and potential output. Chapter 9 presents the medium run IS LM PC model.
In module four, the course focuses on the determinants of long term growth. After a look at historical trends (chapter 10), the Solow model is used to determine the large increase in the standard of living since 1950. In chapter 11, the course analyzes the role of capital accumulation in growth. The role of R&D in generating technological progress is the focus of chapter 12. The final chapter of module four looks at the challenges of growth regarding climate change and rising inequality.
The fourth module extends the core chapters to an open economy. Chapter 17 first introduces the exchange rate (bilateral, effective, nominal and real) and the relationship between exchange rates and interest rates in the domestic and foreign economy. The goods market equilibrium in the open economy is discussed in chapter 18. Chapter 19 is an extension of the IS LM model to the open economy (Mundell-Fleming model). The final chapter of the module discusses the role of policy under fixed and floating exchange rate regimes.
A final module covers mainly extensions to fiscal policy (chapter 22) and to monetary policy (23).
Course material
Compulsory coursebook: Oliver Blanchard. Macroeconomics. Global edition. Eighth Edition. Pearson Education Limited 2021.
ISBN 10: 1-292-35147-0
ISBN 13: 978-1-292-35147-6
Lecture notes for each lecture will be available on Toledo.
Interesting articles from high quality newspapers (f.e. The Economist) may be discussed during the lecture to make macroeconomic models more concrete and easier to grasp. They will also be made available on Toledo.
Format: more information
Practical lecture - Webinar
Examples of exam questions (both open questions and multiple choice) will be made available on Toledo in order to allow students to train themselves and to prepare themselves properly for the exam. Practical lectures will be organized to make exercises.
Evaluation
Evaluation: Macroeconomics (B-KUL-H75208)
Explanation
Evaluation characteristics: written exam during the examination period. The exam takes 3 hours. It consists of a mix of multiple choice and open questions. The 10 multiple choice questions provide each 4 possible answers, apply a guess correction and question both knowledge and insight. The open questions, that can be inspired by real macroeconomic situations, allow to assess the ability of the student to expose his economic intuition and reasoning, while illustrating this also graphically.
Determination final result: multiple choice questions count for 10 out of 20 points and the open questions count for 10 out of 20 points.
Information about retaking exams
The features of the evaluation and determination of grades are identical to those of the first examination opportunity, as described in the tab 'Explanation'.