M521e Reading List (with Links)
v2009.09.21

Class

Topic

Required Textbook or Case Reading*

Required Other Reading*

Optional Reading*

Assignment Due

28-Aug

Measurement

ABC 1,2

The Myth of Asia's Miracle (Foreign Affairs, Paul Krugman, 1994)

RIP GDP (NYT 2009.08.09); Hey Big Number, Make Room for the Rest of Us (NYT 2008.9.30); Energy Dept. Said to Err on Coal Project (NYT 2009.3.11); The Acceleration in US TFP After 1995 (Chicago Fed 2004); Series of articles on biases in the CPI (JEP 2003); All of Inflation’s Little Parts (NYT 2008.5.3)

 

Productivity

ABC 3.1, 3.2

 

11-Sep

Labor Supply, Saving

ABC 3.3, 4.1, Appendix 4A

 

The Tax Cut Con (NYT 2003.09.14); Do Tax Cuts Starve the Beast? (Romer and Romer 2008)

PS 1

Investment=Saving

ABC 4.2, 4.3, 9.2

 

25-Sep

Money

ABC 7, 9.3

 

Cash-Strapped California's IOUs: Just the Latest Sub for Dollars (WSJ 20090725); How Bad is Inflation in Zimbabwe? (NYT 2006.0503); As Inflation Soars, Zimbabwe Economy Plunges (NYT 2007.02.07); Why Minimum Wage Hikes May Not Reduce Employment (Atlanta Fed 1998)

PS 2

Unemployment

ABC 3.5, 12 (skim)

 

9-Oct

ISLM

ABC 9; review of lectures 5,7

Mixed Economic Data Show A Changing Business Cycle (WSJ 2008.09.08) For more, see a running summary of this debate here

Diagnosing depression (Economist 2008.12.30); The Economy is Bad, but 1982 Was Worse (NYT 2009.1.22); A thoroughly modern recession (Economist 2008.12.04); How the Government Dealt with Past Recessions (NYT 2009.1.26); FDR's Example Offers Obama Cautionary Lesson (NYT 2009.1.26)

PS 3

Business Cycles

ABC 8

23-Oct

Keynesians

ABC 10

How Did Economists Get it So Wrong? (NYT 2009.9.7)

Flacking for Rubinomics (WSJ 2002.12.27), Response to above by Gale and Orszag (WSJ 2003.01.09), Where Have all the Keynesians Gone (BW 2003.02.03), Gale and Orszag’s original Brookings paper (2002.12.17)

PS 4

Classicals

ABC 11

 

6-Nov

Keynesians/Classical Redux
 

ABC 13.1, 13.2

 

When a Flow Becomes a Flood (Economist 2009.1.22); The battle of Smoot-Hawley (Economist 2008.12.18); Global Trade Posts Sharp Decline (WSJ 2009.1.14); Buy American Rider Sparks Trade Debate (WP 2009.1.29)

PS 5

The Current Account

 

20-Nov

Exchange Rates, Open Economy Macro

ABC 13.3, 13.4

 

TBD

PS 6

 

4-Dec

Double Session
8-2
Topic: TBD

 

 

TBD

PS 7

 

 

4-Dec

Take-Home Final

 

 

 

 

(Due Date TBD)