Current students - see Canvas!
Welcome to Economics 762! The syllabus from the last time I taught the course is on the "previous syllabus" page. I'll add the syllabus for fall 2021 over the summer, but feel free to contact me with any questions (jminier at uky dot edu).
Economics 762 is one of the macro field classes in our Ph.D. program. We focus mainly on long-run macroeconomics (economic growth). In terms of topics, we start by reviewing exogenous growth models (Solow), and then expand that discussion into several endogenous growth models and empirical investigations of growth. As we go through the semester, we also discuss development, institutions, political economy, fiscal policy, poverty traps, unified growth models, and more. While we approach most topics from a macroeconomic perspective, that doesn't mean that the unit of analysis is always country-level - a lot of interesting work is done at the subnational level, including the county or city level.
The main assignment is a "project" that you'll work on. Ideally, it will relate to your dissertation research. We'll discuss it more during the semester, but one of the main goals of this class is for you to make progress on your own research, present it, and get feedback on it. It's great if this ends up as a paper - but the assignment itself isn't necessarily a paper, since I'd rather have you make progress on the content of the research than worry about polishing a paper.
There will be a midterm exam but no final. Most of the midterm will be based on an article - you'll have several days to read it, and then will answer questions based on it. (A fairly small part of the exam may also be a more typical "problem" not directly related to the article.)
There is not a required textbook, although there may be a required "trade" book - I'll update this as soon as I decide!