Teaching

Duke

In Fall 2020 I am teaching undergraduate classes

Ec 352: How to use data to design better macro policies ( formally Ec 390: Data Driven Macro Policy) (sample syllabus)

Recent increases in computational power and the availability of "big data" have been transformational in empirical macroeconomics and macro policy. This upper level course shows how "big data" and macro theory can be used to understand and solve some of the most important social and economic problems of our time. The course gives students an introduction to frontier research in economics and social science. Topics include equality of opportunity, trends in inequality and market power, student debt, immigration and trade, housing, fiscal and monetary policy, and climate change. Each week will start with an introduction to the current empirical research on the topic, typically using front-line empirical techniques and big-data, followed by a discussion of how to best interpret this evidence using the relevant macro theory. A key question will be what is the proper role of the government and society in potentially addressing this issue. In the context of these topics, the course will also provide an introduction to basic statistical methods and data analysis techniques, including regression analysis, causal inference, quasi-experimental methods, and machine learning if time permits.

Ec 451 (formally Ec 490): Housing and the Economy. (sample syllabus)

Housing contributes over 16% to U.S. GDP and is the largest asset on the household sector’s balance sheet, while the mortgage market constitutes the second largest U.S. credit market, just behind Treasuries and well ahead of corporate debt. In this course we study the economic forces driving housing and mortgage markets, and their interactions with the wider macro economy, including how they affect wealth inequality and economic policy. Topics include developing a framework to help understand the forces determining the value of housing at both the local and macro level, understanding the economics of mortgage markets and what leads to mortgage default, how we might design a better mortgage for households from a Macro-prudential perspective, introduce secondary mortgage markets discuss the advantages and disadvantages of securitization, how do household and bank balance sheets affect the macroeconomy and wealth inequality, and finally we will consider the channels of feedback from the housing markets to the rest of the economy, focusing on household and bank balance sheets and wealth inequality, and discuss recent government interventions to deal with the housing crisis, as well as how housing markets interact with Monetary policy.

Northwestern

2013-2019

Econ 201: Intro to Macroeconomics

Econ 416: Topics in Macroeconomics (Grad)

Yale

Fall 2008

Econ 510a Graduate Macroeconomics I

Instructors: Eduardo Engel, Bjoern Bruegemann

(Received Raymond Powell Teaching Prize, Yale University, 2008-2009)