The Great Recession

Announcements for ECON 313 The Great Recession:

Remember your Homework #2 is due on Thursday, November 13.

For Tuesday, November 11, please bring your two-page outline/summary/introduction for your final paper.

For Thursday, October 30, please read:

    • Taylor, John B. September 2007. "Housing and Monetary Policy." SIEPR DIscussion Paper No. 07-03.

If you have time and are interested, another good piece to read would be:

    • Taylor, John B. and John C. WIlliams. April 2008. "A Black Swan in the Money Market." NBER Working Paper 13943.

For Tuesday, October 28, please read the book by John Taylor in preparation for our class discussion.

Please remember to bring your Shiller discussion response to class on Tuesday, October 21. This should be no longer than two pages double spaced and contain your additional comments, lingering questions, and general reactions to our discussion.

There is no required reading for Tuesday, October 21 or Thursday, October 23. If you are interested, check out the Monetary Theory heading in the Reading tab for suggested readings.

The notes for Tuesday, October 21, and Thursday, October 23, are here.

Reminder: We will not have class on Tuesday, October 14. We will either have a makeup class or assignment. I will keep you updated.

For Tuesday, October 7, please continue reading the book by Robert Shiller. Following our discussion on Thursday, we will start reading the book by John Taylor. Remember, there are usually additional readings (not required) to check out under the Reading tab.

The notes for Thursday, October 2, are here.

The reading for Thursday, October 2, is:

The notes for Tuesday, September 30, are here. Please note, there are a few blank slides - that was done intentionally.

The reading for Tuesday, September 30 is:

  • Bernanke, Ben. 1994. “The Macroeconomics of the Great Depression: A Comparative Approach.” Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Vol. 27(1): 1-28. Link.

You may also begin reading the book by Robert Shiller. We will likely discuss this book on Thursday, October 9; however, I reserve the right to push the discussion back to the following class period (Note: not before October 9).

I will not be able to upload the notes in time for you to print them before class, so I will bring handouts for you all.

The reading for Thursday, September 25 is:

  • He, J., Qian J., and P. Strahan, 2011. “Credit Ratings and the Evolution of the Mortgage-Backed Securities Market.” American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, Vol. 101:3, 131–135. Link.

I am going to have to cancel my office hours on Wednesday, September 24. I will have an extra office hour on Tuesday, September 23 from 1:30-2:30 p.m. to make up for this.

The notes for Tuesday, September 23, are here. The suggested readings are (note, suggested is not the same as required):

  • Leamer, Edward. 2007. “Housing is the Business Cycle.” Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, 149-233.

  • Smets, Frank. “Commentary: Housing is the Business Cycle.” Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, 235-242. Link.

For Thursday, September 18, there are no required readings. Please remember to do the necessary work to ensure that you can actively participate in our class debate over homeownership. This will be a homework grade. See the Assignments tab for more details.

The notes for Tuesday, September 16, are here.

For Tuesday, September 16, please read:

Note: these readings are less technical.

The notes for Thursday, September 11, are here.

For Thursday, September 11, please read:

  • Duca, J., Muellbauer, J., and A. Murphy. 2011. “House Prices and Credit Constraints: Making Sense of the US Experience.” Economic Journal, Vol. 121 (552): 533-551.

The notes for Tuesday, September 9, are here.

For Tuesday, September 9, please read the following:

The syllabus for the Great Recession is here.