Current Topics in Macro & Monetary Policy

Course Type: Graduate/Professional 

Course Description: This elective explores topics of current interest or debate in macroeconomics and central banking. The topics are distributed across the fields of monetary economics, international economics, macro-finance, and economic history. To develop a broad view, the course takes both comparative and historical approaches by studying multiple countries at different points in time, with the emphasis on the lessons for emerging markets

Mathematical Prerequisites: Basic Algebra, Basic Calculus

Note: The contents for each session may change depending on how the course progresses

Grades: Quiz 1 (30%), Quiz 2 (30%), Quiz 3 (40%)

Readings: 

• Sargent, T. J. (1982). The Ends of Four Big Inflations. In R. Hall (Ed.), Inflation: Causes and Effects, University of Chicago Press, 41-98

• Romer, C. D., & Pells, R. H. (2003). Great Depression. Encyclopædia Britannica, 225

• Ellison, M., Lee, S. S., & O’Rourke, K. H. (2024). The Ends of 27 Big Depressions. American Economic Review, 114(1), 134-168

• Mitchener, K. J., O’Rourke, K. H., & Wandschneider, K. (2022). The Smoot-Hawley Trade War. The Economic Journal, 132(647), 2500-2533

• Amiti, M., Redding, S. J., & Weinstein, D. E. (2019). The Impact of the 2018 Tariffs on Prices and Welfare. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 33(4), 187-210

• Fajgelbaum, P. D., & Khandelwal, A. K. (2022). The Economic Impacts of the US–China Trade War. Annual Review of Economics, 14(1), 205-228

• Other readings that appear on the lecture slides

Lecture Slides: 

• Hyperinflation

• The Gold Standard and the Great Depression

• Trade Wars

Schedule: 

Session 1 – A course introduction; an overview of hyperinflation; the interwar hyperinflations in Austria and Hungary

Session 2 – The interwar hyperinflations in Poland and Germany

Session 3 – A review; Quiz 1

Session 4 – An overview of the interwar gold standard and the Great Depression

Session 5 – Data collection and validation; model specification, estimation, and evaluation

Session 6 – Correlational and causal analysis on the impact of departures from the gold standard on economic recovery

Session 7 – A review; Quiz 2

Session 8 – An overview of the ongoing trade war; the Smoot-Hawley trade war

Session 9 – The China-US trade war of 2018

Session 10 – A review; Quiz 3