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Econ 208. Marek Kapicka Lecture 1 Introduction. What is this course about?. Analysis of macroeconomic policies Government Spending Taxation and government debt Monetary policy Banking and financial intermediation We will use micro-founded macroeconomic models to study those issues.
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Econ 208 MarekKapicka Lecture 1 Introduction
What is this course about? • Analysis of macroeconomic policies • Government Spending • Taxation and government debt • Monetary policy • Banking and financial intermediation • We will use micro-founded macroeconomic models to study those issues
Administration • Classes: MW 9:30-10:45 • My email: mkapicka@econ.ucsb.edu • Office hours: TTh 10:30-11:30, NH 3052 • Course homepage: http://econ.ucsb.edu/~mkapicka/E208.html
Administration • TA XintongYang (lemon0215@gmail.com) TA sessions: Thursdays 3:00-3:50 & 4:00- 4:50 GIRV 1116 • Textbook Macroeconomics, by Matthias Doepke, Andreas Lehnert, and Andrew Sellgren
Administration • 5 problem sets 4 best ones count 25 % of the final grade • Midterm (May 6, in class) No make-up 25 % of the final grade Closed book, closed notes • Final (June 12, 9-11) 50 % of the final grade Closed book, closed notes
Outline of the course • Introduction: A basic framework • Government Policies • The Effects of Government Spending • Government Taxation and Government Debt • Monetary Policy • Banking and Financial Intermediation
Per Capita Real GDP (in 2000 dollars) for the United States, 1900-2008
Growth rates • If gt is small,
2. Total Taxes (black line) and Total Government Spending (colored line) in the United States, as Percentages of GDP
2. Recent Recession: Fiscal Policy • 2009 Fiscal Stimulus: • $787 billion (~5.5% of GDP) • Tax cuts: $288 billion • Spending on • Healthcare & Education: $238 billion • Infrastructure: $81 billion
4. US History of banking crises • Before 1914: Crises were a frequent phenomenon in the U.S. • National banking era 1863-1913 • They have occurred at about 10 year intervals • 1873,1884,1890,1893,1896,1907,1914
2. How do we study macro? • We cannot run experiments in macroeconomics, so we need to construct models to be used as laboratories
How do we study macro? • A good model: • Simplified, abstract, representation of reality • Omits many details, represents only essential features needed to answer a specific question • helpful to make predictions • should be simple, but they need not be realistic.
Households Choose consumption, saving, labor supply 2.1 Structure of a typical model Firms Choose production, investment, labor demand Markets Prices such that Supply = demand
2.1 Structure of a typical model • Description of goods in the economy • Consumers • preferences over goods • Firms • technology available to produce the goods • The resources available
2.2 Prediction of a Model • Individual behavior • people behave rationally (optimize) • firms maximize profits • Equilibrium behavior • competitive equilibrium
2.3 Microeconomic Foundations • The Approach • Start with consumers and firms making decisions at individual level • Aggregate them up Representative Consumer Assumption • Example: Benefits of this Approach • Monetary Policy
A Basic Intertemporal Model • A simple model where people choose how much to consume and how much to save • A) Consumer Optimization • B) Market Clearing • C) Adding capital stock • D) Welfare Theorems • E) Infinite horizon
A Basic Intertemporal Model • First period = current period • Second period = future period • To simplify, abstract from labor/leisure decision • Our interest: borrowing and saving by consumers
A Basic Intertemporal Model • Preferences of consumers • U(c) is increasing, differentiable and concave • Discount factor β<1 measures how much future utility matters relative to current utility
A Basic Intertemporal Model • Budget Constraints: • y1, y2 are exogenous incomes • b1 are savings from period 1 to period 2 • r is the interest rate
Consumer’s optimization • Consumers maximize utility subject to budget constraints • Lagrangean
Consumer’s optimization • First order conditions • Euler Equation
A) Consumer’s optimization • Log utility: • Solution:
Where are we? • A Basic Intertemporal Model • A) Consumer Optimization • B) Market Equilibrium • C) Adding capital stock • D) Welfare Theorems • E) Infinite horizon
B) Market Equilibrium • Suppose that there is Nidentical agents • Market clearing condition is • Log utility: