(UM) ECON 1020: Introduction to Macroeconomic Principles

ECON 1020: Introduction to Macroeconomic Principles explores the principles that govern economies operating on a large scale. By exploring concepts like national output, employment, inflation, and the policies used to manage them, the course equips students with a solid understanding of how economies grow and stabilize. The curriculum covers introductory topics, long-run factors like growth and investment, short-run fluctuations in demand and supply, the tools of fiscal and monetary policy used to address them and concludes with the international dimension of exchange rates.

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• describe the broad questions addressed in macroeconomics, define key economic aggregates, and explain how they are inter-related and measured in national accounts;
• examine the sources of long run economic growth. discuss why standards of living across countries vary so widely;
• describe what causes unemployment and how it is measured. explain the costs of inflation. discuss the relationship between unemployment and inflation in the short run;
• analyze why in the short run booms and busts can happen in the economy as a whole. describe the causes of business cycles and how policies can respond to cyclical fluctuations;
• discuss the role of fiscal policy and monetary policy for economic stabilization. describe the issues associated with macroeconomic policy. interpret the debate over government debt and budget deficits;
• and, examine the role of the exchange rate on a country’s current account.

ACC 1100  

ACC 2010  

ACC 2020