Fundamentals of Macroeconomics

Are you interested in a serious and solid background in economics? This course offers you a thorough view of everything economists know about markets: their strengths, their failures, and how this view can help you understand the most relevant economic problems. We follow a rigorous approach that combines visual arguments with realistic examplesto help you connect the main economic concepts with your own experiences. The only required knowledge is certain familiarity with graph reading and basic high school mathematics. By the end of this course, you will have explored thekey questions in macroeconomics: Why some societies manage to coordinate and prosper in the long run and others don’t. Are developing countries doomed? What is postponing their prosperity? Why even the most successful economies experience occasional crises that compromise the quality of life? Why are there spikes in the unemployment or inflation that cause pain in our societies? What can we do about it? 3b

• The GDP, its meaning, measurement,and components
• The main indicators of the labor market and the nature of unemployment
• Savings, investment,and the financial system
• The monetary and the banking system
• Central banks, monetary policies,and inflation
• International trade, capital flows,and exchange rates
• Economic fluctuations
• Fiscal and monetary policies

• Secondary school (high school) algebra
• Basic mathematics concepts
• Ability to read basic graphs