ECONOMICS
2210-904 – INTERNET COURSE
PRINCIPLES
OF ECONOMICS I (MACRO)
FALL 2008 INFORMATION SHEET -- DR. HIPPLE
Preliminary 8/04/08
INSTRUCTOR:
Dr. F. Steb Hipple, Professor
of Economics
Office – Room 304, Sam Wilson
Hall.
Phone/Voicemail -- 423.439.5304
Fax -- 423.439.8583
Email -- hipples@etsu.edu
Website -- http://faculty.etsu.edu/hipples
Office Hours – After class meetings and by appointment.
TEXTBOOK:
Robin Bade & Michael Parkin, Foundations of Macroeconomics, 3ed
Pearson Addison Wesley, 2007, with “MyEconLab
in CourseCompass”
(“a la carte” loose leaf edition)
WARNING!
Don’t buy the wrong edition, or the wrong version of the textbook.
This course will use THIRD edition. (The fourth edition will be
available in late June.)
Purchase the text version that is “MyEconLab
in CourseCompass”.
Do not buy the text version that is just MyEconLab.
ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING:
MEETING
CANCELED (not needed!)
WARNING! NOT FOR THE
FAINTHEARTED! An internet course is based on student self study. The successful
student will enjoy the lack of class meetings and the unstructured nature of
the course. But, the successful student must have (1) a strong academic
background, (2) the ability to do self study, and (3) the self discipline to
work on the course material on a regular basis.
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND
OBJECTIVES: This is an introductory survey course in economics, and is part of
the Core Curriculum of the University's General Education Program, and the
Business Core Requirements of the
LEARNING OUTCOMES: At the end of this course, you
should be able to: (1) understand the basic principles of economics, including
the difference between normative and positive economics, the problem of
scarcity, the significance of opportunity costs, and the use of marginal
analysis. (2) understand basic supply-demand analysis, and follow its
application to product, factor, and financial markets. (3) monitor the
functioning of the macro-economy using business indicators such as gross
domestic product, employment and unemployment, and the inflation rate. (4)
comprehend the nature of the real economy including the concepts of full
employment, savings and investment, and the conditions necessary for economic
growth and higher standards of living. (5) describe the structure and
functioning of the financial system, including how banks create money, the
operations of the Federal Reserve System, and how the FRS conducts monetary
policy. (6) use a basic aggregate supply-aggregate demand model to explain
economic fluctuations (the business cycle) and describe appropriate government
responses to cyclical fluctuations. (7) describe the linkages of the domestic
economy to the global economy through international trade, international investment,
and exchange rates.
COURSE ORGANIZATION (Bade & Parkin,
3ed):
PART 1 INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1. Getting Started
Appendix. Making and Using Graphs
Handout. The Economic Problem and Economic Systems
Chapter 2. The
Chapter 3. The Economic Problem
Handout. Variables and Relationships
Chapter 4. Demand and Supply
PART 2 MONITORING THE
MACROECONOMY
Chapter 5. GDP and the Standard of Living
EXAM I (tba)
Chapter 6. Jobs and Unemployment
Chapter 7. The CPI and the Cost of Living
Internet. Publications of the
PART 3 THE REAL ECONOMY
Chapter 8. Potential GDP and the Natural Unemployment
Rate
Handout. The Financial Markets
Chapter 9. Investment and Saving
Chapter 10. Economic Growth
PART 4 THE MONEY ECONOMY
Chapter 11. Money and the Monetary System
Chapter 12. Money Creation and Control
Chapter 13. Money, Interest, and Inflation
EXAM II (tba)
PART 5 ECONOMIC FLUCTUATIONS
Chapter 14. AS-AD and the Business Cycle
Handout. Monetary vs Fiscal
Policy
Chapter 16. Fiscal and Monetary Policy Effects
Chapter 17. The Short-Run Policy Tradeoff
Chapter 18. Fiscal and Monetary Policy Debates
PART 6 THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
Chapter 19. International Trade
Chapter 20. International Finance
EXAM III (tba)
CLASS MEETINGS: As an
internet course, there will be no scheduled class meetings for lecture. We will
need to meet to get organized. We will also need to meet to take the three hour
examinations. If you cannot attend these meetings, then other arrangements will
have to be made (such as a proctored exam). Contact me on these matters.
VIDEOS: I have prepared 22
video “modules” to guide your study of the Bade & Parkin
chapters. These modules are available as a streaming video link in our D2L
class homepage. Refer to the video modules information sheet.
HANDOUTS: The handouts for
the course will be available at the class website http://faculty.etsu.edu/hipples.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION (FYI):
During the course, we will look at various statistical releases from the
MyEconLab: This course requires you to
use the MyEconLab (MEL) from Pearson Education.
Pearson is the parent firm of Addison Wesley, the textbook publisher. Our
version of MEL is included in CourseCompass which is
a Blackboard based system. We will have a class website at
www.coursecompass.com.
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS: The homework assignments are a
very critical element in this course. There will be a Homework Assignment in MEL for each Bade & Parkin
chapter that we cover. You can work on the homework assignment until your score
is 100%, and the exercises selected for your homework will be your guide to
mastery of the chapter material. Most exam questions will be based on the
homework assignments. You should complete each homework assignment before the
exam, and not be satisfied with any score less than 100%. As an incentive, for
each set of completed homework assignments with a score of 100%, five bonus
points will be added to the exam score. In addition, your semester average on
homework assignments will count as the equivalent of one exam towards your
semester grade, so you should do all
of the homework assignments. (The MEL also includes Study Plan which is practice exercises linked to “checkpoints”
within each chapter, and two Sample Tests
for each chapter. You may use these for self study, but they do not contribute
to your semester grade.)
EXAMINATIONS: Three hour exams will be given during the
semester, and you are expected to take all three exams. The exam format will be
multiple choice questions based on lecture, handouts, assigned chapters, MEL
homework, and class discussions. The dates and places for the exams will be
announced.
GRADING: Your semester grade will be based on your
three exam scores and your homework average. The grade scale is: "A"
= 90 to 100; "B" = 80 to 89; “C” =70 to 79; and etc. If the class
average is below 80, then the letter ranges will be adjusted accordingly. For example,
if the class average is 75, then the letter ranges are: “A” = 85 and above; “B”
= 75 to 84, “C” = 65 to 74; and etc. Plus and minus grades will be assigned at
the end of the semester and show strong or weak performance within the letter
range.
WEBSITE: The class website is at
http://faculty.etsu.edu/hipples. The
website will include the syllabus, handouts, exam answers and grade
distributions, and announcements. Note this
is not our CourseCompass class website.
HELP: Contact me by e-mail. If needed, we can also set
up appointments. I will also have regular office hours during the second summer
session. Have a good semester!