Economic Analysis for Public Policy

Macroeconomics is a branch of Economics that studies the performance, structure, and behavior of a national or supra-national (e.g. EU) economy as a whole. Macroeconomic developments are a central theme of policy debate around the globe. This course provides a sound understanding of macroeconomics for students wishing to become proficient civil servants, policy experts, or analysts in the field of public policy. It will equip the students with an analytical toolset enabling them to understand and study macroeconomic processes, relationships between aggregate economic variables, as well as the organization of the financial sector and national accounts. Throughout the course, specific public policy issues will be studied with the objective to motivate and demonstrate the pertinence of macroeconomic analysis for sound public policy making. This approach will provide the students with a broad understanding of macroeconomic principles as well as enable them to profoundly analyze specific macroeconomic policy issues, such as fiscal and monetary policy, stabilization policy, unemployment, inflation, or economic growth. Considerable effort will be made to make the material accessible to students with diverse backgrounds and without prior knowledge of economics.