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Department of Humanities, Sciences, Social Sciences and Health Sciences (310) 825-0641 Quarter: Fall

Introduction to Macroeconomics
Economics XL 2 249857, 253182 4 Units Instructor: Mark Dwyer, Ph.D. Dates: 30 September, 2014 through 16 December, 2014 (Fall Session) Days/Time: Each week will begin on Tuesday, though students may work ahead if they wish.

Prerequisites
Working knowledge of basic algebra

Course Description
Welcome

Welcome to Principles of Economics XL2 - Macroeconomics. I look forward to working with you and I hope and expect that you will find this online class rewarding and thought provoking. After reading this syllabus, please go to the Introductions Forum of the Discussion Board and reply to the first post there with a brief introduction of what you hope to gain from the course and your prior exposure to economics. While we will make extensive use of the text Principles of Economics for this course, also we will visit and discuss online sources that apply or expand upon the microeconomic methods discussed in the text. If you have technical questions, please feel free to contact Technical Support. You can also contact me through the email feature in the class. I hope you have a great learning experience!
Overview

This is an introductory course in the principles of macroeconomics. I am looking forward to introducing you to some of the models economists use to understand and predict how national economies react to the decisions made by consumers, producers, and policy makers. This course focuses on large economic systems, such as the U.S. economy. Macroeconomics studies such national economies and the determination of national income. Graded materials consist of interactive weekly modules, weekly homework, a midterm, and a final examination. updated 14-09-27 19:25 Syllabus XL2

What's New

This quarter, UCLA Extension is making the transition from Blackboard to Canvas. There are bound to be some glitches in this transition. Your feedback will be helpful in keeping things running as smoothly as possible. In addition, the publisher has just released LaunchPad. LaunchPad contains: 1. The text in ebook format, 2. Mandatory Learning Curve modules for each chapter, 3. Mandatory Graded Homework for each chapter.
Course Objectives / Learning Outcomes

The goal at the end of the quarter is for the student to be able to recognize and apply some of the models/constructs/tools economists use to to think about macroeconomic issues such as economic growth, unemployment, monetary policy, business cycle fluctuations, and international trade. • The student should be able to recognize the constructs we have covered in current applications of economics and economic policy. • The student also should have a facility in applying the tools presented in this course to derive simple numerical answers to hypothetical economic conditions. • The student should have an appreciation that the constructs used by economists always rest on assumptions, which often abstract from economic reality. Specifically students will have an opportunity to discuss the assumptions that underly the constructs economists apply to questions of individual behavior and market outcomes.
Instructor Bio

For the past 13 years Dr. Dwyer has been consulting and testifying in antitrust litigation regarding class certification, economic liability, and economic damages. Prior to that, he was a faculty member in the UCLA economics department. Additionally, he has taught at Rice University, Australian National University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Rochester. His Ph.D. in economics is from the University of Rochester, as is his master's in economics. He earned a master's in finance at the Wharton School and a bachelor's in physics at the University of Pennsylvania. While a native of Philadelphia, he has lived in the Los Angeles area for more than 18 years. Instructor: Mark Dwyer, Ph.D. Email: mdwy62@zoho.com Office Hours: I will respond as quickly as possible, usually between 12:00 and 22:00. My aim is to respond within 24 hours to Question and Discussion posts and to emails. Generally if a student has a question, others likely may have the same question and the Discussion area is the best place to ask it. Not only may others have the same question, but one of your peers may also know the answer, and be able to post it faster than I am able to. updated 14-09-27 19:25

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Since Discussion questions potentially have a wider audience, I try to address them before turning to emails.
Course Expectations

1. Students in this course are expected to complete the required reading in the textbook. 2. Students are expected to complete all assigned Learning Curve modules. These are due as indicated in the table Course Outline & Deadlines below. 3. Each chapter that we cover has a graded homework assignment due as indicated in the table Course Outline & Deadlines below. 4. Students are encouraged to be engaged actively in constructive dialogue on a weekly basis via the course's Discussion Board in the Chapter Topics forum (see below). 5. Students are expected to complete the midterm examination no later than Tuesday November 18, 2014 at 11:00 pm. 6. Students are expected to complete the final examination no later than Tuesday, December 16, 2014 at 11:00 pm. 7. It is estimated students will spend approximately 7 hours each week completing Learning Curve modules and graded homeworks, participating in discussions, completing readings, and studying for examinations.
Online Learning

All instruction and class interaction will be conducted online. All materials (aside from the textbook) such as Learning Curve modules, weekly homework assignments, the midterm exam, and the final exam will be available through the course website or links to external websites. A subscription to The Economist (www.economist.com) is recommended to facilitate access to some material referenced in the course. Assignments and examinations will be open book. The weekly forum Questions & Discussion is for classwide discussions, focused on the chapters covered in a given week. Students are encouraged to make meaningful contributions to this forum. A key element of online learning is that it is collaborative. Please ask and answer questions in the forums. This will widen class participation, enrich our collective appreciation for, and understanding of macroeconomics.
Posting Responses

Regularly checking and contributing to the discussion forum for the current week will make the course more engaging, improve your understanding, develop a supportive learning community, and improve your grade. Discussion forums should be active all week. Your discussion postings may incorporate constructive responses to your peers, your opinions regarding the assumptions or applications of the methods being discussed, pertinent information from things that you’ve read, and relevant examples from your experience. Your responses should include more than phrases such as "I agree with that" or "Interesting comment." Your posts should be substantive and feature good writing, correct spelling and proper mechanics. Communication should be professional and respectful of one another. Discussion updated 14-09-27 19:25

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forums aim to help you test your ideas, get answers to questions you have on the material, reinforce what you have learned, and share relevant resources that you have found with others in the class. The Blackboard icon “ABC√” checks spelling. Please use it. Please note that any threatening, belittling, or obscene language towards your classmates and the instructor is unacceptable, and there will be a zero tolerance on this. Disagreement is fine and can be productive, but please remember to always be respectful and courteous.
Required & Recommended Sources

1) The only required text for the course is Modern Principles of Economics, by Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok (Worth) 2nd edition. The ISBN for the Loose Leaf version of this text is: ISBN-10: 1-4641-8707-X or ISBN-13: 978-1-4641-8707-0 This contains access to Launchpad, which we will be using. This text is available as well as traditional bound text. Alternatively the ebook is contained within Launch Pad so students could purchase Launch Pad by itself. Students may use whichever form best suits them, but Launchpad Access will be required. 2) Launch Pad Access – follow the simple steps below to get started. • Go to http://www.macmillanhighered.com/launchpad/cowentabarrokecon2/915565 Bookmark this page to make it easy to return to. • If you have an access code, click the button "Enter Your Student Access Code" in the upper right corner and follow the instructions. Using the text above you should have an access code. If you don''t have an access code, either click the "Purchase Access" or "Temporary Access" button. • If you have any questions or problems logging in, please contact MacMillan Technical Support. Technical support will need a technical support incident ID if you continue to have trouble, so be sure to save that ID when you report your issue. You can reach a representative: ◦ by phone at (877) 587-6534 ◦ through online form ◦ Tech Support Hours (all times EST) ◦ Monday - Thursday 9:00 AM - 3:00 AM ◦ Friday 9:00 AM - 11:00 PM ◦ Saturday 11:30 AM - 8:00 PM ◦ Sunday 11:30 AM - 11:30 PM ◦ System Requirements: http://www.macmillanhighered.com/sysreq 3) Subscription to The Economist is encouraged. US students can subscribe to the digital updated 14-09-27 19:25

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edition of The Economist for reduced rates. The digital edition provides access to the article archives as well as free access to audio editions that can be played through Android or iOS phones or tablets and any mp3 music player, or a computer. A subscription is helpful as lecture notes will make reference to material from this publication. 4) Another source that will be referred to is the EconTalk podcast. This weekly podcast – active since 2006 – is strongly recommended for its interviews with notable economists, authors, and entrepreneurs, and for its skeptical inquiry into issues in modern economics and policy. 5) Other worthwhile sources to follow are Planet Money www.npr.org/blogs/money and www.freakonomics.com. Planet Money does a consistently good job of applying economic concepts to modern events in the real world. 6) Another source for material from our course is the Khan Academy: Macroeconomics. Many of the presentations here are quite clear and overlap significantly with the material for this course. 7) Economics Online offers summaries and examples of many topics covered in this course.
Coursework Components

are weighted as follows: Learning Curve Weekly Homework Midterm examination Final examination 22% 23% 22% 33%

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Course Outline & Deadlines

The following table provides the dates that the Learning Curve and Graded Homework for each chapter are due. This table also indicates the deadlines for the midterm and final examinations. Week 1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 DUE Date 07 Oct. 01. The Bid Ideas in Economics 07 Oct. 02. The Power of Trade and Comparative Advantage 07 Oct. 03. Supply and Demand 14 Oct. 04. Equilibrium: How Supply and Demand Determine Prices 14 Oct. 08. Price Ceilings and Price Floors 21 Oct. 24. GDP and The Measurement of Progress 21 Oct. 25. The Wealth of Nations and Economic Growth 28 Oct. 26. Growth, Capital Accumulation and the Economics of Ideas 28 Oct. 27. Savings, Investment, and the Financial System 04 Nov. 22. Stock Markets and Personal Finance 04 Nov. 28. Unemployment and Labor Force Participation 11 Nov. 29. Inflation and the Quantity Theory of Money 11 Nov. 30. Business Fluctuations: Aggregate Demand and Supply 18 Nov. Midterm Exam DUE 18 Nov. 31. Transmission and Amplification Mechanisms 25 Nov. 32. The Federal Reserve System & Open Market Operations 25 Nov. 33. Monetary Policy 02 Dec. 34. The Federal Budget: Taxes and Spending 02 Dec. 35. Fiscal Policy 09 Dec. 09. International Trade 09 Dec. 36. International Finance 16 Dec. 19. Political Economy and Public Choice 16 Dec. Final Exam DUE Chapters

Following some (5) introductory chapters, we are covering the second half of the text. The remaining chapters of the text are covered in Principles of Microeconomics (XL1). For the most part we are following the chapters in order. There will be weekly Learning Curve modules and graded homework on each chapter including Chapter 19 but Chapter 19 will not be covered on the final examination. updated 14-09-27 19:25

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From above you can see that we are (almost always) covering 2 chapters per week. There are approximately 20 graded homework questions per chapter, so that you should plan on completing about 40 homework questions per week. Exams The midterm examination will be available Tuesday 04-Nov-2014 through 11:00 pm on Tuesday 18-Nov-2014. It will cover the material up through Chapter 22 (Stock Markets & Personal Finance). The examination is 2 hours and must be completed in one sitting. You cannot stop and restart the examination. Students who have tried this in the past have lost all of their work. The midterm examination must be completed by Tuesday , November 18, 2014 by 11:00 pm. The final examination can be taken any time from Tuesday 02-Dec-2014 through 11:00 pm on Tuesday 16-Dec-2014. The examination is 4 hours and must be completed in one sitting. You cannot stop and restart the examination. Students who have tried this in the past have lost all of their work. The final examination must be completed by Tues day, December 16, 2014 by 11:00 pm. Learning Curve Chapter Modules This course makes use of learning modules available for each chapter from the publisher. Please register for Launch Pad as indicated under Required & Recommended Sources section above. Learning Curve modules are contained within Launch Pad. Modules are graded on a Pass/Fail basis. Each chapter has a different target score for completion. You can work on Learning Curve until you achieve the target score for that chapter. Students complete modules for the given week by Tuesday evening at the latest in order to stay up to date. For example, modules for the first week (Chapters 1, 2 & 3) are due 07October at 11:00 pm. Students should work through modules throughout the week rather than letting them pile up for Tuesday night. Modules are graded on a pass/fail basis. You may continue to review past modules after the due date. Students can repeat modules. If you have any questions about a given module question you can post them to the Canvas Question & Discussion forum for our class for that week. Launch Pad Chapter Homeworks In addition to each learning module, Each week 20 homework problems presented within Launch Pad are due. As with the modules, these are due each Tuesday evening. Homework can be taken twice. If a homework is taken twice, the average score is used. Each chapter homework is out of a maximum of 20 points. Note that a module and homework (Ch. 31) and the midterm exam are due by 11:00 pm on Tuesday 18-Nov. Similarly a last module and homework (Ch. 19) are due at the same time as the final exam on Tuesday 16-Dec. Please budget your time accordingly.

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Voluntary Participation Course discussion is encouraged. Throughout each week, students are encouraged to participate in class discussions. Question & Discussion contributions might consist of: questions on class material; observations on or extensions of class readings; or responses to questions posted by other students on the weekly forum. Extra Credit The weekly Extra Credit discussion forum are graded as extra credit. Grades available for extra credit posts range from 0% to 1%. The maximum extra credit for all posts per quarter is 5%. Extra credit may be given for a post that introduces and discusses current week material from an outside source that illustrates, extends, or offers a contrasting viewpoint to the material in the relevant chapter. 1. Your post should indicate which chapter and topic within the chapter your post pertains to. 2. Your post should adhere to the deadlines in the table above for each chapter. 3. The post should include a link to (or attachment of) the outside source(s) such as an article or blog post so that other members of the class (including me) can view the source article without having to register or sign in at another website. The source article should be published since January 1, 2010. 4. Outside sources cited should include data or statistics in a table or graph. Data that you have assembled yourself (with source references) also meets this data requirement. This data requirement rules out most opinion pieces from newspaper editorials or other sources that use terminology such as “numerous studies show” or “experts agree that” or “it is common knowledge that”. 5. Your post should contain your own discussion of the source and how it relates to the material in the current chapter. Points are lost for incorrect grammar and spelling. Once one student posts a specific source (e.g., article), that source is no longer eligible for other students to use for extra credit. Copying and reposting other student's work will be considered plagiarism and may result in a grade reduction. Students can earn extra credit for 1 post per week. Extra credit contributions have to be made in the week that we are covering that material. The maximum that can be earned in a given week is credit of 1% (i.e., for one post). As the course progresses, extra credit for participating in discussions declines, since there are fewer weeks left in the course. For example, by week 7, there are 3 weeks left in the course. At that point the most additional extra credit any student could earn over the remainder of the course is 3%. Peer Review Extra credit posts are graded by other students, following the 5-point rubric described above. Grading extra credit posts is completely voluntary. 1 Grading earns extra credit of 0.3% per
1 If you receive some message from Canvas that you are required to participate in peer review, you can ignore it. It may be that the system has to generate these message to allow those who do participate in grading to receive extra credit.

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graded post. This extra credit for grading is conditional on that grading being accurate.
Grading

Course grades will be based on the following scale. Letter Grade Equivalent: A AB+ B B(94-100%) (90-93%) (87-89%) (84-86%) (80-83%) C+ C CD+ D DF (75-79%) (70-74%) (65-69%) (56-64%) (47-55%) (35-46%) (34% or lower)

*PLEASE BE AWARE THAT SOME CERTIFICATES REQUIRE A FINAL CUMMULATIVE GRADE OF B- IN ORDER TO RECEIVE THE CERTIFICATE. Note that a perfect score on Learning Curve modules and weekly homework alone will earn a D- (45%). All grades are final when filed by the instructor on the Final Grade Report.
Policies About Deadlines and Late Work

This course proceeds rapidly and covers a substantial amount of material. Learning Curve modules for all weeks/chapters of the course are available throughout the course. Credit is given for modules completed on time. Weekly homeworks are available at the start of the course and then are closed on a week by week basis as indicated above to keep the class as a whole from falling behind and failing to cover the required material. Students have as much flexibility as possible in completing these homeworks up to the closing dates. Students will be allowed to make up at most 1 week's graded homework per course. It is up to the student to contact me to arrange for a graded assignment to be made available after the due date for this 1-makeup option. The midterm examination must be completed by Tuesday November 04, 2014 by 11:00 pm. The final examination must be completed by Tues day December 16 2014 by 11:00 pm.
UCLA Extension Contact for this Course

April Michelle Tuazon Enriquez Program Representative P: (310) 825-7093 |F: (310) 206-5066 | aenriquez@uclaextension.edu

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Student Records

Students can access and update student records online by visiting: www.uclaextension.edu and clicking on My Extension on the left navigation bar, selecting Student's Course Essentials, and following the directions to log in. Student's Course Essentials lets you view your grades, request an official transcript, change credit status on a current course, obtain enrollment verification, update your personal information, and much more.
Student Conduct

By enrolling in this course, all students are expected to have reviewed the Student Conduct and Sexual Harassment information provided in the current Quarterly catalog (print or online) under “General Information.”
Accommodations

If you need any accommodations for a disability, please contact the UCLA Extension Disabled Student Services at: (310) 825-7851 or via e-mail access@uclaextension.edu .
Academic Honesty Policy

Academic dishonesty covers behavior in cheating, plagiarism, and fabrication of information. These behaviors are not tolerated. Citations and references should be provided following a formatting standard such as APA 6 th. Students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the UCLA Student Conduct Code and the official statements regarding cheating and plagiarism. These and other relevant documents are available on the Dean of Students Office website: http://www.studentgroups.ucla.edu/dos/students/integrity/

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Discussion Rubric: (Required – do not change)
This rubric will be used to assess the quality of your initial responses and interaction in the online discussion forums. Please use this tool as a guide when constructing your postings.
Mechanics of the Posting Unsatisfactory Uses incomplete sentences, is unstructured in its organization, and includes frequent or consistent errors in mechanics (grammar, spelling, usage) in each paragraph. The posting is unreadable and there is a distinct lack of tone. Provides minimal comments and information to other participants in the forum. Basic Uses complete sentences and the posting is comprehensible. The organization could be improved to present a more coherent argument, statement, or question. Includes 2-3 mechanical errors grammar, spelling, usage) per paragraph. The tone is respectful. Provides comments, and some new information on a sporadic basis. Interacts with only 2 participants in the forum. Demonstrates a restricted understanding of the concepts, topics, and ideas as evidenced by posting information that could be derived from prior posts and/or including highly general comments. Indicates agreement or disagreement with an existing discussion but provides no justification or explanation for comments. Proficient Uses complete sentences, organization is evident, and the posting includes no more than one mechanical error (grammar, spelling, usage) per paragraph. The tone is clear and respectful Provides comments, discussion, questions, and new information on a fairly regular basis. Interacts with three or more participants in the forum. Demonstrates an adequate understanding of the concepts, topics, and ideas as evidenced by posting superficial, or general statements in the forum. Includes a few details in the posting. Indicates agreement or disagreement with an existing discussion including a limited explanation or justification. Provides comments, discussion, and questions without a clear connection to the course material at hand. Distinguished Uses complete sentences, organization is clear and thoughtful, the posting is grammatically correct, and free of spelling errors. The tone is clear and respectful.

Participation in the Discussion

Content of Posting

Writes a general or superficial posting that is unrelated to the discussion at hand and/or posts no comments.

Critical Thinking Evidenced by Posting

Provides no evidence of agreement or disagreement with an existing discussion.

Provides comments, discussion, questions, and new information on a regular, active, and weekly basis. Shows a high degree of interaction with five or more participants in the forum. Demonstrates a solid understanding of the concepts, topics, and ideas as evidenced by thoughtful responses and questions that show a clear connection (are integrated) with the course material at hand. The posting shows depth, and includes many supporting details. Demonstrates a critical analysis of an existing posted idea or introduces a different interpretation to an existing concept or idea. Includes comments, discussion, and questions that have a clear connection (are integrated) with the course material at hand.

Course Syllabus Subject to Update by the Instructor

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