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17.11: Learning Outcomes

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    The content, assignments, and assessments for this course are aligned to the following learning outcomes. A full list of course learning outcomes can be viewed here: Macroeconomics Course Learning Outcomes.

    Module 1: Economic Thinking

    • Explain what economics is and explain why it is important
    • Use mathematics in common economic applications
    • Use graphs in common economic applications

    Module 2: Choice in a World of Scarcity

    • Explain the cost of choices and trade-offs
    • Illustrate society’s trade-offs by using a production possibilities frontier, or curve
    • Explain the assumption of rationality by individuals and firms

    Module 3: Supply and Demand

    • Describe and differentiate between major economic systems
    • Explain the determinants of demand
    • Explain the determinants of supply
    • Explain and graphically illustrate market equilibrium, surplus and shortage

    Module 4: Applications of Supply and Demand

    • Analyze the economic effect of government setting price ceilings and floors
    • Define, calculate, and illustrate consumer, producer, and total surplus
    • Examine ways that supply and demand apply to labor and financial markets

    Module 5: Elasticity

    • Explain the concept of elasticity
    • Explain the price elasticity of demand and price elasticity of supply, and compute both using the midpoint method
    • Explain and calculate other elasticities using common economic variables
    • Explain the relationship between a firm’s price elasticity of demand and total revenue

    Module 6: Macroeconomic Measures: GDP and Economic Growth

    • Define macroeconomics and explain how economic indicators like GDP are used to assess the state of the economy
    • Differentiate between and calculate nominal and real GDP
    • Describe economic growth
    • Understand that economic growth is a relatively recent phenomenon, and identify key institutional factors that contribute to economic growth

    Module 7: Macroeconomic Measures: Unemployment and Inflation

    • Describe and calculate unemployment
    • Examine causes and types of unemployment, including cyclical, frictional, structural, and natural unemployment
    • Define inflation and explain how the rate of inflation is calculated
    • Identify the consequences of inflation

    Module 8: The Aggregate Demand-Aggregate Supply Model

    • Use the AD-AS model to explain the equilibrium levels of real GDP and price level
    • Examine factors that shift aggregate supply and aggregate demand
    • Illustrate economic growth, unemployment, and inflation using the AS/AD model

    Module 9: Keynesian and Neoclassical Economics

    • Describe the tenets of Keynesian Economics
    • Explain policy implications of Keynesian economics
    • Understand the tenets of Neoclassical Economics
    • Describe how the neoclassical model responds to fluctuations in the economy and explain policy recommendations
    • Compare and contrast the Keynesian and Neoclassical perspectives

    Module 10: The Income-Expenditure Model

    • Use the expenditure output model to explain periods of recession and expansion
    • Explain and find macro equilibrium in the income-expenditure model
    • Explain why the expenditure multiplier happens and how to calculate its size

    Module 11: Fiscal Policy

    • Identify the major spending categories and major revenue sources in the U.S. Federal budget
    • Explain fiscal policies, including automatic, expansionary, and contractionary fiscal policies
    • Compare neoclassical and Keynesian approaches to Fiscal Policy

    Module 12: Money and Banking

    • Define money, explain the functions of money, and define liquidity
    • Describe the role financial markets play in an economy
    • Explain what a bank does
    • Describe how money is created by lending

    Module 13: Monetary Policy

    • Explain the structure, functions, and responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System
    • Describe monetary policy and the Fed’s three main policy tools
    • Explain how monetary policy affects GDP and the interest rates

    Module 14: Policy Applications

    • Compare viewpoints on government spending and taxes between the Keynesian and Neoclassical perspectives
    • Explain the reasoning behind the theory of the Phillips Curve and why it may not hold
    • Describe the basic tenets of new classical economics, including Ricardian equivalence
    • Identify appropriate macro policy options in response to the state of the economy

    Module 15: Globalization and Trade

    • Define and calculate comparative advantage, and understand how countries choose which goods and services to trade internationally
    • Explain how barriers to trade (like tariffs, quotas and non-tariff barriers) affect businesses, consumers and workers in the economy
    • Differentiate between alternative international trade regimes and how they impact global trade

    Module 16: Exchange Rates and International Finance

    • Define currency exchange rates and explain how they influence trade balances
    • Analyze how supply and demand affects foreign currencies and exchange rates
    • Explain how the balance of trade (surplus or deficit) affects the domestic economy

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    17.11: Learning Outcomes is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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