Macrofinance

Summary

This course provides students with a working knowledge of macroeconomic models that explicitly incorporate financial markets. The goal is to develop a broad and analytical framework for analyzing the interaction of financial decisions, macroeconomic events and policy decisions.

Content

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Keywords

Macroeconomics, Financial Economics, General Equilibrium.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

• Construct a general equilibrium model of an economy
• Analyze what drives intertemporal choices (savings, etc)
• Model financial decisions
• Develop an economic model encompassing financial decisions
• Assess / Evaluate the effect of financial decisions on macroeconomic variables
• Assess / Evaluate the effect of macroeconomic events
• Expound the role of monetary and fiscal policies and their effects on the macroeconomy
• Analyze what drives asset prices
• Derive testable implications for asset prices
• Search and collect appropriate data
• Test hypotheses using data

Transversal skills

• Plan and carry out activities in a way which makes optimal use of available time and other resources.
• Use a work methodology appropriate to the task.
• Give feedback (critique) in an appropriate fashion.
• Continue to work through difficulties or initial failure to find optimal solutions.
• Access and evaluate appropriate sources of information.
• Collect data.

Teaching methods

Lectures will focus on how to develop a macroeconomic model that integrates financial markets. Lectures will first present the theory and then discuss its empirical relevance and possible applications.

TA sessions will focus on solving the problem sets, doing exercises related to class material, and carrying out applications of what you learned in class. Students will be divided in groups and given a project that must be returned at the end of the course.

Expected student activities

Problem sets will be assigned weekly and will have to be handed in the following week. The solution to the problem set will be posted on the class web page. Late problem sets are not accepted. Problem sets will not be graded, but they are extremely important as they are an important tool to learn the material and assess your preparation.

Assessment methods

30% Project

35% Midterm Exam

35% Final Exam

 

Supervision

Office hours	Yes
Assistants	Yes
Forum	No

Resources

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)

Yes

Bibliography

Main textbook:

Foundations of International Macroeconomics by Maurice Obstfeld and Kenneth Rogoff, The MIT Press, 1996.

Other

Advanced Macreonomics by David Romer, The McGraw-Hill Companies, 1996.

Recursive Macroeconomic Theory by Lars Ljungqvist and Thomas J. Sargent, The MIT Press, 2nd edition, 2004

 

Ressources en bibliothèque

• Recursive Macroeconomic Theory / Ljungqvist
• Advanced macroeconomis / David Romer
• Foundations of International Macroeconomics / Obstfeld

Notes/Handbook

A full set of course notes will be posted on the class web page after class. Notice that the course material is password restricted.

Moodle Link

• https://go.epfl.ch/FIN-406