Section Syllabus and Letter of Introduction ( pdf or word document )
Section 102 : Monday 4p-6p, 385 Le Conte
Section 101 : Wednesday 4p-6p, B56 Hildenbrand
Office Hours: Monday 6p-7p, Wednesday 6p-7p (after sections), Evans 608-3.
Section Handouts and Information
New information:
1) I will collect questions you ask during section and try to answer them at regular intervals in the following file
Answers to your questions (updated: 11/19/07)
2) The links labeled "More Practice Problems" are a (password protected) collection of exercises I assembled from various sources that should give you additional opportunities to test your understanding. I highly recommend that you work on the homeworks and look at the problems in the Romer textbook, too. If time permits, I will also post solutions, but I cannot guarantee that.
3) Date of the final exam: Saturday, December 15, 5-8p in 4 Evans
Section Information (tentative schedule) OH information
Oct 15 & 17: no sections no OH (write me an email and we can schedule something)
- recall: Oct 15 is the micro, Oct 17 the metrics midterm (good luck!)
- send me your letter of introduction (see link above) or put it in my mailbox
- read the section syllabus
- if possible, attend the departmental seminar on Oct 10 by Sam Kortum on Global Imbalances
Oct 22 & 24: Constraint Optimization
(recall: Midterm is on Oct 23 - Max's review section is Friday Oct 19)
- Constraint Optimization (geometry, Lagrange)
- Discussion: Global Imbalances (in class)
- Experiment
Oct 29 & 31: Constraint Optimization, Consumption
- Constraint Optimization (continued): inequality constraints and Kuhn-Tucker
- Consumption under Certainty
- Tentative Exercises from Romer (2006), 3rd Ed.:
- 7.5: CRRA and log-normal returns (see file "Answers to Questions" for question b)
- 7.13: CARA and normal returns
- 7.9: Present-Value Asset Pricing
- Solutions to 7.5, 7.13 and 7.9
- More Practice Problems on Consumption (and solutions)
Nov 5 & 7: Consumption, Stock Market
- Consumption under Uncertainty,
- Short History of Research on Business Cycles
- Permanent Income Hypothesis under Certainty (recap)
- Euler Equation under Uncertainty and Applications
- Hall's Random Walk Hypothesis
- Stock Market: - Present-Value Asset Pricing under risk neutrality [see exercise 7.9]
- Consumption Based Capital Asset Pricing Model (C-CAPM) [see exercises 7.5, 7.13]
- Solutions to 7.5, 7.13 and 7.9
- A Closer Look at Intertemporal Budget Constraints (if time permits)
- Tentative Exercises from Romer (2006), 3rd Ed. for next time
- 7.10: Bubbles
- 7.11: Lucas' (1978) Tree Asset Pricing Model
- Solutions to ex. 7.10 and 7.11
- More Practice Problems on Consumption with Solutions (MIT problem set)
(note: these problems are much more challenging - please solve first the problems in Romer)
Nov 14: Consumption, Optimal Control. !! No Section on Monday Nov 12 !! hence also no OH on Monday (Veteran's Day)
- Half-time evaluation
- Lagrange vs. Dynamic Programming
- Liquidity Constraints
- Optimal Control Theory: intuitive approach (updated 11/16/07)
- Intertemporal Budget Constraints
- Do at home (and come to OH if you have questions)
- 7.14: Time-Inconsistency
- 7.12: Equity Premium and Aggregate Shocks (Mankiw's version of Prescott & Mehra)
- Solutions to ex. 7.12 and 7.14
- Home Work Assignment 1 (with Solutions)
Nov 19: Stock Market, Optimal Control. !! No Section on Wednesday Nov 21 !! Happy Thanksgiving! => also no OH
- Optimal Control Theory: finishing up and/or functional approach
- Asset Market Experiment (with Results from Section)
- Solutions to ex. 7.10 and 7.11
- Home Work Assignment 2 (with Solutions)
- More Practice Problems on Investment with Solutions
Nov 26 & 28: Financial Markets, Investment
- Bernanke Gertler (QJE1990) - "Financial Fragility and Economic Performance" (updated version)
- Practicing Optimal Control: Solutions to ex. 8.4 (a-c)
- More Practice Problems on Financial Markets with Solutions
Dec 3 & 5 q-Theory, Monetary Policy
- Drawing the Phase Diagram of the q-Theory: ex. 8.8
- Solving the Dynamic-Inconsistency Problem (Barro Gordon 1983): ex. 10.8
- Finishing up with exercises: Solutions to ex. 7.10 and 7.11 and Solutions to ex. 7.12
- Intertemporal Budget Constraints
Saturday, Dec 15: Final Exam, 5-8p in 4 Evans - GOOD LUCK!!!
(Note that some files are password protected. If you would like to have access, please send me an email.)
Links