Instructor Information James Murray, Ph.D. Office: 403W Wimberly Hall Office phone: 608-785-5140 Email: murray.jame@uwlax.edu Internet Resources The following course website includes information about the course such as the syllabus, schedule, and readings: http://www.murraylax.org/money/fall2009/. Desire2Learn will also be used to post grades and will have many of the course readings available for download. Course Description [From the Undergraduate Catalog] This course is concerned with the theory and practice of monetary policy in the modern market economy, with particular reference to the U.S. economy and institutional framework. Topics covered include: the ability of the central bank to regulate the supply of money and credit conditions; factors affecting the demand for money; and the relationship between changes in the money supply and interest rates and the impact of changes in each of these on other economic variables. Course Goals The goal of this course is to give students an understanding of a variety of theoretical frameworks that aid in the understanding of the impacts and effectiveness of monetary policy. Classical models actually predict monetary policy has no impact on any real variables in the economy, but monetary policy practice clearly demonstrates otherwise. Therefore there is much debate about what market imperfections exist to allow monetary policy to have real effects on the economy, how large these impacts are, and how to design policy that is effective in the long-run. These issues are further complicated by new issues such as financial market innovation and global economic integration. The purpose of this course is to give students an overview of current and old ideas to evaluate how central banks should manage their economies. Textbooks There is no required textbook for this class, but some of the class material will be drawn from a number of textbooks. Some of the items on the required reading list at the end of the syllabus refers to readings from the following textbooks:
Learning Objectives
Office Hours Regular office hours are 9:00am to 10:00am Monday through Friday. These are times when you can drop by announced and expect me to be in my office. I encourage you to not feel limited to these times and just shoot me an e-mail if you would like to meet at an alternative time. Frequently keeping up with the material usually requires frequent office visits, so I feel frequently coming to my office for questions is essential to your success.
Outside of my regularly scheduled classes and office hours, my availability changes all the time. You can visit my calendar at
Assessment Learning will be assessed through two take home exams and two scholarly article critique/presentation.
Grade Breakdown
I reserve the right to scale everyone's grade up by the same amount on any graded item in the event that much of the class falls short of the scale above. However, even if the grades are significantly low, there is no guarantee that I will ever do this.
Exams There will be three take home exams, each worth 25% of final course grade. The take home exams will be administered at least one week prior to their due dates. Successful performance on the exam will require application of class material and some supplemental readings that are included on this syllabus, but that are not necessarily explicitly discussed in class. The exam due dates and times are as follows:
Article Critique Each student is required to do two article critiques in an area of monetary economics they find interesting. At least two weeks prior to the due dates the students need to get the article they chose approved by the instructor. The article critiques (both written and presentation) should provide a summary of the article, a defense (or criticism) about why the question addressed in the paper is important, an explanation and defense (or criticism) about the results of the paper, and a description of further research questions that arose in your mind as the reader of the article. The written critique should be 4 to 6 pages (double spaced, 12 pt font, 1 inch margins) and the presentations should be about 10 to 15 minutes. The two article critiques are due on:
At this time every student should be ready to present their article, and presentations will be scheduled randomly during the week.
Attendance Class attendance is very important in this class as the class does not follow a single textbook or other source. The class material is based on many different articles and chapters from many different books, so it may be very difficult to find reading material that will provide a suitable alternative to class attendance. Moreover, attendance is required to receive credit for exams. However, if you need to miss a class day or exam day because of illness or emergency you can be excused and arrangements can be made for you to make up missed work. The University is especially concerned with the possible spread of H1N1 influenza. To reduce the chance of spreading the disease, the University recommends that if you experience two or more symptoms of flu that you not come to class nor stay in dormitories, but rather go home where you have contact with few people as possible, and return only after you are symptom free for 24 hours without medication. Disabilities Any student with a documented disability (e.g., physical, learning, psychiatric, vision, or hearing, etc.) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations must contact the instructor and the Disability Resource Services office (165 Murphy Library, 785-6900) at the beginning of the semester. Students who are currently using the Disability Resource Services office will have a copy of a contract that verifies they are qualified students with disabilities who have documentation on file in the Disability Resource Services office. It is the student's responsibility to communicate their needs with the instructor in a timely manner. Academic Dishonesty I follow the policy stated University Academic Handbook with regard to cheating and academic dishonesty. The student handbook can be found online at http://www.uwlax.edu/studentlife/eagle_eye.htm. In the event a student is caught cheating I will pursue the harshest penalty that the University will allow, regardless of how small the offense may appear.
Course Topics / Reading List Below is a list of course topics and reading list associated with each topic. The following is likely a longer list of topics and readings than what will actually be covered in this class. Even so, additional readings and topics may be added over the semester. The amount of material and which materials that will be covered will depend on the students' greatest interests and the ability, prior knowledge, and work ethic of the students in the class.
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