Macro­economics

Course content

This course offers an introduction to macroeconomic analysis. This includes the theory of output and interest rate determination; the relationship between goods and financial markets; the relationship between employment and inflation; the role of fiscal and monetary policy; and, not least, international economic relations. 

In this course, we will relate macroeconomic models to real-life events. This will help us understand the current debates about, for example, the key monetary policy arrangements and inflation targeting in the Eurozone, the conduct of fiscal policy and the debates over government debts in the EU, the choice of exchange rate regimes (and, in particular, the implications of the fixed exchange rate policy conducted in Denmark).

Why do economies expand sometimes, raising employment and living standards, and shrink at other times? What is a recession? What happened in 2008–09 when the world economy was hit by the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s? How do we explain the high inflation rate that we currently observe?

More generally, which shocks affect macroeconomic activity? How do these shocks affect output, employment, investment, or consumption? Can government policies make economies grow or stop them from shrinking? Is there anything we can do to reduce inflation? Are these policy responses effective?

These are some of the central questions that fascinate macroeconomists. If you are curious about how macroeconomists look at the world around them, how they model it, and how this helps answering the questions you just read, then this is the course for you.