EconixaECONOMICS FUNDAMENTALS

College ~30 hours

Macroeconomics Mastery: Models and Policy

For students ready to go beyond the AD-AS diagram: the formal models macroeconomists use to study growth, cycles, and policy. You will meet the Solow model, IS-LM, the expectations-augmented Phillips curve, and open-economy frameworks — each built step by step with its assumptions stated plainly. The payoff is being able to read policy debates as arguments about models rather than slogans. Calculators and simulators keep every model hands-on.

Steps

  1. Step 1: Growth Theory

    The Solow model and its successors: why economies converge, and why technology is the long-run story.

  2. Step 2: Consumption and Investment

    Intertemporal choice, the permanent income hypothesis, and what drives investment spending.

  3. Step 3: Business Cycle Theories

    Real versus monetary explanations of fluctuations, and how each maps onto the data.

  4. Step 4: The IS-LM Framework

    Joint equilibrium in goods and money markets — the workhorse behind the AD curve.

  5. Step 5: Fiscal Policy and Multipliers

    When multipliers are large or small: liquidity traps, crowding out, and Ricardian equivalence.

  6. Step 6: Money Demand and Monetary Rules

    From money demand to policy rules: the Taylor rule, inflation targeting, and central bank credibility.

  7. Step 7: Expectations and the Phillips Curve

    Adaptive versus rational expectations, the Lucas critique, and the expectations-augmented Phillips curve.

  8. Step 8: Open-Economy Macro

    Mundell-Fleming, exchange-rate regimes, and the policy trilemma facing open economies.

  9. Step 9: Financial Crises

    Leverage, bank runs, and balance-sheet recessions — when the financial system amplifies the cycle.

  10. Step 10: Modern Policy Debates

    Apply the models to live questions — debt sustainability, inflation control, and unconventional policy.