Lumen Learning. Macroeconomics Course and Textbook

Module 1: Economic Thinking

• Understanding Economics and Scarcity
• The Concept of Opportunity Cost
• Labor, Markets, and Trade
• Microeconomics and Macroeconomics
• Economic Models
• Purpose of Functions
• Solving Simple Equations
• Creating and Interpreting Graphs
• Interpreting Slope
• Types of Graphs

Module 2: Choice in a World of Scarcity

• Budget Constraints and Choices
• Calculating Opportunity Cost
• The Production Possibilities Frontier
• Productive Efficiency and Allocative Efficiency
• Rationality and Self-Interest
• Marginal Analysis
• Positive and Normative Statements

Module 3: Supply and Demand

• Economic Systems
• What Is Demand?
• Factors Affecting Demand
• What is Supply?
• Factors Affecting Supply
• Equilibrium, Surplus, and Shortage
• Changes in Equilibrium
• Finding Equilibrium
• Changes in Supply and Demand

Module 4: Applications of Supply and Demand

• Price Ceilings
• Price Floors
• A Closer Look at Price Controls
• Trade and Efficiency
• Consumer & Producer Surplus
• Inefficiency of Price Floors and Price Ceilings
• Labor and Financial Markets

Module 5: Elasticity

• Elasticity of Demand
• Examples of Elastic and Inelastic Demand
• Calculating Elasticity and Percentage Changes
• Calculating Price Elasticities Using the Midpoint Formula
• Categories of Elasticity
• Price Elasticity of Supply
• Income Elasticity, Cross-Price Elasticity & Other Types of Elasticities
• Elasticity and Total Revenue
• Elasticity, Costs, and Customers
• Tax Incidence

Module 6: Macroeconomic Measures: GDP and Economic Growth

• The Macroeconomic Perspective
• What is Gross Domestic Product?
• Calculating GDP
• Alternative Ways to Measure the Economy
• The Difference Between Nominal and Real Measurements
• Comparing Nominal and Real GDP
• Converting Nominal to Real GDP
• Business Cycles
• GDP and Standard of Living
• Labor Productivity and Economic Growth
• Measuring Productivity and Growth Rates
• The Power of Sustained Economic Growth
• Relatively Recent Economic Growth
• A Healthy Climate for Economic Growth

Module 7: Macroeconomic Measures: Unemployment and Inflation

• Who Counts in Unemployment?
• Calculating the Unemployment Rate
• Patterns of Unemployment
• Cyclical Unemployment
• Frictional and Structural Unemployment
• The Natural Rate of Unemployment
• Inflation
• Calculating Inflation with Index Numbers
• The Consumer Price Index
• Shortcomings of the Consumer Price Index as a Measure of the Cost of Living
• The GDP Deflator and Other Major Price Indices
• Problems with Inflation
• Benefits of Low Inflation

Module 8: The Aggregate Demand-Aggregate Supply Model

• The Aggregate Demand-Aggregate Supply Model
• Building a Model of Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand
• Interpreting the AD-AS Model
• Shifts in Aggregate Demand
• Shifts in Aggregate Supply
• Business Cycles and Growth in the AD–AS Model

Module 9: Keynesian and Neoclassical Economics

• Aggregate Demand in Keynesian Analysis
• The Core of Keynesian Analysis
• The Expenditure Multiplier Effect
• Keynesian Economic Policy
• The Neoclassical Perspective
• The Neoclassical Perspective and Potential GDP
• Flexible Prices and Graphing in the Neoclassical Model
• Speed of Macroeconomic Adjustment
• Policy Implications of the Neoclassical Perspective
• Say’s Law versus Keynes’ Law
• Neoclassical and Keynesian Perspectives in the AD-AS Model
• Balancing Keynesian and Neoclassical Models

Module 10: Keynesian Economics and the Income-Expenditure Model

• The Key Role of Aggregate Expenditure
• Aggregate Expenditure: Consumption
• Aggregate Expenditure: Investment, Government Spending, and Net Exports
• Equilibrium in the Income-Expenditure Model
• Finding Equilibrium Using Algebra
• Recessionary and Inflationary Gaps in the Income-Expenditure Model
• Real Aggregate Supply in the Income-Expenditure Model
• The Spending Multiplier in the Income-Expenditure Model
• The Spending Multiplier and Changes in Government Spending

Module 11: Fiscal Policy

• Fiscal Policy and the Federal Budget
• Government Spending
• State and Local Government Spending
• Taxation
• Federal Budgets and National Debt
• The Question of a Balanced Budget
• Automatic Stabilizers
• Expansionary and Contractionary Fiscal Policy
• Neoclassical Fiscal Policy and Supply-Side Economics
• Fiscal Policy, Investment, and Crowding Out

Module 12: Money and Banking

• Defining Money by Its Functions
• Measuring Money: Currency, M1, and M2
• Credit
• Financial Markets and Assets
• Financial Markets, Supply and Demand, and Interest
• The Commercial Banking System
• Banking Assets and Liabilities
• How Banks Create Money

Module 13: Monetary Policy

• Banks, Loan Finance, and the Payments System
• The Federal Reserve System and Central Banks
• Bank Regulation
• Monetary Policy
• Monetary Policy and Open Market Operations
• Monetary Policy and Interest Rates
• Monetary Policy and Aggregate Demand
• Federal Reserve Actions and Quantitative Easing

Module 14: Policy Applications

• Viewpoints on Government Policy
• The Phillips Curve
• Policy Implications: No Phillips Curve Tradeoff in the Long Run
• Rational Expectations
• Ricardian Equivalence
• Practical Problems with Discretionary Fiscal & Monetary Policy
• Policy Implications: Dampening Business Cycles vs. Laissez-Faire
• Policy Implications: Supply Shocks and Economic Growth

Module 15: Globalization and Trade

• Absolute and Comparative Advantage
• Comparative Advantage and the Gains from Trade
• Intra-Industry Trade
• Demand and Supply Analysis of International Trade
• Protectionism
• The Tradeoffs of International Trade
• The Role of the GATT in Reducing Barriers to Trade
• Trade Policy: Organizations and Agreements

Module 16: Exchange Rates and International Finance

• The Foreign Exchange Market
• Strengthening and Weakening Currency
• Demand and Supply Shifts in Foreign Exchange Markets
• Macroeconomic Effects of Exchange Rates
• Exchange-Rate Policies