Course
descriptions for the summer term 2010
40185 UK
Introductory Macroeconomics (Einführung in
die Makroökonomie)
UK, 4
hours per week
Time
and location: Monday
12:00–14:00, Hörsaal 7, BWZ;
Thursday 12:30–14:00 Hörsaal 9, BWZ
Start: March
1, 2010
Course description: The course offers an introduction to
modern macroeconomics. Most of it is based on the textbook by Olivier
Blanchard: Macroeconomics (Prentice-Hall) in its fifth edition
(older
editions can be used, but note that there are some changes in some
formulas and
in notation between editions). For an introduction to national
accounting, see Dudley
Jackson: The New National Accounts
(Edward Elgar).
In this field, the relevant material for all tests is a lecture note by
Ana Ania-Martinez, which will be made
available to
participants. No special preliminary knowledge is required, but some
competence
in mathematical methods is certainly useful.
In line with the
current study plan does this course contain an inseparable mix of
elements of
‘lectures’ and of ‘exercises’. Approximately one fourth of the time
should be
devoted to repetition and to exercises. It is essential that students
participate
actively. The final grade is determined from a weighted average of
exercises
(15%), a written midterm test (35%), and a written final test (50%).
You need
50% of the total achievable score to pass the course. In particular,
note that
a positive midterm test is not a binding constraint. However, you
cannot pass
without participating in the midterm test. In the ‘exercises’
component, points
are allotted for regular attendance and for occasional written
homework, the
main emphasis is however on the presentation of exercises during the
course.
Midterm and final tests will be organized jointly with the parallel
groups.
Course
contents:
1. National accounts
2. The goods market
3. The financial market
4. The IS-LM model (short-run
equilibrium on goods and financial markets)
5. The labor market
6. The AS-AD model (medium-run
equilibrium on three markets)
7. Phillips curve, Okun's
law, medium-run dynamic model
8. The open economy (exchange rates,
Mundell-Fleming model)
The
course contents correspond roughly to chapters 1-9 and 18-20 of
Blanchard’s
book. All economic theories and models are illustrated using Austrian
and
international data.
40871
UK Econometric Methods for Panel Data
UK, 2
hours per week
Time
and location:
Wednesday 13:00–14:30, Seminarraum
2, Hohenstaufengasse 9
Start: March 3, 2010
Course description: The lecture course surveys
econometric techniques that are used on two-dimensional data sets, one
dimension of which is time. Such data sets, generally named panels or
sometimes
longitudinal data, occur in macroeconomics, for example in
inter-country comparisons,
where the time dimension dominates, as well as in labor economics,
where a
short time dimension and a large cross-section dimension is the rule.
The
following topics could be covered:
Models for panel data (fixed and random
effects, one-way and two-way)
Estimation procedures for panels (LSDV or
within-groups estimator, GLS)
Tests (poolability, Hausman test)
Heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation
Dynamic panels (Nickell
bias, instrumental variable estimation)
Panel tests for unit roots
The methods are explained
using empirical examples that are handled by computer software. As
important
literature related to this course, I would recommend the textbooks by Hsiao:
Analysis of Panel Data (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and by Baltagi: Econometric Analysis of Panel
Data
(Wiley, 2005).
In line with the course
form UK, the evaluation of students is to be composed of several parts.
The
definitive form will be convened at the first meeting on March 3. It
may also
depend on the number of participants. In the most recent course, it was
convened that the final course grade was a weighted average of a
written test
(50%) in early May, and of a presentation of an advanced topic from the
above
list or of an independent empirical project on panel data (50%).
40568
UK Econometrics of seasonality
UK, 2
hours per week
Time and
location: Tuesday
18:00–19:30, Seminarraum 1, Hohenstaufengasse
9
Start:
March 2, 2010
Course
description:
This lecture course focuses on the topic of seasonality in time series
and it
is based on the monograph "The Econometric Analysis of Seasonal
Time
Series" by Eric Ghysels und Denise R.
Osborn
(Cambridge University Press, 2001). The following sections can be
regarded as
the core:
1. Introduction to seasonal
processes (basic ingredients of concepts for modeling seasonality)
2. Deterministic seasonality
(seasonal dummies, tests with the null hypothesis of dummy-type
seasonality,
such as the Canova-Hansen
test)
3. Seasonal unit-root
processes (seasonal random walk, tests with complex unit roots as their
null
hypothesis, such as the HEGY test)
4. Seasonal adjustment
routines