Foundations

• Introduction: Models vs. data, course overview (≈1 lecture)
• A simple general equilibrium model (Robinson Crusoe, ≈1 lecture)

Part I: Long Run and Economic Growth

Solow growth model (≈4 lectures)

• Aggregate production function, saving, and capital accumulation
• The economy as an ODE: steady state and dynamics, golden rule
• Human capital and exogenous technological progress
• Empirical applications: conditional convergence, cross-country income differences, growth     
  accounting

Neoclassical growth model, or Ramsey model (≈4 lectures)

• Preferences and technology, the planner’s problem, welfare theorems
• The economy as two ODEs: Phase diagram, steady state and dynamics
• Applications and policy implications

Endogenous growth and determinants of productivity (≈2 lectures)

• Externalities and learning by doing
• R&D and intellectual property rights
• Biased technological change and income inequality, discussion of AI

Part II: Short Run and Business Cycles

Real Business Cycle (RBC) model—supply-driven fluctuations (≈3 lectures)

• Ramsey model with shocks: from long-run growth to short-run fluctuations
• Supply vs. demand shocks, irrelevance of aggregate demand

New Keynesian (NK) model—demand-driven fluctuations (≈8 lectures)

• Foundations of aggregate demand: consumption (permanent income hypothesis,    
  borrowing constraints), investment (MPK, Q theory, borrowing constraints)
• Aggregate supply revisited: nominal rigidities
• Inflation, output gaps, monetary and fiscal policy

Recent macroeconomic developments (≈2 lectures)

• Fiscal policy and inflation, tariffs, central bank independence