Instructor: Dr. Hassan Y. Aly Office hours: TR 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Office: 318 MH or by appointment
Phone: (614) 389-6786, Ext. 6252
Required Text:
McConnell & Brue, Macroeconomics, 13th ed.
Strongly recommended - a subscription to Wall Street
Journal.
Course Outline:
I. Basics
A. Demand and Supply (Ch. 3)
B. Capitalism and the Mixed Economy (Chs. 4 and 5)
II. Measurement
A. Measuring Economic Performance - GDP (Ch. 7)
B. Unemployment and Inflation (Ch. 8)
III. Macroeconomic Theory
A. Classical and Keynesian Macroeconomics (Ch. 9)
B. Macroeconomic Equilibrium (Ch. 10)
C. Aggregate Demand and Supply (Ch. 11)
D. Fiscal Policy (Ch. 12)
E. Money (Chs. 13, 14, and 15)
Course Objectives:
The objectives of this course can be summarized as follows:
1. To ensure that students learn the basic economic principles that enable them to understand how the
national economy as well as world economy works.
2. To develop the student's ability to use economics to analyze current events reported in the media and to
have an informed opinion on the major economic issues of the country and around the world.
3. To equip the students with some technical economic tools that might assist and prepare them in working
for banks, brokerage firms or any other financial institution.
*To achieve these objectives a series of video tapes entitled "Economics USA" will be shown periodically in
class. This series is intended to link the theoretical macroeconomic concepts to the empirical real life
examples that actually happened in the US during the last
60 years.
Grade Determination:
In this class there will be three midterm exams and a
final exam. Each exam will be worth 20% of the final grade, the final comprehensive
exam will be 40%.
You will have one week notice before every exam.
*The students are encouraged to use the tutorial and self-testing software that exists in the computer lab (in
the library) to prepare for exams.
Attendance and Make-ups:
Attendance is strongly suggested. Most students perform
satisfactorily if they do not miss any class. Some topics covered in class
are not in the text. You are responsible for all materials covered in missed
classes, and should acquire copies of notes from students who were present.
If you missed an exam and you have a good
Economics 201 Syllabus - Page 2
excuse, you should support that excuse with documents.
In such a case - [when it is proven by documented evidence that you cannot
take the exam or there was a reason for missing an exam] - missed exams
or quizzes will be made up through added weights on the comprehensive final
exam. This means NO MAKE-UP WILL BE GIVEN.
Notes:
Participation and discussions in the class are encouraged
by all means. For that purpose, the instructor will give up to 5% of the
total grade as an additional bonus to students who will be actively engaging
in scientific and objective discussions and who will be responding to the
instructor's questioning and inquiries.
Extra Credit:
You may earn up to 5% extra credit if you do the following:
1. Clip an article from the Wall Street Journal that is relevant to the topics discussed in the class. You
should give me the article to approve it. Then you would type a one-page summary or commentary per my
suggestion.
2. Every article might be worth 1% of your total grade.
3. Submit your articles and the materials no later than May 15th. You are allowed five articles. Thus,
you can get 5% extra credit.