Macroeconomics Business & Communication Program Spring 2017 Semester - Rome

This course aims at giving students an introduction to Macroeconomics, the branch of economics that deals with the workings of the economy as a whole. Thus, the purpose of the course is to understand and explain the variations of aggregate (economy-wide) variables, such as GDP, unemployment rates, aggregate demand, aggregate supply, total profits, wages, price levels, etc., taking into consideration the crucial fact that it is within a capitalist economic system that these variables are examined.

Explaining the determinants of profits, aggregate supply and aggregate demand will make it possible to introduce the concept of macroeconomic equilibrium, both in terms of output and employment, and to present the different means through which the periodical fluctuations of the economy can be stabilized. Indeed both fiscal and monetary policy can be effective tools for dampening the business cycle, but as we will show they sometimes work at cross-purposes. In those cases, which is the best way to promote employment? If wages were to be lowered, would the result be a higher or lower level of unemployment? Such questions will be answered both in terms of purely domestic implications and in terms of the effects on the foreign competitiveness of the economy. Finally, the causes and consequences of inflation will be examined and so will the role that Government and the public sector in general should play in the economy.