Advanced Topics in Macro II

The content of the course is adjusted annually to pick up new topics from the macroeconomic research frontier. Each class meeting (after the first) has two parts. In the first hour, students discuss a frontier paper with the aim of identifying the main contribution of the paper, determining if this paper is convincing, and coming up with an idea for further research on the topic. In the remainder of the class, one of the instructors gives a lecture introducing the topic of the frontier paper of the following week.
To ensure high quality discussions for the frontier papers, it is important that you have thought about the paper before the class meeting. To make the preparation more fun and to give you opportunities to learn from each other, we will do this using a team-based learning approach. In the first week of the course we will form teams of 2 students that will remain fixed for the duration of the course. Each team prepares a brief presentation about the paper, and submits it before the class meeting. At the beginning of each class meeting, one randomly selected team will use its presentation to lead the discussion using its presentation.