2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses School of Engineering Undergraduate major in Industrial Engineering and Economics
Macroeconomics I
- Academic unit or major
- Undergraduate major in Industrial Engineering and Economics
- Instructor(s)
- Takeo Hori
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 3-4 Tue / 3-4 Fri
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- IEE.B203
- Number of credits
- 200
- Course offered
- 2025
- Offered quarter
- 2Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 19, 2025
- Language
- Japanese
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
Macroeconomics is the study of economic variables aggregated on a country-by-country basis, such as GDP, unemployment rate, and price indexes, and is one of the most basic disciplines in economics along with microeconomics, which examines the decisions of individual economic agents.
In this lecture, macroeconomics at the undergraduate level is explained. In the first half of the lecture, students will first understand national accounts, the basic concept of macroeconomics. Then, students will learn analytical methods for labor markets, asset markets, and the role of money.
Next, in the second half of the lecture, students will understand short-term economic analysis and learn about the effects of fiscal and monetary policies. Finally, as a long-term economic analysis, students will learn Thoreau's economic growth model.
The aim of this lecture is twofold. First, to understand the definitions of economic indicators such as GDP and unemployment rate that you may have heard in newspapers or news reports, and to be able to explain them by yourself. Second, students should be able to construct their own mathematical models of the mechanisms by which these indicators are determined.
Course description and aims
By taking this course, students will acquire the following knowledge and abilities.
1) Understand the definitions and calculation methods of economic variables commonly heard in real life, such as GDP, inflation rate, unemployment rate, and current account balance.
2) Understand the mechanisms of labor markets and financial markets.
3) Understand the effects of fiscal and monetary policies and their mechanisms.
4) To understand the mechanism of long-term economic growth.
Keywords
nominal GDP, real GDP, GDP deflator, consumption price index (CPI), unemployment rate, consumption, investment, saving, long-run macroeconomic equilibrium, economic growth theory
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
As stated in the "Course schedule," two times are used for one topic like household's behavior, firm's behavior, and so on.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Introduction to Macroeconomics | Understand the purpose of macroeconomics and the meanings of macroeconomic variables observed in real life. |
| Class 2 | Measuring the Macroeconomic Performance (1): Nominal GDP, Real GDP and Price Index | Explain the definition of GDP, the difference between nominal GDP and real GDP. |
| Class 3 | Measuring the Macroeconomic Performance (1): Nominal GDP, Real GDP and Price Index | Understand the role of price index. |
| Class 4 | asset market : money and bank 1 | Understand the definition of money. |
| Class 5 | asset market : money and bank 2 | Understand the roles of money and banking sector. |
| Class 6 | labor market 1 | Understand theories on labor supply and labor demand. |
| Class 7 | labor market 2 | Understand the mechanism behind unemployment. |
| Class 8 | Money and the Central Bank | Understand the definition of money, and explain how the central bank affects us through monetary policy. |
| Class 9 | IS-LM model (1) | Derive IS and LM curves. |
| Class 10 | IS-LM model (2) | Understand the effects of fiscal and monetray policies. |
| Class 11 | IS-LM model (3) | Understand Phillips curve and its implications. |
| Class 12 | Solow growth model (1) | Understand the basic structure of the Solow growth model |
| Class 13 | Solow growth model (2) | The predictions of the Solow growth model and the golden rule. |
| Class 14 | Review of The Course | Review of the course. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
Handouts or slides used for each class will be available on the corresponding page of T2SCHOLA.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Mankiw, N.G. Macroeconomics, Worth Publishing.
Futagami, K. and Hori, K. Macroeconomics, Yuhikaku (in Japanese)
Shibata, A. and Unayama, T. First Steps in Macroeconomics, Yuhikaku (in Japanese)
Hiraguchi R. and Inaba, M. Macroeconomics: From Basic Principles to Applications, Yuhikaku (in Japanese)
Evaluation methods and criteria
The grade is based on the midterm- and final exams.
Related courses
- IEE.B204 ： Macroeconomics II
- IEE.B201 ： Microeconomics I
- IEE.B202 ： Microeconomics II
- IEE.B332 ： Applied Macroeconomics
Prerequisites
Although there is no explicit prerequisite for this course, basic knowledge of microeconomics covered in "Microeconomics I" is highly recommended.