Fiscal+Policy+Calendar

[|Boundless Learning]: Additional resources specifically developed for the textbook chapters below can be found by clicking the link to the left. **Beware**: You will have to sign up with Boundless Learning and choose Mankiw's textbook first. Then, you will have to search for the right chapter.


 * __February 29__:** Labor markets and unemployment


 * __Homework Due__: Mankiw (Chapters 18,19, and 28) and watch the following video.
 * __Khan Academy__: The first three videos are beyond our syllabus but aren't bad to know. Definitely watch the fourth video ("The unemployment rate")
 * [|Marginal Revenue Product Curve (a firm's demand for labor)]
 * [|How a firm determines the quantity of labor to hire]
 * [|Using individual firm's labor demand curves to derive the market demand curve]
 * __[|The unemployment rate]__


 * __Assessments and A__ __ ctivities __ : Lecture (PDF below)
 * [[file:Labor Markets and Unemployment.pdf]]


 * __Related Readings__
 * __[|Costs of Unemployment]__
 * [|Productivity and Unemployment]
 * __[|Labor Unions]__
 * [|Unemployment]


 * __March 4__:** Income inequality and poverty (Syllabus Section 2.4)

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 * __Homework Due__: Read Mankiw (Chapter 20)
 * __Assessments and Activities__: Free response/problem and lecture
 * //__Free-response/problem__//: You will work cooperatively with your partner to construct a response to the following prompt.
 * 1) __ Define __ : Natural rate of unemployment.
 * 2) __Explain__ how the following combine to account for the unemployment rate.
 * Frictional unemployment
 * Structural unemployment
 * Seasonal unemployment
 * Cyclical unemployment
 * 1) __Evaluate__ the different ways that unemployment could be reduced.
 * __//Lecture//__: Income inequality and poverty (PDF below)
 * [[file:Poverty and Inequality.pdf]]


 * __Related Readings__
 * __[|Welfare]__


 * __March 6__:** The government budget and the tax system (Syllabus Section 2.4)

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 * __Homework Due__: Read Mankiw (Chapter 12)
 * __Assessments and Activities__: Free-response/problem and lecture
 * __//Free-response/problem//__: You will work cooperatively with your partner to construct a response to the following prompt.


 * Evaluate the different ways that unemployment could be reduced.


 * __//Lecture//__: The government budget and the tax system (PDF below)
 * [[file:3 - The Design of the Tax System and the Government Budget.pdf]]


 * __Related Readings__
 * [|Fiscal Sustainability]
 * [|Taxation]
 * [|Consumption Tax]


 * __March 8__:** Booms and busts, the accelerator effect, and Keynesian fiscal policy (Syllabus Section 2.4)

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 * __Homework Due__: Read Mankiw (Chapter 34 - How Fiscal Policy Influences Aggregate Demand section) and watch the following videos.
 * __Khan Academy__
 * __[|Deflation]__
 * [|Deflation despite increases in the money supply]
 * [|Deflationary spiral]
 * Reagan and Obama
 * __Introduction to Fiscal Policy__

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 * __Assessments and Activities__: Free-response/problem and lecture
 * __//Free-response/problem//__: You will work cooperatively with your partner to construct a response to the following prompt.
 * 1) Define budget deficit and government debt.
 * 2) Evaluate whether governments should employ income tax systems that are progressive or proportional (flat).
 * __//Lecture//__: Booms and busts, the accelerator effect, and Keynesian fiscal policy (PDF below)
 * [[file:Booms and busts, the accelerator, and Keynesian fiscal policy.pdf]]
 * __Related Readings__
 * [|Causes of the 2008 Financial Crisis: 21 Book Review]
 * [|Causes of the 2008 Financial Crisis: Review of 16 Academic Papers]
 * [|Spain: Austerity vs. Crisis of Confidence]
 * [|Liquidity Traps]
 * [|Chairman Bernanke Should Listen to Professor Bernanke]
 * [|Fiscal Policy]
 * [|Fiscal Sustainability]
 * [|Taxation]
 * __[|Unintended Consequences]__
 * [|Bonds]
 * [|Capital Gains Taxes]
 * [|Marginal Tax Rates]
 * __[|The Great Depression]__
 * [|Bank Runs]
 * [|Bankruptcy]
 * [|Japan's Lost Decade]
 * [|Pensions]
 * [|Redistribution]
 * [|Welfare]

__**March 12**__**:** The multiplier effect and crowding out effect
 * __ Homework Due __ : Read Section 3.4 (McGee) and watch the videos below.


 * __Fiscal Policy and the Multiplier Effect__

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 * __Fiscal Policy and the Tax Multiplier__

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 * __Crowding Out Part 1__


 * __Crowding Out Part 2__
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 * __Activities and Assessments__: Free-response/problem and lecture


 * __//Free-response/problem//__: You will work cooperatively with your partner to construct a response to the following prompt.


 * 1) Explain why Keynesians believe that recessions begin and persist and why fiscal policy is necessary in remedying them
 * 2) Use the ideas of neoclassical economists (Monetarists) and classical economists (Austrians) to evaluate the theory you explained in #1.


 * __//Lecture//__: The multiplier effect and crowding out effect (PDF below)
 * [[file:The Multiplier and Crowding Out.pdf]]


 * __Related Readings__
 * [|Taxation]
 * __[|Airline Deregulation]__
 * [|Surface Freight Transportation Deregulation]
 * [|Regulation of Pharmaceuticals]
 * [|Marginal Tax Rates]


 * __March 14__:** Supply-side economics (Syllabus Section 2.6)

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 * __Homework Due__: None
 * __Assessments and Activities__: Free-response and lecture
 * __//Free-response/problem//__: You will work cooperatively with your partner to construct a response to the following prompt.
 * Use the concepts of the multiplier and crowding out to evaluate Keynesian fiscal policy.
 * //Lecture//: Supply-side economics (PDF below)
 * [[file:Supply-side Economics.pdf]]


 * __Related Readings__
 * [|That Wishful Thinking About Marginal Tax Rates]
 * [|The Origin of Modern Republican Fiscal Policy]
 * [| Interview with Robert A. Mundell]
 * [|It's Time to Cut Taxes - Jude Wanniski]
 * [|Jude Wanniski's Two Santa Theory]
 * [|The Mundell-Laffer Hypothesis — A New View of the World]
 * [|Grover Norquist: Emperor of no (The tax pledge)]
 * Reagan and Obama
 * [|An Emissions Plan Conservatives Could Warm To by Arthur Laffer]
 * [|Why We Regulate by Paul Krugman]
 * __[|Capital Gains Taxes]__
 * [|Government Growth]


 * __March 18__:** Reconciling demand-management and supply-side fiscal policies (test review)


 * __Homework Due__: Read Mankiw (Chapter 36 - Should Monetary and Fiscal Policymakers Try to Stabilize the Economy and Should the Government Balance Its Budget sections)

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 * __Assessments and Activities__: Free-response/problem and problem set
 * __//Free-response/problem//__: You will work cooperatively with your partner to construct a response to the following prompt.
 * Evaluate the effectiveness of Keynesian fiscal policy. In your address each of the following (SL need to address 3 and 4 only):
 * 1) The multiplier effect
 * 2) The crowding out effect
 * 3) The reasons that neoclassical economists prefer no government intervention
 * 4) Market oriented and interventionist supply-side policies


 * __//Problem Set//__: Once you have completed your response, you will work on a fiscal policy problem set.


 * __March 20__:** Fiscal policy test (multiple-choice only)

__**March 22**__**:** Fiscal policy test (papers)