Course Schedule and Catalog
Course Schedule - Spring Semester 2027
Meeting location information can now be found on student schedules in ESTHER (for students) or on the Course Roster in ESTHER (for faculty and instructors).Additional information available here.
Meeting location information can now be found on student schedules in ESTHER (for students) or on the Course Roster in ESTHER (for faculty and instructors).Additional information available here.
ECON 503 001 (CRN: 26249)
MACROECONOMICS II
Long Title: MACROECONOMICS II
Department: Economics
Instructor: Bassetto, Marco
Meeting: 2:30PM - 3:45PM TR (11-JAN-2027 - 23-APR-2027)
Part of Term: Full Term
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Lecture
Language of Instruction: Taught in English
Method of Instruction: Face to Face
Credit Hours: 3
Course Syllabus:
Course Materials: Rice Campus Store
Restrictions:
Must be enrolled in one of the following Level(s):
Graduate
Prerequisites: ECON 502
Section Max Enrollment: 25
Section Enrolled: 0
Enrollment data as of: 2-NOV-2026 5:01AM
Final Exam: GR Course-Dept Schedules Exam
Description: This course uses and deepens the tools that were introduced in Macroeconomics I and applies them to study other applications to macroeconomic questions. We will study welfare properties of equilibria in dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models and consider questions of optimal policy, both when policymakers have the ability to commit and when they do not.
We will introduce the main methods for solving DSGE models numerically, discuss the challenges that arise when government policy is itself endogenously determined, and briefly touch on recent advances. We will then turn our attention to nominal frictions as a possible source of business cycles, introducing the basic New Keynesian model and discussing other ways in which these frictions can be justified. Within this context, we will study the stabilization properties of monetary and fiscal policy, and their interaction.