| ::Home Course Resources Principles of Macroeconomics
The lectures and readings in this course are designed to
familiarize students with the fundamentals of macroeconomic
theory. The central focus of the course is on understanding the
process of price formation in a free exchange economy. Market
institutions such as the price system, the monetary system, and
financial intermediaries are explored for their role in the
coordination of economic activity. Finally, the basic principles
will be applied to an understanding of economic issues such as
inflation, unemployment, national income, economic growth, and the
business cycle. A Note on JSTOR articles:
Some of the readings are on JSTOR, an online journal archive.
If the link provided does not work, you can also find these
articles by clicking the JSTOR link that follows
the article title, logging in, and using the Advanced Search
link to find the article.
The book In Defense of Global
Capitalism by Johan Norberg can be found here.
The book Principles of
Economics by Carl Menger can be found here.
Lesson 1: A Brief History of
Economic Thought
Leonard E. Read, I,
Pencil (class handout) (required)
(BB) Chapter 1 (pp. 8-18), and Chapter 2
Lesson 2: The Law of Supply
and Demand
(JN) Chapter 1
(BB) Chapters 3, 4 (pp. 53-68), and 5
Carl Menger, Principles
of Economics, Chapters 1-4
Lesson 3: The Role of the
Price System
(JN) Chapter 2
Thomas Rustici, A
Public Choice View of the Minimum Wage (PDF)
Hugh Rockoff, Price
Controls
Walter Block, Rent
Control
(BB) Chapter 4 (pp. 68-74)
Additional Optional Reading:
Donald Deere, Kevin M. Murphy, and Finis Welch, Sense and Nonsense on the Minimum Wage
Joint Economic Committee, 50
Years of Research on the Minimum Wage
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Characteristics
of Minimum Wage Workers
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table
A-2 (class handout)
Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPS AA, Table
44 (PDF)
Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPS AA, Table
45 (PDF)
Leonard, Thomas C., Retrospectives:
Eugenics and Economics in the Progressive Era (PDF)
Lesson 4: International Trade
(JN) Chapter 3
(BB) Chapter 34
Frederic Bastiat, The
Candlemaker's Petition
Russell Roberts, Treasure Island: The Power of Trade (Part
I, Part
II)
David Ricardo, On
Foreign Trade
Lesson 5:
The Nature and Origin of Money
Carl Menger, The Theory of Money
(required)
(BB) Chapter 22 (pp. 468-472)
(JN) Chapter 4
Lesson 6:
The Quantity Theory of Money
R.A. Radford,
The Economic Organization of a P.O.W. Camp (JSTOR)
Ayn Rand,
The Meaning of Money (a.k.a. "Francisco's Money Speech")
(required)
(JN) Chapter 5
Lesson 7:
The Classical Model
J.
B. Say, Of
the Demand or Market for Products
Lesson 8:
The Keynesian Model
(BB) Chapter 26
Ludwig von Mises, Lord
Keynes and Say’s Law
Lesson 9:
The Great Depression
Lawrence Reed,
Great Myths of the Great Depression
(required)
Lesson 10:
The Monetarist Model
Milton Friedman,
The Role of Monetary Policy (JSTOR)
Lesson 11:
The Neoclassical Model
N. Gregory
Mankiw, New
Keynesian Economics
Lesson 12:
Economic Growth
(JN) Chapters 6
& 7
Frederic Bastiat, What
Is Seen and What Is Not Seen
Final
Exam
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