Discipline: Economics Degree Credit  [X]
Non Credit  [ ]
Nondegree Credit  [ ]
Comm Service  [ ]
 

Riverside Community College District
Integrated Course Outline of Record

Economics 7H


COURSE DESCRIPTION
7H Honors Macroeconomics Units: 3.00
 
Prerequisite(s): None.

Advisory: Qualification for ENG-1A and MAT-52.
Limitation on Enrollment: Enrollment in the Honors Program.
Economic theory and analysis as applied to the U.S. economy as a whole. Emphasizes the enhanced exploration of aggregative economics dealing with the macroeconomic concepts of national income and expenditure, aggregate supply and demand, fiscal policy, monetary policy, and economic stabilization and growth. This Honors course offers an enriched experience for accelerated students through limited class size, seminar format, focus on primary texts, and application of higher order critical thinking skills. Students may not receive credit for both ECO-7 and ECO-7H. 54 hours lecture.
 
SHORT DESCRIPTION FOR CLASS SCHEDULE
Offers students in the Honors Program an enriched introduction to Economic theory and analysis as applied to the U.S. economy as a whole.
 
ADVISORY ENTRY SKILLS
Before entering the course, students will be able to:
  1. Critically discuss and analyze primary and secondary texts, recognizing key ideas and responding in both oral and written form.

  2. Analyze, synthesize, and evaluate concepts studied in primary and secondary texts using critical thinking skills.

  3. Compose and develop unified, stylistically competent writing assignments and adjust writing to the target audience with intermediate to advanced skill.

  4. Understand, create and apply graphical analysis.

  5. Manipulate simple algebraic equations.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
 Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to:
  1. Describe, analyze and evaluate economic concepts, paradigms, and theories of the macro-economy.
  2. Identify major current macroeconomic problems and use economic theory to analyze and evaluate the problems.
  3. Identify current governmental policies to remedy the macroeconomic problems and assess the effectiveness of these policies.
  4. Evaluate the impact of macroeconomic policies on such issues as:  the distribution of wealth and income, economic growth, and the global economy.
  5. Use research tools including scholarly journals and texts, current government statistics, and the Internet to analyze and evaluate the current macro-economy.
  6. Demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and academic skills through effective essay writing of research assignments and examinations.
  7. Demonstrate critical thinking ability including the analysis and evaluation of data, and an understanding of alternative explanations and the forming of conclusions from data presented.
 
COURSE CONTENT
  TOPICS
 

Instructors may approach the honors course from an historic analysis to a thematic approach which will be consistently pursued throughout the semester.  Examples of possible themes include:  globalization, international financial markets, economic development, poverty and discrimination, or women in the economy.

TOPICS
1.   Overview:  Our Economic System
      a.   Our Mixed Economy:  Resources, Goals and Institutions
      b.   The Laws of Supply and Demand:  the Price System in a Market
            Economy
      c.   The Private Sector – Households and Businesses: Income and
            Industrial Structure
      d.   The Public Sector – the Role of Government in the Economy
2.   National Income, Employment, and Fiscal Policy
      a.   Measuring National Income and Product
      b.   Economic Instability:  Business Cycles, Unemployment, and
            Inflation 
      c.   Introduction to Classical Economics
      d.   Introduction to Keynesian Economics 
      e.   Income and Employment Determination:  the Income-
            Expenditure and Income-Price Models
      f.   Fiscal Policy and the National Debt
3.   Monetary Economics and Macroeconomic Equilibrium
      a.   Money, Financial Markets, Banking Institutions, and the
            Federal Reserve System
      b.   Money Creation
      c.   Central Banking:  Monetary Theory and Monetary Policy
      d.   Macroeconomic Equilibrium
4.   Macroeconomics Today:  Ideas, Issues, and Policies
      a.   Monetarism and the New Classical Economics
      b.   Macroeconomic Issues:  Unemployment and Inflation,
            Stagflation, and Supply-side Economics
      c.   The International Economy
 
METHODS OF INSTRUCTION
 Methods of instruction used to achieve student learning outcomes may include, but are not limited to:

  • Seminar style instruction that solicits active student participation in discussion, debate, and presentations.  Student participation should advance critical thinking and communication skills, leading to argumentative flexibility and clarity in order to develop the necessary understanding of the macro-economy, its problems, and policies.
  • Create and have students participate in small group activities that promote the analysis of macroeconomic problems and policies that develop an awareness of alternative approaches and synthesize diverse points of view.
  • Develop and assign cooperative learning tasks and/or computer-based exercises in order to have students apply economic analysis to current macroeconomic problems and policies.
  • Create and have students participate in alternative active learning techniques such as having students gather their own data by creating and implementing a survey, analyze concrete factual data, prepare a learning log, or participate in in-class experiments, in order to engage students more actively in the learning process.

 
 
METHODS OF EVALUATION
 Students will be evaluated for progress in and/or mastery of learning outcomes by methods of evaluation which may include, but are not limited to:

  • Research papers or other written assignments totaling at least 20 pages of formal writing designed to assess the students’ ability to analyze macroeconomic concepts, paradigms, theories, problems, policies, and the results of those policies.  These papers are also assigned to help students actively learn the material by writing and contemplating.
  • Class and individual projects designed to assess the students’ ability to gather information, analyze materials, test results, and to evaluate the students’ synthesis of diverse points of view.
  • Class participation/demonstrations/oral reports designed to engage students in the dialogue of the macro-economy as well as the ability to express their own well-formed point of view to classmates in a clear and understandable manner which illustrates the examination of others’ viewpoints.
  • Exams designed to assess the students’ grasp of concepts, paradigms and theories of the macro-economy, its problems, and policies to alleviate the problems as well as to evaluate the students’ ability to think critically about macroeconomic problems.
ASSIGNMENTS

Required Reading Assignments


Required Writing Assignments


Other Outside-of-Class Assignments
 
COURSE MATERIALS
 All materials used in this course will be periodically reviewed to ensure that they are appropriate for college level instruction. Possible texts include:

  • Baumol, W. and Blinder, A. . Macroeconomics. 10 ed. any: Thompson Learning, 2005.
  • Colander, David C.. Macroeconomics. 6 ed. any: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2005.
  • Mankiw, N. Gregory. Macroeconomics. 6 ed. any: Worth Publishing, 2006.
  • Stiglitz, Joseph. Principles of Macroeconomics. 4 ed. any: WW Norton Publishing, 2006.
  • 1. Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations.
    2. Karl Marx, Das Kapital.
    3. John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money.
    4. Milton Friedman, Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 and Capitalism and Freedom.
    5. Joseph Stigliz, Globalization and it's Discontents.
    6. Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society.
    7. Joseph Schumpeter, The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquirty into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest and the Business Cycle.
09/06
820