ECON 5500 - Monetary Theory and Policy

The course provides an in-depth look at the role of money and financial markets in an advanced capitalist market economy. The course starts out with a discussion of how banks create credit and money and discuss the central bank’s role in this process. It then reviews how money enters standard macroeconomic analysis. Next, we explore the implications of dropping these assumptions for macroeconomic analysis. The conceptual framework that emerges therefrom provides the foundation for a discussion of financial regulation. We consider these issues in the context of the 1930s Great Depression, the evolution of financial deregulation after the 1980s, and also the 2008 Financial Crisis. Graduate students should register for ECON 5550 and will be held to higher standards and/or additional work.