Economics 1021 – Prof. Fazzari – Detailed Course Information

Spring, 2011

All students must read the information below and be familiar with these important policies!

Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites for this course. I assume, however, that students are competent with high school algebra, understand functional relations, and, most importantly, can interpret graphs.  If you are concerned about your mathematical skills, please contact me as soon as possible.

Lectures: All my former students will tell you that lecture attendance is very important to success in my courses. Although class notes are posted on the web, you will need to have your own notes in addition to do well in this course. Some material in class will not be adequately covered in the online notes. Indeed, because of the dramatic macroeconomic events of the past several years, there is likely to be much original material this semester. The online notes will not reflect many of these innovations to the course, but students are fully responsible for any material covered in class on the exams, even if that material does not appear in the posted notes. Plan to attend class!

Course Staff:  In addition to Prof. Fazzari, the course will be served by at least three teaching assistants. Their names and contact information appear on the course home page. The TAs will hold office hours and have primary responsibility for grading homework and exams. At least one of the TAs should be in class most days.

Reading: There is no standard textbook for this course. The online notes have been compiled from past offerings of this course and they are posted on the web. The notes are organized much like a textbook. You should read the notes carefully and understand them completely. Some additional reading drawn from current news sources may be assigned during the semester. You should recognize that a lot has happened in the world of macroeconomics since the last time Fazzari taught this class (four years ago, spring of 2007). There will be some updates to the online notes to reflect new material, but there will be topics and explanations discussed in class that will not appear in the posted notes. In the words of microeconomic theory, the in-class discussions and online notes are complements, not substitutes!

Required Homework: There will be approximately seven homework assignments, most of them will be handed in during class. Because of the large number of students in the class, only some of the assigned homework questions will be graded. Solutions for the homework questions will be posted on the homework page after class on the due date. Therefore, late papers will usually not be accepted unless you are unable to complete an assignment due to illness or other legitimate excuse. The homework scores assigned by the TA will be final, except for addition errors. Please do not request a re-grade of your homework assignment.

Although scores on the standard homework questions receive relatively little weight in the course grade, I have found that the homework assignments are essential to students' mastery of the course material. Homework questions are often drawn from past exam questions, so they provide excellent practice for the exams and help students become familiar with the style of questions they can expect on the tests. You are likely to do much better on the course exams if you work hard on the homework assignments.

I encourage students to work together on homework assignments, which can be a very effective way to learn. All written work turned in, however, should be your own. If you work together on assignments, make sure that each member of the group writes up his or her own answers in his or her own words. Evidence of copying on written work will be treated as a serious breach of academic integrity.

This semester, students will also complete a pretest to assess knowledge of macroeconomics prior to taking the course. A small part of the homework score will reflect participation in the pretesting process. More information about the pretest will follow soon.

News Analysis: The material in this course is directly relevant to interpreting current events in the U.S. economy. You are encouraged to keep up with the news and pay attention to how discussions in class help you to understand unfolding economic events during the semester. News analysis questions will be given as part of some of the regular homework. These questions will have a somewhat higher weight in the grade. Some news analysis questions will also likely appear on the course exams.

Exam Schedule: There will be two in-class midterm exams and a final exam this semester. The in-class exam dates are February 18 and April 1 (both on Fridays). The final exam is slot XVII: Tuesday, May 10, 10:30 to 12:30.

Exam Structure: About half of the in-class midterm exams will consist of multiple choice questions. The other half will be short essay questions that require a response of several sentences to a paragraph. Students will get information in class about the detailed topics will be covered on each exam.

The final exam will be divided into two parts. The first part will be just like a midterm exam that will cover the material in detail discussed during roughly the final third of the course, again using multiple choice and short essay questions. This first part of the final will not be cumulative (although broad familiarity with terms and concepts developed earlier in the semester may be required). The second part of the final will include one or two broader essay questions that may require responses of several paragraphs. These questions will be designed to assess students’ ability to apply the main lessons of the course to understand current macroeconomic events and the policy responses to them. These questions will not require specific details from material covered on the first two midterms. But a good understanding of the big issues discussed throughout the course will be important to the broader essays on the final exam.

Exam Policies: To be fair to all the students in the class, I must insist that the following exam policies be followed. There will be no make-up exams. Special exam times will be arranged only for a student with a substantive and unavoidable reason for missing the regular exam time. Anyone who must miss an exam should notify me as soon as possible, but at least three days before the scheduled exam time. The only exceptions to this rule will be a verified, serious illness or serious family emergency. Even in this case, students should make sure to notify me of the emergency or illness prior to the exam. At the very least, send me an e-mail message or leave a message at 935-5693.

I know that students face many academic pressures throughout the semester, and I am sympathetic to problems these pressures can cause. I cannot, however, postpone exams because of deadlines or exam dates in other courses. Such actions would not be fair to other students in the class who likely also face pressure from work in other classes but take the exams at the scheduled time.

The exams are graded very carefully and I rarely change the original scores. If you believe a grading mistake has been made on an exam, however, you may submit a re-grade request to me within one week of the time the exam is returned. The request must be in writing. It should carefully explain the reason you believe that a grading error has been made. The teaching assistants and I will consider your request and re-grade the entire exam. The score may go up or down. (There is more information about the re-grade policy on the grades page of the course web site.)

Grading: Your letter grade will be determined by the total points obtained on the course work. Exam points will be distributed approximately as follows: 100 points for each midterm exam (total of 200), 100 points for the first part of the final exam that covers the details of final third of the course, and 50 points for the second, broad essay part of the final. I expect roughly 50 points for all homework combined.

At the end of the semester, I will post a grade distribution for the course on the course website. You will be able to determine your course grade from this distribution. I try to set the letter grades so that most students' scores do not fall extremely close to a higher letter grade. In a large class, however, a few students will undoubtedly have scores that are very close to the borderline between two letter grades. I cannot raise letter grades that are close to the borderline; this action would not be fair to the other students in the class. Therefore, the letter grade you receive is final. The only exception to this policy is if you can provide evidence that your scores were added incorrectly. Please do not request grade changes for any other reason. I want to know about special circumstances that may affect your performance in the course. In some cases, I adjust grades to reflect circumstances affecting individual students. But you must let me know about such circumstances before the final grades are posted.

I have found in the past that this system is equitable and informative. If you have any questions about the system, please see me early in the semester. I will assume that all students who choose to remain in this course accept this grading system.

Office Hours and E-Mail: My office hours this semester will be Tuesday, 1:30-2:45 and Wednesday 3:00-4:15. Feel free to come by during these times. On many days, I am available a bit longer than the end of formal office hours, so if you arrive just before the end of the designated time, I am likely to be able to talk with you, at least briefly. On some days I have to modify my office hours to attend seminars or meetings related to other campus obligations, I apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.

It is possible to schedule special appointments with me at other times, but it is best for you to use my office hours if at all possible since I am usually very busy during the semester.

My office is in room 185 on the ground floor of Seigle Hall. The office is located inside the Weidenbaum Center suite. Enter the suite through the double doors marked room 170. My telephone number is 935-5693. The teaching assistants for this course will also hold regular office hours that will be announced early in the semester and posted on the course web site.

I read my e-mail regularly, which is a very efficient way for you to communicate with me, especially if you cannot see me during office hours. My address is fazz@wustl.edu.

Course Web Site: All materials for the course will be posted on the course web site. I will not bring hard copies of homework, solutions, readings, etc. to class unless I receive a special request.

Course Outline: The course outline shows the topics we will cover in detail. It is a valuable tool. You should follow how the lectures correspond to the course outline. The outline is also an excellent study guide. You should be able to look at the outline and ask yourself questions about each entry. If you can easily formulate answers to such questions you will be well prepared for the exams. If you have trouble asking a question or formulating an answer, you need to review the topic further. Don’t forget about the outline when you prepare for the course exams. The course outline and the posted lecture notes have the same organization. It should be easy for you to find additional information in the lecture notes about any entry in the course outline.