ECON5310 – Topics in macroeconomics
Course content
NB: The course overview may change according to the interests of the students.
Preliminary outline for Spring 2015
Macroeconomic Topics: Inequality and unemployment
The course has two parts:
1) Risk sharing and inequality (2/3 of the course, KS)
This part of the course studies major developments in the economics of inequality, including the main drivers of inequality, the effects of inequality on consumption, wealth, and labor supply. We will also examine risk sharing and the extent to which households can protect themselves against risk. The role of public policy will be a central theme.
2) Unemployment (1/3 of the course, MH)
This part of the course discusses some of the recent developments in macro-labor, using and building on the search-matching framework of Diamond/Mortensen/Pissarides. The class covers macro- and microeconomic questions of the labor market combining theoretical and empirical methods.
The course addresses the following questions:
- Why do we observe unemployment?
- Why does unemployment fluctuate so much over the business cycle?
- Why do seemingly identical workers receive so different wages?
- What are the effects of increasing the generosity of unemployment insurance on unemployment and welfare?
- Can this account for the surge of US unemployment during the Great Recession?
- Does the market allocate the right workers to the right jobs?
- Are complementarities between workers and employers important in determining output, productivity, and wages?
- What is the allocation of workers to employers that maximizes total output?
Admission
Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.
Students enrolled in other Master's Degree Programmes can, on application, be admitted to the course if this is cleared by their own study programme.
If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.
Only students admitted to the course may sit for the examination.
Prerequisites
Formal prerequisite knowledge
Bachelor's degree in Economics, or equivalent.
Recommended previous knowledge
Please note that this is a very advanced master’s course and we recommend that you have a good background in Economics before you take this course.
Teaching
Lectures: 2 hours per week throughout the semester.
Seminars: 2 hours per week through parts of the semester.
There might occur weeks exempt from teaching.
Examination
There will be a take-home exam at the end of the course.
Language of examination
The problem set will be given in English. Answers can be given in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or in English. See § 5.4 in Regulations governing studies and examinations and the University of Oslo.