This is the first section of the Ph.D. topics course of macro and money. This section of the course interprets macro and money broadly. The common theme is the presence of market frictions. The lectures will go through a small number of articles in detail, leaving the extensive reading of related articles to the students.
In doing so, this section is intended to serve two purposes. One is to introduce students to a set of economic issues and models, and the other is to help students start thinking about research that will eventually lead to the dissertation in the field.
It is important to understand both the economic idea in each article and the way in which a model is worked out to illustrate this idea. Depending on the economic issue involved, some articles are qualitative while others are quantitative.
Students are expected to actively participate in the course through discussions and presentations. They are also expected to work out the models presented in the class and read the closely related papers.