Gold
Silver[W4913] Macroeconomics Seminar
Departments: Economics
Professors: Donald Morgan, Robert Mundell, Edmund Phelps, and Bruce Preston
After taking a senior seminar with Professor Mundell I understand the previous commentor's frustrations BUT I think they probably just had the wrong attitude about the class.
As far as a seminar goes, this is about as easy as you can hope for. There are no readings, homeworks, or papers. There is a midterm and a final that is entirely based on class notes, his general ramblings in class, and a few papers he has written. If you study that material, everything is pretty clear and the exams are fair.
The main thing with this class is that most of his economic theory is really outdated. He is pretty much a stubborn brilliant econoclast (see what I did there?) who just preaches his own beliefs. His lectures range from fascinating to incredibly boring and it is almost impossible to understand any of the graphs he draws. However, it doesn't matter! As long as you go to office hours and have him explain the most important models (or figure them out on your own) that is all you need for the exams.
Overall, this was a totally painless seminar where I learned a lot about some really pertinent issues right now (optimum currency areas, currency stability, etc.).
As long as you are not a control freak and can handle a class that is a bit disorganized and not completely clear, I would definitely recommend Mundell's Macro Disequilibrium seminar.
As noted above: only a midterm and final
No reading, homework, or papers
Bruce's teaching style is very laidback, which makes for a pretty stress-free seminar, especially one with only 10 students. He was also flexible on the paper deadline, letting us hand it in anytime before the end of the semester.
We could write the final paper on any topic of our choice, as long as it related in some way to the seminar topic - central banking and inflation targeting.
My only critique would be that the seminar was light on discussion, although this improved during the second half of the semester when we were giving our presentations to the class.
He had to cancel or reschedule several classes because of travel conflicts, but he was great about working around our class schedules.
1 problem set, 2 page outline due in October, 45-minute presentation, and 7000 word paper on a topic of your choice
Grading was 50% paper, 25% presentation, and 25% participation
he is brilliant, but i couldnt understand him. he mumbles and rambles on to himself. he said you didnt need to know calculus, but it looked like there were derivatives or something on his exams. i managed to pass his class without learning or understanding anything.
This is by far the perfect class if youre a senior, youre extremely lazy, and just need to satisfy your seminar requirement.
Prof. Morgan is a senior economist at the New York Fed, but ostensibly had some problems explaining basic macro concepts. However, all in all, hes a nice guy that doesnt take the course very seriously, and expects students to do the same. Class discussions focused on discussing relevant economic issues in the news and Fed policy.
Non-mandatory readings assigned for each class. Majority of grade determined by end-of-class presentation about a macroeconomics topic of your choice and a 8-12 (!) page paper to be submitted at the end of the finals period.
Vanilla lecturer who inspires more students to skip his classes than to attend. Readings are voluminous and may bankrupt you if you try to xerox them all, but they are the keys to exams. Past midterms have completely eschewed conceptual knowledge in favor of the "Who said this...?" genre you saw in Lit Hum. One to avoid, but then again, he is famous.
World Econ:Midterm & final exams.
Directory Data
| Dept/Subj | Directory Course | Professor | Year | Semester | Time | Section |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ECON / ECON | ECON ECON W4913: Seminar-Macroeconomic Theory: Global Macro Disequilibrium | Robert Mundell | 2012 | Spring | M / 9:00-10:50 AM | 2 |
| ECON / ECON | ECON ECON W4913: Seminar-Macroeconomic Theory: Global Macro Disequilibrium | Robert Mundell | 2008 | Fall | M / 11:00-12:50 PM | 1 |