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Instructors: Univ-Prof. Dr. Arne Niemann
Event type:
Seminar
Displayed in timetable as:
Sem EU Ext. Policy
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 30
Priority scheme: Senatsrichtlinie
Requirements / organisational issues:
Organizational issues:
- Attendance in class is obligatory
- Task assignment and presentation in the second part of the seminar
Contents:
Especially in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, discussions about monetary policy have become omnipresent, not only in politics, but also among scholars from various disciplines and in the media. This seminar covers the theory of monetary policy with an applied focus on the European Union. It will fall into two blocks, one primarily lecture oriented, the other organized as interactive seminar.
The idea underlying the first block is to prepare the theoretical foundations of monetary policy from a macroeconomic point of view. Besides introducing key concepts like aggregate demand and supply, money aggregates or interest rates, this part of the seminar will elaborate upon the link between financial markets and the real economy. Students will learn why monetary policy is important for real economic outcomes, and what modern theories have to say regarding how different economic aims can be achieved via monetary policy.
The idea underlying the second block is to focus on issues of current political debate and discuss the arguments in reference to the theories introduced in the first block. Students will be assigned specific tasks and present their results. Possible topics include the discussion of pros and cons of central bank independence, what is and should be done about the banking crisis or why the European Central Bank’s current policy of “quantitative easing” might or might not be a good idea.
Recommended reading list:
Mishkin, Frederic S. (2013), The Economics of Money, Banking, and Financial Markets, Bosten et al.: Pearson.
Additional information:
The seminar takes the perspective of macroeconomics. Insofar as economic models involve mathematic formulations and derivations, students should expect to encounter some formulas in class and be able to handle these. But this does not imply that math is seen as an end in itself. Rather, grasping the logic underlying the models is seen as essential.
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