The objective of the course is to familiarize students with advanced macroeconomic concepts and with the methodology that scholars and practitioners in the economic discipline use to understand and explain decision making and the economic problems and phenomena that surround us.

After completing this course, students should be capable of analyzing and understanding current economic events, appraising the overall state of any economy, identifying the reasons for its healthy or unhealthy state, and making their own critical assessment regarding macroeconomic policies in place (often the subject of heated economic debates). For this, the course will develop the theoretical background that helps explain the links between the main macroeconomic aggregates, and it will do so with a strong focus placed on the practical implications of the underlying theory.

Students are expected to acquire the following skills:

•Analyze the behavior of economic agents (consumers and businesses) and the operation of markets.
•Understand economic institutions through the study of theories as to how the economy works.
•Learn maro-aggregate economic concepts and their use.
•Understand the general workings of the overall economy over the short and the long run.
•Explore the use of economic models to make predictions about the real world.
•Apply economic criteria based on the use of technical tools to the analysis of simple economic problems.
•Use the relevant information to evaluate the current economic environment and possible evolution of business and markets.
•Use the course material to analyze new economic problems and reason in a rigorous and systematic way.
•Draw relevant information from data that non-experts would be unable to appreciate.
•Improve individual problem solving, confront problems in a rigorous and systematic fashion and think critically.