William D. Lastrapes Professor of Economics
CV Research   Teaching Home	ECON 2105H: Principles of Macroeconomics (Honors) Economics is the study of how people deal with the problem of scarcity and choice. The fundamental assumption of economics is that individuals behave rationally when faced with this problem. This assumption turns out to provide an extremely wide and clear window through which we can view and understand important aspects of the world around us.  In this course, we take a first look at formal economic models based on the premise of rationality that shed light on basic economic questions, with a focus on macroeconomics: how the economy as a whole determines the availability and utilization of scarce resources. Some familiar macroeconomic concepts discussed are inflation, unemployment, interest rates, money, economic growth, and fluctuations in economic activity. We also analyze the impact of the government's fiscal and monetary policies on the overall economy. My primary objective is to introduce students to fundamental macroeconomic models to help them understand how economists explain aggregate economic activity. ECON 4100: Monetary Economics This course is an introduction to the economics of money and monetary institutions. We will carefully define money and explain its functions, examine its history and evolution, and use the common theoretical tools of economics to understand its importance and influence on our everyday lives. And because governments are now essential players in the monetary system (for good or bad), we will cover the basics of monetary policy: the attempts by the government to manipulate the quantity of money to solve macroeconomic problems. Our focus will be on monetary policy in the US and the role of the Federal Reserve System, but we will also have occasion to consider other central banks like the Bank of England and the European Central Bank. ECON 8040: Macroeconomic Theory I (Graduate) This course is an introduction to graduate level macroeconomic theory. As such, it attempts to develop intuition about how the macroeconomy works through the use of formal economic models, to introduce the tools necessary to build such models, and to provide a foundation for more advanced study in the field. I place particular emphasis on dynamic analysis and intertemporal choice. Some familiarity with intermediate macro theory, intermediate micro theory, linear algebra, constrained optimization and differential and integral calculus is presumed. However, the course material is presented at a basic level, and many of the technical tools are reviewed.  ECON 8130: Time Series Econometrics (Graduate) Most of what we observe about the macroeconomy is based on time series data -- quantities and prices that evolve over time. This course is an introduction to the statistical methods used to analyze such data. These methods provide a quantitative framework for characterizing the dynamic behavior of the macroeconomy, as well as for evaluating  macroeconomic theory. My aim is to give you a working knowledge of some common techniques that are currently used to explore important issues in macroeconomics and finance.