Research Topics in Macroeconomics

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Professor Yunus Aksoy
• Tutors: Pedro Gomes, Professor Anne Sibert, Professor Gylfi Zoega
• Assessment: in-class presentations and assignments (20%) and a 5000-8000-word essay (80%)

This module serves as a bridging course towards writing the MRes dissertation and teaches you about the most recent developments in macroeconomics research.

The lectures cover various research topics in macroeconomics with theoretical, computational and econometric elements. In addition, some lectures will contain computational training in matlab or R softwares in a computer lab as appropriate. The end-of-year essay gives you a chance to extend your understanding of ideas encountered in the taught courses and to develop themes for further research (potentially relevant for an MPhil/PhD).

By the end of this module, you will:

• have been exposed to frontier macroeconomics research
• be able to solve, calibrate and estimate academic research-level macroeconomic models
• be able to solve, calibrate and estimate existing research with your own collection of data, use of theoretical, computational and statistical techniques, and present your findings through in-class presentations
• have produced an independent piece of research on a macroeconomics topic
• demonstrate your ability to analyse an issue in depth, and to present your arguments coherently through an essay.