The short assignment is individual - it can be worked on in groups, but each person has to hand in an individual write up for individual grades.
Problem Set 1: The IS-LM Model (PDF)
Debates
Debate Questions
These are the two questions to be debated:
Ses #15: On January 16th 2011, days before an official visit to the US, China's President Hu Jintao made the following remarks to the press: "The monetary policy of the United States has a major impact on global liquidity and capital flows and therefore, the liquidity of the US dollar should be kept at a reasonable and stable level"
Should the US Federal Reserve worry about the effects of its monetary policy in other countries?
Should it care about the dollar's role in international markets?
Ses #16: Should Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and similar countries abandon the Euro? Should there be two Euro zones, one for the periphery and one for the core countries (Germany, France, etc)?
Debate Instructions
Students will sort into teams of 3 or 4. Each team will have to prepare 4 presentations, 2 per debate, one for each position (i.e. "yes" and "no"). These should be PowerPoint presentations with a maximum length of 7 slides for each position. This is the only deliverable you have to do for the debates.
Before the debates, a secret ballot will be held for each of the debate questions. Every individual in the class must vote 'yes' or 'no' to each question.
On the day of the debate, we will randomly select two teams to present their slides and makes their cases. Whether they present in support of "yes" or "no" is also randomly assigned. A team can be selected to present in both debates.
After the debate, the students that did not present will vote again. We will exclude the votes from the presenters in the first survey and compare the change in the results between the pre-debate and post-debate surveys. The team that shifted public opinion in their favor will win the debate. If you win, you get 10 additional points for each individual in the team.
Debate Structure
- The team pro the debate (yes) starts with 5 minutes.
- The team against the debate (no) goes next with 7 minutes.
- The team pro the date (yes) has 2 minutes for rebuttal.
- The debate is then opened to the class on both sides of the debate for additional arguments and discussions for 15 minutes. Finally, the professors will summarize.