Last modified: 2021 February 08
Current location of this page: https://subversion.american.edu/aisaac/webnotes.html

Syllabi and Lecture Notes

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This page links to my lecture notes and course supplements. While I do what I can to make these notes accurate and complete, you are responsible to be a critical reader. These notes are under development; they are a draft rather than a final version.

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Econ 372
International Economics: Finance

Lecture Slides 372

Macroeconomic Accounting | Foreign Exchange Market and the Exchange Rate | Money and Exchange Rate Determination | Purchasing Power Parity | AA-DD | Pegged Rates | Macro Policy Trade-Offs | Financial Globalization

Some Additional Supplements (Not Required!)

Spreadsheet Basics
Balance of Payments Accounting plus a supplement to Supplement 10
Introduction

Financial Markets

Monetary Approach and Monetary Approach presentation

SKIP: Monetary Approach under Rational Expectations

Purchasing Power Parity

Trade Balance

Overshooting

Risk Premium: sections 1 and 2 only

Econ 450/650
Growing Artificial Societies

Lecture Notes and Other Resources

Please read the the Project Details page very carefully: it includes many important details for your term project.

See our Blackboard site for the lecture notes. Below you will find a few additional resources.

NetLogo Introduction
NetLogo Programming
Spreadsheet Basics
Functional Programming: An Introduction
NetLogo Utilities
Introduction to Subversion
Introduction to UML
Introduction to the NetLogo Profiler Extension
Introduction to the Pareto Distribution
Integral Calculus: Introduction (Lorenz Curve)
Econ 450/650 Quiz

Some Related Notes

Learning Python
Basic LaTeX
What is ASCII?

Econ 672

Pakko, Michael R., and Patricia S. Pollard, 1996

Lecture Notes and Other Resources

Comment: Since I continually modify my lecture notes, those provided here will be very similar to but not identical to the notes used in class.


International Finance: Lecture Notes on Exchange Rates (book format)
Macroeconomic Accounting
Accessing and Plotting FRED Data with Mathematica
Introduction to Growth (These notes illustrate the use of Mathematica, but you may focus on the algebra and charts and skip all Mathematica details.)
Mathematica Intro and a useful list of Mathematica commands.
My first steps toward a Mathematica Introduction for this class. (Please report typos!)

Introduction to Growth (skip all but Solow and MRW)
Introduction to MRW's Data (using Mathematica)
Bumann & Lesnick’s Theoretical Model (includes a Mathematica demo)
Introduction to the Pareto Distribution (includes a Mathematica demo)
Exchange Rate Data with Python
Cointegration and Error Correction: brief intro
Differential Equations
Applied Time Series (Very Brief Intro)
Fixed Exchange Rates: Intro

Econ-301/501

Introductory Talking Points from Class (by request) (PDF | HTML). Comment: these are just brief summaries of points made in class. You are responsible for detecting problems with these quick notes. (Please tell me of any typos or errors.) Additional Talking Points from Class.

Solow Model.

Romer Model.

Deficits and Debt.

Unemployment.

Inflation.

Introduction to the Short Run.

Introduction to the IS Curve.

Introduction to the MP Curve.

Aggregate Supply Considerations.

Logarithms.

Gini.

Brief stats notes.

Accounting Notes.

Debt Dynamics

Useful Supplements

C-CPI

Measuring and Detecting Inflation

Boskin Commission Report

BLS response to Boskin Commission.

Triplett, Jack E., Economic Theory and BEA's Alternative Quantity and Price Indexes. From the April 1992 SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS.

Steindal, Charles, Chain Weighting.

Econ505

Lecture notes are copyrighted by Alan G. Isaac. All rights are reserved. Students taking my course may freely make one copy of the notes for their personal use.

Please understand that I am making available to you my notes from previous years. Naturally I will add and subtract from these when developing this year's lectures, so they are similar to but not identical to what you see in class.

Not all notes will be updated. The notes are intended as a supplement to NOT a substitute for your own note-taking.

Please inform me of typographical and other errors.

Learning Python

My first steps toward a Mathematica Introduction for this class. (Please report typos!)

Preliminaries

Economic Models

Logic

Sets

Numbers (Intro)

Vectors: Intro

Matrices 1: Intro

Linear Comparative Statics (WL)

IS-LM

Functions

Differential Calculus: Introduction

Integral Calculus: Introduction

Logarithms and Exponents

Sequences and Series

Multivariate Functions

Linear Transformations (optional)

Matrices 2: Basic Matrix Algebra

Determinants and Inverses

Quadratic Forms (2004)

Optimization (2007)

Partial Derivatives of Multivariate Function

Implicit Function Theorem (Nonlinear Comparative Statics) (2005)

Extras:

Intro to Analysis

Logic

Sets

Numbers (Intro)

Relations

Econ705

Mathematica Resources

Mathematica Intro
A useful list of Mathematica commands.
My Mathematica Introduction for this class. (Please report typos!)

Interested students may also look at some Python resources. (Not required!)

Lecture Notes

Lecture notes are copyrighted by Alan G. Isaac. All rights are reserved. Students taking my course may freely make one copy of the notes for their personal use.

Please understand that I am making last year's notes available to you. Naturally I will add and subtract from these when developing this year's lectures, so they are not identical to what you see in class.

Not all notes will be updated. The notes are intended as a supplement to but NOT a substitute for your own note-taking.

Please inform me of typographical and other errors.

Math Camp Notes (draft)
Logic
Sets
Sequences and Series (2008)
Relations
Intro to Analysis
Functions
Differential Calculus: Introduction
Multivariate Functions
Implicit Function Theorem

Vectors: Intro
Matrices 1: Intro
Matrices 2: Basic Matrix Algebra
Determinants and Inverses
Linear Transformations
Eigensystems
Quadratic Forms (optional).

Supplements

The following sketchier notes are very much in progress; please report typos and lacunae.

Preliminaries (2006)
Economic Models (2006)
IS-LM Review
Numbers (Intro)
Logarithms
Vectors: Mathematica Introduction
Matrices: Mathematica Introduction
Calculus: Mathematica Introduction
Optimization
Bivariate Optimization (with Mma):

Econ712

Please report typos!

Mathematica Intro

Intro to Macro Tools with Mma

Applied Time Series (Very Brief Intro)

IS-LM Review

Cagan Model (RatEx, Discrete Time)

Three Asset Model

Debt Dynamics

Budget Constraint

Term Structure Model

A tiny bit of stats. (Very preliminary.)

Blinder model slides

Blinder model slides

Okun's Law

Phillips Curve

Aggregate Supply/Natural Rate (rough)

New Keynesian Phillips Curve (very rough)

Analysis Notes

Theorem of the Maximum Notes

Dynamic Programming Notes

Consumption

Investment

Differential Equations

Growth

OG Model and SSI

Learning Python

Econ 713 Lecture Notes and Supplementary Readings

Set Theoretic Background (with homework problems).

Background on Binary Relations (with homework problems).

Brief Reflections on Rationality

Abstract Choice Theory.

Miscellaneous Supplements to Notes on Choice Theory I.

Miscellaneous Supplements to Notes on Choice Theory II.

Analysis

Utility Function

Brief Intro to Social Dilemma Games

Simulating Evolutionary Games

Theorem of the Maximum

Irrational Choice: brief notes.

Behavior under Risk: brief notes.

Dynamic Programming
Comment: These notes remain very rough and a bit unfocused. Please report any typos.

Moral Hazard: brief notes.

Econ 782

This course will not have much in the way of lecture notes, but eventually there will be a few supplements.

Maximum Likelihood Estimation

Econ 796 materials

Please report typos!

Learning Python

Mathematica Intro
Intro to Macro Tools with Mma
Introduction to the Pareto Distribution

Solow Model (via Mathematica)

Dynamic Programming Notes
Dynamic Programming Notebook
Introduction to the Gambler’s Ruin Problem

Cagan Model (RatEx, Discrete Time)

Three Asset Model

Debt Dynamics

Budget Constraint

Term Structure Model

A tiny bit of stats. (Very preliminary.)

Blinder model slides

Okun's Law

Phillips Curve

Aggregate Supply/Natural Rate (rough)

New Keynesian Phillips Curve (very rough)

Analysis Notes

Theorem of the Maximum Notes

Dynamic Programming Notes

Consumption

Investment

Differential Equations

Growth

OG Model and SSI

Learning Python

© 2020 Alan G. Isaac. Some rights reserved:
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