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.
My notes often have math or graphics in them. I will usually post them as Acrobat PDF files, which you can computer that has a recent PDF reader installed on it. If you use Acrobat Reader, you can annotate these notes just as you would a printed version. I recommend this approach: it is very convenient, and it saves trees. Acrobat Reader is available at no cost.
If you must have a hardcopy of my notes, it is best to download the PDF file before printing it. I have noticed occasional missing fonts when I try to print directly from a browser. You should also watch for other bugs in the browser plug-ins. Some versions of Internet Explorer do not correctly handle named destinations in PDF files, and early versions of Edge do not allow you to pick a download location on a per file basis. For most convenience, use another browser (perhaps Opera or FireFox).
Spreadsheet Basics
Balance of Payments Accounting plus a
supplement to Supplement 10
Introduction
Monetary Approach and Monetary Approach presentation
SKIP: Monetary Approach under Rational Expectations
Risk Premium: sections 1 and 2 only
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.
Pakko, Michael R., and Patricia S. Pollard, 1996
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.
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.
Introduction to the Short Run.
Aggregate Supply Considerations.
Gini.
Measuring and Detecting Inflation
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.
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.
My first steps toward a Mathematica Introduction for this class. (Please report typos!)
Linear Comparative Statics (WL)
Differential Calculus: Introduction
Integral Calculus: Introduction
Linear Transformations (optional)
Matrices 2: Basic Matrix Algebra
Quadratic Forms (2004)
Optimization (2007)
Partial Derivatives of Multivariate Function
Implicit Function Theorem (Nonlinear Comparative Statics) (2005)
Interested students may also look at some Python resources. (Not required!)
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.
Vectors: Intro
Matrices 1: Intro
Matrices 2: Basic Matrix Algebra
Determinants and Inverses
Linear Transformations
Eigensystems
Quadratic Forms (optional).
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):
Please report typos!
Applied Time Series (Very Brief Intro)
Cagan Model (RatEx, Discrete Time)
A tiny bit of stats. (Very preliminary.)
Aggregate Supply/Natural Rate (rough)
New Keynesian Phillips Curve (very rough)
Set Theoretic Background (with homework problems).
Background on Binary Relations (with homework problems).
Brief Reflections on Rationality
Miscellaneous Supplements to Notes on Choice Theory I.
Miscellaneous Supplements to Notes on Choice Theory II.
Brief Intro to Social Dilemma Games
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.
This course will not have much in the way of lecture notes, but eventually there will be a few supplements.
Please report typos!
Mathematica Intro
Intro to Macro Tools with Mma
Introduction to the Pareto Distribution
Dynamic Programming Notes
Dynamic Programming Notebook
Introduction to the Gambler’s Ruin Problem
Cagan Model (RatEx, Discrete Time)
A tiny bit of stats. (Very preliminary.)
Aggregate Supply/Natural Rate (rough)
New Keynesian Phillips Curve (very rough)
© 2020 Alan G. Isaac.
Some rights reserved:
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License version 2 (or any later version, if you prefer).