Download AP Microeconomics - Grosse Pointe Public School System

Grosse Pointe South High School
AP Macroeconomics
Syllabus
Course Overview
AP Macroeconomics is a one semester (18 week) course devoted to the study of
economic systems as a whole. The course is only offered in the second semester of the
school year. All students taking AP Macroeconomics must have successfully completed
the AP Microeconomics course offered in the first semester of the school year. Since all
students in the AP Macroeconomics course have already taken AP Microeconomics, the
study of basic economic principles and markets is not repeated in this course. Please
refer to the syllabus for AP Microeconomics for information on these units. The main
areas of concentration for this course include Gross Domestic Product and measures of
National Income, inflation, unemployment, money and banking, stabilization policies and
the international sector.
The primary textbook used in this course is Economics written by William Boyes and
Michael Melvin. The course also utilizes related activities from The Advanced
Placement Economic workbook created by Morton and Goodman.
Course Planner
Note 1: Reading assignments are from the Boyes and Melvin textbook. The referenced
activities are from the Morton workbook.
Note 2: To gain a full understanding of macroeconomics, students must learn to create
and interpret various graphs. Each unit in the Course Planner identifies the key graphs
which the students will master.
Unit 1: Basic Economic Concepts
0 weeks
Key Concepts: Scarcity, choice, basic economic questions, types of economic systems,
opportunity cost, production possibility curves, specialization and trade, absolute and
comparative trade advantage, demand, law of demand, determinants of demand, supply,
law of supply, determinants of supply, equilibrium, surplus, shortage, consumer surplus,
producer surplus, price floor, price ceiling, markets and the circular flow model
Key Graphs: Production Possibility Curves (PPC), supply and demand graphs, circular
flow model
The material, assignments and activities related to the teaching of these concepts
was covered in AP Microeconomics. Since all students are required to take AP
Microeconomics as a prerequisite to AP Macroeconomics, the material is not
covered again in this course.
Unit 2: Measures of Economic Performance
2.5 week
Key Concept: Circular Flow Model, Gross Domestic Product, the expenditures approach
to GDP, the income approach to GDP, nominal versus real GDP, business cycles,
economic indicators, inflation, measures of inflation, price indexes (CPI and PPI), effects
of inflation, unemployment, full employment, types of unemployment
Key Graphs: Circular flow, business cycles model
Readings: Chapter 6; Chapter 8
Activities: Activities 9, 10 and 12-17
Textbook Exercises: Problems 1-3 and 7-15 on page 142 and 143. Problems 2-4 and 12
on page 184.
Assessment: 15 question multiple choice test covering the material in chapter 6; 15
question multiple choice test covering the material in chapter 8
Unit 3: National Income and Price Determination
2.5 weeks
Key Concepts: Aggregate Demand, wealth effect, international trade effect, interest rate
effect, consumption, investment, government spending, net exports, aggregate supply
(short and long-run), equilibrium price level and output, actual versus full employment,
GDP gap, utilization of resources, consumption, saving, marginal propensity to consume,
marginal propensity to save, marginal propensity to import, spending multiplier, leakages
and injection, recessionary gap, inflationary gap,
Key Graphs: Aggregate Supply and Demand model, Aggregate Expenditure model
Readings: Chapter 9; Chapter 10 (pages 216-227)
Activities: Activities 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27 and 29
Textbook Exercises: Problems 1-6 and 9-12 on page 212; Problems 3, 6a, 6b, 6c, 9 and
10 on pages 240 and 241; Problems 4 and 7 on pages 266 and 267
Assessment: 15 question multiple choice test covering the material in chapter 9; 15
question multiple choice test covering the material in chapter 10 and 11.
Unit 4: Fiscal Policy
1.5 weeks
Key Concepts: Fiscal policy, effect on aggregate demand, balanced budget fiscal policy,
government borrowing, crowding out, automatic stabilizers, supply side, Laffer Curve,
stabilization policy and the effect on inflation and unemployment
Key Graphs: Aggregate Supply and Demand Model, Laffer Curve
Readings: Chapter 12
Activities: 30, 31 and 37
Chapter Exercises: Problems 1, 3, 4, 6, 8-13 and 15-17 on pages 294 and 295
Assessment: 15 question multiple choice test on unit 4
Multiple Unit Assessment #1: 20 question multiple choice and 1 AP style free response
question on material in units 2-4
Unit 5: Money, Banking and the Financial Sector
1.5 weeks
Key Concepts: Money, functions of money, measures of money, demand for money,
supply of money, the money market, the fractional reserve banking system, reserve
requirements, the creation of money and the money multiplier, the loanable funds market
Key Graphs: Money market, loanable funds market
Readings: Chapter 13
Activities: Activities 34, 35 and 37
Chapter Exercises: Problems 1, 2, 6, 7 and 9 on page 319
Assessment: 15 question multiple choice test covering unit 5
Unit 6: The Fed and Monetary Policy
2 weeks
Key Concepts: The Federal Reserve System, tools of monetary policy, equation of
exchange, quantity theory of money, federal funds rate, discount rate, reserve
requirement, open market operations, stabilization policy and the effect on inflation and
unemployment
Key Graphs: Money market
Readings: Chapter 14
Activities: Activities 36, 38 and 40-42
Chapter Exercises: Problems 2-5, 7, 8, 13 and 15 on pages 346 and 347
Assessment: 15 question multiple choice test on unit 6
Unit 7: Economic Growth and Productivity
1 week
Key Concepts: Definitions of economic growth, productivity, labor-force participation,
the role of capital in economic growth, effect of education, relating growth to the
production possibilities curve, relating growth to long-run aggregate supply
Key Graphs: Production Possibilities Curve, long run aggregate supply
Readings: Chapter 18
Chapter Exercises: Problems 1, 3, 7, 9 and 15 on pages 436 and 437
Assessment: 15 Question multiple choice test on unit 7
Unit 8: International Trade and the Balance of Payments
1.5 weeks
Key Concepts: International trade, imports, exports, absolute and comparative trade
advantages, barriers to trade, tariffs, quotas, balance of payments, trade surplus and
deficit, current account, capital account, world price, foreign exchange markets,
exchange rates, appreciation, depreciation, implications of foreign trade, impact of
domestic monetary and fiscal policy on capital flows and foreign exchange markets, use
of resources, decisions and policy making, trade agreements
Key Graphs: Foreign exchange markets, Production Possibilities Curve
Readings: Chapter 7
Activities: Activities 52-54
Chapter Exercises: Problems 1-3, 9 and 12 on pages 158 and 159
Assessment: 15 question multiple choice test on unit 8
Unit 9: Other Key Macroeconomic Issues
1 week
Key Concepts: Schools of economic thought (Keynesian, Monetarists, Supply Side),
Inflation / Unemployment and the Phillips Curve
Key Graphs: Phillips Curve (long and short run)
Readings: Chapter 25
Activities: Activity 32-34 and Activity 37
Chapter Exercises: Problems 3, 6-8 and 15 on pages 605 and 606
Assessment: 15 question multiple choice test on unit 9
Multiple Unit Assessment #2: 20 question multiple choice and 1 AP style free response
question on material in units 5-9
Unit 10: Review
1.5 weeks
During this review unit, students will be provided with various tools for reviewing for
their final exam and the actual AP exam. Students will work on a sample multiple choice
test. They will also practice writing additional free response questions. Students will
also be required to critique a written response to a free response question.
Student Evaluation:
Student grades are determined as an average of unit tests; chapter assessments and class
participation (see participation below). Quarterly grades are weighted as follows:
Unit / Chapter Tests, graded assignments, free response questions, etc.
90%
Participation:
10%
Each student is expected to fully engage themselves in the activities for this course.
To participate, students must come to class with all class materials. They must
willingly share information and ideas in relationship to our classroom discussion.
During the completion of classroom activities, they must be involved and on task with
each activity. Completion of homework and course reading assignments is also a
measure of participation. Additionally, each student is required to prepare and present
two current event assignments for each quarter as a final measure of course
participation.
The final grade for the semester course is determined by a weighting of the two quarter
grades along with the final exam grade. The weighting is as follows:
Quarter 1
40%
Quarter 2
40%
Final Exam
20%
Teacher Resources:
Boyes, William, and Michael Melvin. Economics. 5th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 2002
Economics U$A, Video series, Produced by Educational Film Center. N.p., 2002
Morton, John S., and Rae Jean B. Goodman. 2004. Advanced Placement Economics:
Macroeconomics, Student Activities. 3rd ed. New York: National Council on Economic
Education
The Wall Street Journal
The Economist