Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory/Student Note

To the Student

Welcome! You're about to embark on an interesting, though sometimes challenging quest into the world of macroeconomics. Macroeconomics is sometimes considered a bit more difficult to conceptualize than microeconomics, and in fact we still have a great deal to learn about macroeconomics. Some of the fundamental principles of macroeconomics are as recent as the 1970's.

Macroeconomics is the discipline that helps us to understand all about things like GDP, inflation, globalization, unemployment and interest rates. The complexities of large-scale economies in the world can be intimidating, especially because of all the mysterious vocabulary that we associate with them. What causes inflation? Why is it so bad anyway? What determines high rates of unemployment? How does GDP affect unemployment? These are questions macroeconomists ask (at least macroeconomic students do!), and macroeconomic theory can help us get some answers.