ECON9312 – Macroeconomic Topics: Heterogeneity

Course content

This course studies the role of heterogeneity and inequality in macroeconomics. We will focus on two central topics,

    1. economic inequality, consumption/risk sharing, and its implications for the macro economy

    2. firm heterogeneity and development

Macroeconomics has moved beyond the simple representative agent analysis and inequality is becoming an important part of the study of traditional macroeconomics topics such as growth and business cycles. For example, large household debt can contribute to and magnify macroeconomic fluctuations. This course will also study inequality in its own right. Macroeconomics with inequality opens up a range of new and interesting topics such as the factors behind the rising inequality, risk sharing through the market versus t