Macroeconomics
An Active Learning Approach
by Zorrilla
| ISBN: 9780262552332 | Copyright 2025
Instructor Requests
A new way to teach macroeconomics based on problem-solving and hands-on learning.
Offering an important paradigm-shift in the way macroeconomics is taught, this innovative textbook invites students to learn by doing. Organized as a series of word problems motivated by specific macroeconomic questions—Can an economy grow indefinitely by accumulating capital? Why is nominal GDP a poor gauge of changes in economic activity? What constrains the firm?—the text equips readers to think like macroeconomists rather than simply receive expository information. This novel approach develops intuition, analytical skills, and background knowledge simultaneously. Interrelated themes, techniques, and results emerge as students work through the problems, resulting in a dynamic but cohesive treatment of macroeconomics in which agents making choices subject to constraints are the central characters.
•Classroom-tested, learn-by-doing, problem-solving approach
•Comprehensively covers the material of a single-semester undergraduate macroeconomics course, including optimizing agents and general equilibrium, rational expectations, and modern monetary policy
•Versatile structure suits both large lecture formats and smaller classes
•Robust instructor resources support transition to new pedagogical method
| Expand/Collapse All | |
|---|---|
| Contents (pg. vii) | |
| List of Figures (pg. xiii) | |
| List of Tables (pg. xv) | |
| Introduction (pg. 1) | |
| 1 The Med (pg. 5) | |
| 2 Twins (pg. 9) | |
| 3 Rates and Logs (pg. 11) | |
| 4 Grade Inflation (pg. 15) | |
| 5 Standardized Tests (pg. 19) | |
| 6 The Big Mac Index (pg. 21) | |
| 7 Exchange Rates, Purchasing Power, and the Terms of Trade (pg. 25) | |
| 8 Bumble (pg. 27) | |
| 9 The Search for Dates and Jobs (pg. 31) | |
| 10 Search and Unemployment (pg. 33) | |
| 11 The Beveridge Curve (pg. 39) | |
| 12 Choices as Optimization (pg. 45) | |
| 13 Studying for the Final (pg. 49) | |
| 14 Beer (pg. 51) | |
| 15 Dinner (pg. 57) | |
| 16 Cobb and Douglas Are Hiring (pg. 59) | |
| 17 The Price of Leisure (pg. 63) | |
| 18 Elasticity (pg. 65) | |
| 19 When Are Market Economies Efficient? (pg. 67) | |
| 20 The Government Expenditure Multiplier (pg. 71) | |
| 21 Why Do Americans Work So Much More than Europeans? (pg. 75) | |
| 22 Market Power (pg. 81) | |
| 23 When Are Market Economies Inefficient? (pg. 85) | |
| 24 The Two Margins of Labor (pg. 91) | |
| 25 Having Your Cake, and Eating It, Too (pg. 95) | |
| 26 Alexander and the National Debt (pg. 97) | |
| 27 The Value of the Firm (pg. 101) | |
| 28 The Efficient Market Hypothesis (pg. 105) | |
| 29 The Current Account (pg. 109) | |
| 30 Trade Deficits (pg. 113) | |
| 31 Fifty Days (pg. 115) | |
| 32 Misdiagnoses (pg. 121) | |
| 33 The Euler Equation (pg. 123) | |
| 34 Capital Markets (pg. 127) | |
| 35 The Marginal Propensity to Consume (pg. 133) | |
| 36 The Invisible Hand across Time (pg. 139) | |
| 37 Ricardian Equivalence (pg. 143) | |
| 38 Tax Rebates and Financial Frictions (pg. 147) | |
| 39 The Great Capitol Hill Babysitting Co-op (pg. 151) | |
| 40 The Printing Press (pg. 155) | |
| 41 Fisher and Prices (pg. 163) | |
| 42 The Price of Money (pg. 167) | |
| 43 A Simple Model of Inflation (pg. 171) | |
| 44 A Not-So-Simple Model of Inflation (pg. 173) | |
| 45 Logs and Expectations (pg. 179) | |
| 46 The Taylor Principle (pg. 181) | |
| 47 Fiscal Shocks (pg. 187) | |
| 48 Currency Pegs (pg. 193) | |
| 49 The Great Capitol Hill Babysitting Co-op Crisis (pg. 199) | |
| 50 The Phillips Curve (pg. 203) | |
| 51 Testing for the Real Effects of Monetary Policy (pg. 209) | |
| 52 Optimal Monetary Policy (pg. 215) | |
| 53 Utility and Uncertainty (pg. 221) | |
| 54 The Risk Premium (pg. 225) | |
| 55 Uncertainty Shocks (pg. 229) | |
| 56 The Zero Lower Bound (pg. 233) | |
| 57 Forward Guidance (pg. 237) | |
| 58 The Government Expenditure Multiplier Revisited (pg. 243) | |
| 59 Maturity Transformation (pg. 249) | |
| 60 Diamond and Dybvig Run to the Bank (pg. 255) | |
| 61 A Contribution to the Theory of Orchards (pg. 259) | |
| 62 Income per Capita (pg. 263) | |
| 63 Diminishing Marginal Returns (pg. 269) | |
| 64 Poverty Traps (pg. 273) | |
| 65 Exogenous Technological Progress (pg. 277) | |
| 66 The Solow Residual (pg. 279) | |
| 67 Convergence (pg. 283) | |
| 68 Perfect Competition, Constant Returns and Technology (pg. 287) | |
| 69 Endogenous Technological Change (or, Romer’s Ideas) (pg. 289) | |
| A Mathematical Appendix (pg. 295) | |
| Glossary (pg. 305) | |
| References (pg. 313) | |
| Index (pg. 317) | |
Oskar Zorrilla
Oskar Zorrilla is Assistant Professor of Economics at the United States Naval Academy.| Instructors Only | |
|---|---|
|
You must have an instructor account and submit a request to access instructor materials for this book.
|
|
eTextbook
Go paperless today! Available online anytime, nothing to download or install.
Features
|
