2 slides of presentation power point!!

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State of the Economy Macro Presentations & Report

ECN 345: Intermediate Macroeconomics, Spring 2018

Your group will closely examine your assigned macroeconomic variable for the US economy.

By using data and visuals, your group will examine the trends in your assigned variable over the

last several years leading up to the present in an attempt to present a report on the US economy.

In-Class Presentation (3.5% of Total Grade)

Your in-class presentation will be a PowerPoint or overhead presentation, and will include and

carefully describe and illustrate for example:

 The latest numbers that were released for your variable and other sub-categories that you

think are important to tell your macroeconomic story

 Place the current data in historical context

 Explain the implications of the data for our understanding of the economy and its

implications for fiscal policy, monetary policy or long-run economic growth as the case

may be

 Analyze the data in the context of models and theory we have developed in class and the

relevance in explaining these models (or not) as the case may be

 In your PowerPoint, to the class you should use at least two explanatory graphs and or

tables using Excel or some other database software

 In addition, you may but are not required to present some empirical evidence, basic

statistical relations, or simple OLS regression analysis

 Bringing outside references from academic sources, economic journals (JSTOR) and/or

serial publications such as (Wall Street Journal, New York Times) is highly encouraged.

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Presentation Dates:

Presentations by groups will be no more than 20 minutes, with 5 minutes allotted for questions

by the rest of the class. Group Number, Names, and Assigned Variable are in a separate

document posted to Moodle

Round 1, Thursday March 1:

A. Group 2 versus Group 4: Price Level

B. Group 1 versus Group 5: Interest Rates

C. Group 3 versus Group 7: GDP

D. Group 6 BYE

Note on Grade Percentage and Scoring

From Round 1 above, one group from each of A, B and C will advance to Round 2 on April 5,

Pairings for Round 2 to be determined. Groups moving on to Round 2 will automatically get

1.5% of the Class Participation grade. See course syllabus for details on class participation total

of 5%. Attending class with no absences through the semester counts as 2% of the total 5% of

class participation grade. Hence, those moving on to Round 2, assuming perfect attendance will

get 3.5% of the allotted 5%. The remaining 1.5% is for enhanced contribution and participation

in the course during lectures and office hours.

For those not moving on to Round 2 from A, B, C, above you still have to turn in a paper/report

at the end of the semester. Thus, you have an incentive to improve your papers even though you

have been eliminated from the Macro Competition. Note that the rest of the groups will be

working, preparing and changing their presentations for Round 2 scheduled for April 5. Your

opportunity to garner the 1.5% of the participation grade is to continue working on your

paper/report, meet me as a group during office hours or by appointment, and for you to suggest

and for us to discuss ways in which you can improve your written report.

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For the two groups moving on to the final on April 19, no further incentive required. The thrill

of winning the Macro Competition for Intermediate Macro, ECN 35, Spring 2018 !! Save for

a small gift card prize for the each of the winning group members from the instructor.

Individual Students are responsible for judging who moves forward to Round 2. For example,

Groups B and C and one member of the BYE group will cast votes for Group A, and so on for

the rest of the pairings. To be able to judge effectively and to make a decision, you will be

provided with a presentation-scoring rubric.

Round 2, Thursday April 5 Pairings to be determined

Round 3, Thursday, April 19 Pairings to be determined

Final Group Report/Paper: (6.5% of Total Grade)

Due last day of Class, April 24th, by 2 pm.

Your final written report will be no more than 5 pages long, 1.5 line-spaced, not including data,

graphs, tables, statistical analysis. It should include items from the bullet points from above that

you think are essential and a summary evaluation of what your variable and data mean for the

economy as a whole, including any possible policy recommendations. Your final report must be

organized in sections. For example an Introduction, additional sub-headings such as Explanation

of data or Institutional history, Charts, Tables and Data Section, variable and findings as they

relate to course theory/models, recommendation or policy implications, and a conclusion section.

Other Useful Information:

GDP Information is available at www.bea.gov

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GDP figures are announced quarterly, and will be available for the, 4th quarter 2017, on January

26th 2018, and then again about the same time, 3rd week in April for the 1st quarter of 2018. This

maybe later than our final presentation but sometimes, there are preliminary data and forecasts

that are released.

Price level, Inflation Data is available at www.bls.gov and some data is also at Bureau of

Economic Analysis (BEA) website above. Data is released monthly typically sometime between

the 10th to 14th of the month.

Unemployment and Labor Force data is available at the Bureau of Labor Statistics,

www.bls.gov and data is released monthly typically sometime between the 8th and 10th of the

month.

Monetary Aggregates, Interest Rates etc., are typically released monthly at the 12 regional and

individual Federal Reserve District websites. You may need to look at different websites for

regional or specific data. Most of the data is available at the Board of Governor’s site:

https://www.federalreserve.gov

You should also look at the FRED Database for graphs and the ability to capture particular data

using their ‘amazing’ graphing tools software https://fred.stlouisfed.org/

Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting dates are on Jan 30-31, & March 20-21

Another good source for additional data is the American Economic Association (AEA) website

resource page:

https://www.aeaweb.org/resources

https://www.aeaweb.org/rfe/showCat.php?cat_id=3