Teaching Macroeconomics with Microsoft Excel®

Dr Humberto Barreto earned his PhD from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1985 with a specialization in the history of economic thought. In his teaching and writing, Barreto applies a pedagogical philosophy that eschews formalism and abstraction in favor of concrete problems and hands-on learning. He shows students how economists think, manipulate models, and use data. Barreto has previously been a Fulbright Scholar in the Dominican Republic, has won several teaching awards, and has given workshops all over the world on how to improve the teaching of economics and econometrics.

Preface; Software requirements and opening a macro-enhanced workbook; Introduction: why simulation and Excel?; Part I. Charting in Excel: 1.0 Introduction; 1.1 Simple scatterplot and double y charts: HowToChart.xls; 1.2 The shaded (recession) chart: recessionChart.xls and EconChart.xla (add-in); 1.3 Summary; Part II. Economic Growth Literacy: 2.0 Introduction; 2.1 Setting the scene; 2.2 Attaining economic growth literacy: MaddisonData.xls; 2.3 Summary; Part III. The Solow Model: 3.0 Introduction; 3.1 Capital accumulation: KAcc.xls; 3.2 The golden rule: GoldenRule.xls; 3.3 Population growth: Population.xls; 3.4 Technological progress: TechProgress.xls; Part IV. Macro Data via FRED in Excel: 4.0 Introduction: FRED.xla (add-in); 4.1 GDP: GDP.xls; 4.2 Unemployment: Unem.xls; 4.3 Inflation: Inflation.xls; 4.4 Money: Money.xls; Part V. The Keynesian model: 5.0 Introduction; 5.1 Keynesian cross: KCross.xls; 5.2 Money market: MoneyMarket.xls; 5.3 The ISLM model: ISLM.xls; 5.4 The ISLMADAS model: ISLMADAS.xls; 5.5 Summary; Part VI. Epilogue.