The purpose of this course is to educate the student in modern business cycle theory. The first part of the course surveys the empirical regularities, which comprise fluctuations in aggregate economic activity, which economists have labeled business cycles. The second part of the course discusses the existing macroeconomic models, which students have learned in intermediate macroeconomics, while the third part of the course examines the policy implications of these models and the inadequacies of the models as economic explanations of cycles. The final part of the course discusses rational expectations models of the business cycle in considerable detail. The empirical implications of these new models are examined, and their policy implications are assessed.
