Economy of the United States 4219-AW033
The goal is to familiarize participants with the historical developments and the current state of the American economy. The role of some important American economists – past and present – and their influence on economics and the US economy will be showed, as well. Stress will be put on the 20th century, although earlier developments in some areas will be scrutinized, too. The lecture intends to analyze both the economic processes along with their outcomes and the institutional/structural features of the US economy – with the emphasis on the latter. To achieve this goal some basic economic concepts will be introduced to the student. Then, selected economic institutions will be analyzed in the changing historical perspective. The US economy - historically and today - will be put into an international comparative perspective. Sources of available economic/statistical data will be indicated and the ways they are gathered and made available to the public will be showed. Stress will be put on finding and retrieving information from the internet sources.
The course consists of eight teaching modules (blocks), which are as follows:
BLOCK 1: Introduction to the course: the subject matter, the method, and the course organization. Exam (Final Test) requirements. An overview of the US Economy today and one century ago.
BLOCK 2: How the economy works. Basic concepts of (macro) economics: economic agents; sectors of the economy, their functions, and the links between them (circular flow of goods and services); types of enterprises; economic functions of the government.
BLOCK 3: Basic numerical characteristics of the US enterprises, households (and broader: the US population), financial institutions, and the government (the budget). Sources of statistical data on the above.
BLOCK 4: System of National Accounts [SNA] (basic concepts, history, American contribution to its development: the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - Wesley Mitchell and Simon Kuznets, the SNA and its NIPA (US) version - basic contemporary categories); a plumbing diagram of the US economy. Nominal vs. real values. GDP per capita as a measure of welfare - actual WB statistics: US vs. other countries. GNI/GDP growth vs. fluctuations; long-run growth trend vs. business cycle. The Great Depression 1929-1933. The Great Recession 2007-2009.
BLOCK 5: Government. Its economic functions. The budget. Taxation. Regulation vs. deregulation of the economy. Antitrust laws.
BLOCK 6: Firms (including stock exchanges) and their various forms present in the US: single proprietorships, partnerships, corporations [including sub-S corporations] - their characteristics, including numbers. The Fortune and Forbes lists of US firms. Stock exchanges and commodity exchanges.
BLOCK 7: Labor, employment & unemployment, unions. The labor market. Supply and demand for labor. Employment rate, participation rate and unemployment rate - definitions and actual values for the US economy (at present [including changes during and past COVID related recession] and historically). Trade Unionism in the US - its history and changing significance. US government stance toward trade unions (including its legislative, judiciary and executive branch) – as it was changing over time.
BLOCK 8: Money & Banking. Money origins and its functions. Evolution of its forms. History of the American money and banking system. Central banking in the US. The First and Second Bank of America. Creation of the Federal Reserve System (1913) and its evolution. Commercial banks. Other financial institutions, and their role in the financial crisis 2007-2009. Measures of money supply. Economic recession (the Great Recession) and the Fed’s policy.
Type of course
Mode
Prerequisites (description)
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this course, the student will:
KNOWLEDGE:
Understands:
- the economic jargon to accurately describe historical facts and economic processes occurring in the American economy since the late 18th century.
- the differences between private and public choice mechanisms as the two fundamental resource allocation mechanisms applied in changing proportions over more than two centuries of American economic development.
- the role of the market and free entrepreneurship in the historical development of the US economy, as well as to clearly see the historical trend of the ever-growing size of the government at the federal and state/local levels - along with its economic consequences.
- the characteristic features and issues of various sectors and markets of the US economy: central government and its budget, private producers (firms), labor market, financial institutions and corporations currently and in the past, along with their numerical characteristics and flows between them.
- a range of major economic institutions in the American world of finance and banking - including leading stock exchanges and commodity exchanges (New York and Chicago) - along with their historical evolution.
- a range of important contemporary and historical figures in the American economy and economics, and the importance of their achievements.
SKILLS:
Can:
- communicate on topics related to the US economy in English, using appropriate terminology.
SOCIAL COMPETENCES:
Is ready to:
- apply the acquired knowledge about the US economy in discussions and to formulate their own opinions.
Assessment criteria
Final grade will be given on the basis of the final examination only. The exam will have a form of a written test that may contain multiple-choice, true-false, as well as simple graphical and short open questions. Positively, there will be no essay-like long open questions. It will require knowledge of the lectures, the assigned literature and the material placed on the UW e-learning platform, including reasonable general knowledge of statistical data quoted in the course and found in the assigned material.
The passing minimum (threshold) on the exam is fifty percent (i.e. 50 points out of 100).
Points will NOT be rounded. Grades will be given according to the following scale:
< 0; 50) = 2.0 [F]
<50; 60) = 3.0 [C]
<60; 70) = 3.5 [C+]
<70; 80) = 4.0 [B]
<80; 90) = 4.5 [B+]
<90; 100> = 5.0 [A]
American letter grade equivalents are quoted to give you a comparative perspective only and are not binding.
There will be one make-up offered in the official make-up session (as per the University of Warsaw calendar). Positively, there will be no make-ups outside that period and make-ups given on an individual basis. If you miss the original exam, you will have to sit it during the regular make-up session – no exceptions. The make-up will have the format congruent with the original test. The grading scale on the make-up may be substantially steeper than the original one. Academic honesty during the exams will be strictly enforced.
Also, students of the full-time day studies are reminded that they are expected to attend classes on a regular basis.
Bibliography
Required reading:
1. USDS [2008?]. Outline of the U.S. Economy. Bureau of International Information Programs. Downloaded from https://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/oecon/index.htm on 2023-11-29
Knowledge of the whole text will be required. Unfortunately, this booklet has not been updated since the early 2010’s. Thus, it is somewhat outdated, but still it serves as a valuable source of basic, nontechnical information on the US economy and its historical development. More up-to-date material will be presented during the course (Economy of the United States) and sources of additional information and data will be provided on the course e-learning platform. While reading this booklet, remember that this is an official governmental publication, rather than an academic one. Also, pay special attention to the Glossary of Economic Terms on pages 95-101. At the end of the semester you should know all of them.
Apart from the above hyperlink I will also made it available to the students in extenso on our e-learning (the Moodle) platform, because it has been slowly vanishing from the net over last couple of years and the hyperlinks I have been providing in the course Syllabus frequently turn out to be broken.
2. All the auxiliary learning materials provided on the e-learning platform (the Moodle) of the course.
Additional readings:
1. OECD (2022). 2022 Economic Survey of the United States. OECD Economic Surveys. https://doi.org/10.1787/eeb7cbe9-en
This is a concise presentation of data on the US economy along with some problems and policy recommendations published in October 2022. Its full 128-pages-long version is freely accessible, but only in the “read-on-screen” format (click the doi given above). A pdf version is payable, though. A free shortened “Overview” extracted from the full version of the Survey may become available some time after the original publication, as it was for the previous (2020) edition.
2. White House (2023). Economic Report of the President. Downloaded on 2023-11-29 from https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ERP-2023.pdf
Its separate chapters, appendixes, and tables are available from here: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/ERP-2023/context
Economic Reports of the President for consecutive years from 2010 up to 2023 are here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/economic-report-of-the-president/
The Economic Report of the President [ERP] is a very short (political) statement of the US President on the current state of the US economy – as transmitted yearly to the US Congress - and it is published together with a comprehensive over four hundred pages long Annual Report of the US Council of Economic Advisers [CEA]. The latter contains several chapters analyzing the current state of the US economy seen in some historical perspective, as well as over a hundred pages of statistical data. The latter are also available on a monthly basis through a separate publications of the CEA – the Economic Indicators (see below).
3. Council of Economic Advisers (2023). Economic Indicators, October 2023. Downloaded on 2023-11-29 from https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/ECONI-2023-10/pdf/ECONI-2023-10.pdf [it includes data available as of November 7, 2023]
The Economic Indicators is a monthly publication prepared by the United States Council of Economic Advisers for the Joint Economic Committee. It provides economic information on gross domestic product, income, employment, production, business activity, prices, money, credit, security markets, Federal finance, and international statistics.
It is available from April 1995 forward. Earlier editions going back to 1948 are made available through FRASER, the Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research. FRASER is provided through a partnership between GPO [Government Publishing Office] and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis [the 8th District Bank of the Fed].
Check here for the newest available edition of the Economic Indicators: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/econi
4. On www.thoughtco.com one may find explanation of basic concepts and issues from many sciences:
- various economic concepts are here: https://www.thoughtco.com/economics-4133521
- issues related to the US economy are here: https://www.thoughtco.com/us-economy-4133519
5. Also, we will be consulting some excerpts from: J. Gwartney, R. Stroup, R. Sobel, D. Macpherson, Economics. Private and Public Choice, Thompson / South Western, any edition from 21st century would do (selected chapters will be assigned in class - there's a copy of the newest edition in the ASC Library).
6. Also, students are encouraged to visit and browse through several excellent websites giving you access to plethora of information. Among others, one should google out and visit the following ones:
- US Bureau of Economic Analysis (of the US Department of Commerce)
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics (of the US Department of Labor)
- US Census Bureau
- FRED [Federal Reserve Bank Economic Database]
- The Forbes [a magazine]
- The Fortune [a magazine]
- The Wall Street Journal [an economic daily]
- NYSE [the New York Stock Exchange - Euronext]
- http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/ [good source of data and graphs on US gov’t]
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: