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Marking scheme

Full course 100 %

of which

Project 40 %

Final exam 60 %.

Instructions

• Projects must not exceed a maximum of five typed pages.  Line spacing of 1.5 and font size of 11 or 12, Times Roman. Marks will be deducted if the project exceeds the page limit. This five-page limit does not include the data appendix or any supplementary material.

• Presentation is important.  A summary table should appear in the main body of the text.

• All data and sources to be clearly explained and presented in an appendix.  Any data errors or omissions will result in significant loss of marks.

• Data to be saved to an Excel spreadsheet and submitted on a disk with the final report.

• Students may use any econometric or statistical software package they wish.  In estimating the relationship between the various variables, students should experiment with lags in order to obtain the best set of results.

• All students are expected to contribute equally to the project.

• Projects must be submitted in hardcopy and electronically to the MBA office by 4 o'clock Friday 8th December.  No extensions allowed.  A significant mark will be deducted for late submission.

Click here to download the 2006 Data

Project Titles

Group 1 Okun’s Law

A. Obtain annual real growth rates and unemployment rates for US, Eurozone, UK and Japan over the period 1961 to 2005 (or latest available).

B. For each country, estimate the “Okun's Law” relationship between real economic growth and unemployment (dependent variable) and present the slope coefficient in a summary table.

C. Write a brief summary that compares your findings for each country.

D. Include a brief profile of the economist Arthur Okun.

Bernard Carroll

Darby Mullen

Matthew Spagnolo

Group 2 Interest Sensitive Expenditure

A. Obtain or derive annual data on the real interest rate and “interest sensitive expenditure” (consumer expenditure, investment and net exports) for the US, Eurozone, UK and Japan over the period 1961 to 2005 (or latest available).

B. For each country, estimate the relationship between the real interest rate and  “interest sensitive expenditure”.

C. Present the results in a summary table and write a brief summary that compares your findings for each country.

D. Include a brief profile of the economist James Tobin.

Eamon Neary

Brian O’Donoghue

Shaun Elder

Triona Hayes

Group 3 Quantity Theory of Money

A. Obtain annual data for the growth in the money supply, real growth rate and inflation for the United States, Eurozone, UK and Japan over the period 1960 to 2005 (or latest available).

B. Calculate the velocity of circulation of money and comment on its trend over the period.

C. Estimate the statistical relationship between the growth in the money supply, on the one hand, and inflation and the real growth rate on the other.  Do your findings support the Quantity Theory?

D. Write a brief profile of the economist Milton Friedman.

Michael Melleney

Thomas Healy

Eamonn Farrell

John Coady

Group 4 Real wages and unemployment

A. Obtain annual data for real wages, inflation and unemployment for the United States, Eurozone, UK and Japan over the period 1960 to 2005 (or latest available).

B. For each country, estimate the relationship between real wages and unemployment and real wages and inflation present the findings in a summary table.

C. Write a brief summary that compares your findings for each country. Do your findings support a “mark-up” of “catch-up” theory of wage determination?

D. Include a brief profile of the economist Robert Lucas.

Michael Lehane

Michael Naughton

Geoffrey Blondelle

Peter Roe

Group 5 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)

Countries:  US, Eurozone and Japan.

A. Obtain annual data on inflation, the exchange rate and unemployment over the period 1961 to 2005 (or latest available).    Use the UK as the benchmark country.  Derive the “deviation from relative PPP”:  ΔPPP = [(πd + Δe) - πUK].  Make sure the exchange rate is correctly defined.

B. For each country, estimate the relationship between ΔPPP and unemployment and ΔPPP and domestic inflation.

C. Present the empirical results in a summary table and write a brief summary of your findings.

D. Include a brief profile of the economist Rudiger Dornbusch.

James Fulham

Colm Linnane

Elaine Carroll

Caitriona Lucey

Group 6 Phillips Curve

A. Obtain annual data on unemployment and inflation rates for the United States, Eurozone, UK and Japan over the period 1960 to 2005 (or latest available).

B. For each country, test the expectations augmented Phillips Curve and calculate the natural rate of unemployment.

C. Present the results in a summary table and write a brief summary that compares your findings for each country.

D. Write a short profile of the economist Bill Phillips.

Hugh Curley

John Kennedy

Tim O’Connor

Ruairi Deane

Group 7 Uncovered Interest Rate Parity

A. Obtain annual data on exchange rates and interest rates for Ireland, the UK and US over the period 1960 to 2005 (or latest available).

B. For Ireland and the UK and Ireland and the US, test if uncovered interest rate parity holds.

C. Present the results in a summary table and write a brief summary that compares your findings for the two sets of countries.

D. Include a brief profile of the economist Stanley Fischer.

Mark Cahill

John Caldwell

Josephine Page

  Posts

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December 10th, 2019

Using Social Media to Boost your profile

My talk for the social media summit is here. 

November 5th, 2019

Innospace UL talk

Thanks for the invitation to speak, the whole talk is here. 

October 9th, 2019

Understanding the macroeconomy podcast

I really enjoyed my interview with Dr Niall Farrell of the Irish Economics Podcast. You can listen to it here:

September 15th, 2018

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March 24th, 2018

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December 10th, 2017

Marian Finucane Interview

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November 17th, 2017

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November 14th, 2017

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October 5th, 2017

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October 1st, 2017

AIST Debt and Demography talk

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September 7th, 2017

My AIST Keynote: Europe Exposed

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July 22nd, 2017

MacGill Summer School Speech

My speech at the MacGill Summer School is here. Thanks to Joe Muholland for inviting me to speak.

May 25th, 2017

Business Post Articles

All my Sunday Business Post articles (back to 2014/5, when I joined the paper) are available here, behind a paywall, and […]

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