Dr. Qingyuan Du is currently a senior lecturer at the Department of Economics, Monash University. He obtained his PhD from Columbia University in 2011. His main research fields are international economics and macroeconomics. He has been awarded grants by the Australian Research Council (ARC). His works have appeared in Review of Economic Dynamics, Journal of International Economics, among others.

Personal Website: https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/qingyuan-du

1. 18:15-20:40, Monday, November 18, 2024

2. 18:15-20:40, Tuesday, November 19, 2024

3. 08:00-09:35, Thursday, November 21, 2024

 Classroom: Room 703, Duxing Building, DUFE

In this short course, we study fundamental business cycle models within macroeconomic literature, addressing the following questions: 

(i) Why do economists care about business cycles? 

(ii) How do existing models explain business cycle patterns? 

(iii) What important features might standard business cycle models miss? 

(iv) How can we extend these models to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the macroeconomy?

The course is structured in three parts. First, we empirically examine the cyclical components of key macroeconomic variables, such as total output, employment, and investment. Guided by observed data patterns, we then introduce a basic business cycle model. 

In the second part, we describe the model setup and solve it using log-linearization to tackle the rational expectations system. 

Lastly, we analyze the model's numerical results and compare its predictions to empirical data, discussing potential extensions to better align the model with observed economic dynamics.