Course Description

AP Macroeconomics is designed as a one year, introductory college level course in macroeconomics. This course emphasizes economic principles as applied to the economy as a whole and places emphasis on the study of national income and price-level determination, and also develops the students’ familiarity with economic performance measures, the financial sector, stabilization policies, economic growth, and international economics. Additionally, the course teaches students how to generate, interpret, label, and analyze graphs, charts, and data to describe and explain economic concepts.

AP Macroeconomics is designed to offer students an opportunity to take a rigorous and challenging class equivalent to an introductory college-level course. This course is open to students who are willing to accept the challenge and responsibility of engaging in a demanding curriculum. Unlike the standard semester long Economics course that provides a very broad overview of both macro- and microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics focuses primarily on aggregate economic activity and the utilization of resources within and across countries. Students who have elected to participate in this class are required to take the AP Macroeconomics Exam in May in order to receive the weighted grade credit. Students who successfully score a 3, 4, or 5 on the AP Macroeconomics Exam may either receive an exemption from the college-level course or three hours of college credit upon approval at their selected college or university.

Objectives

Upon completion of AP Macroeconomics, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate their understanding of aggregate economic activity
  
• Assess the utilization of resources within and across countries
  
• Evaluate determinants of economic progress and economic decisions made by policymakers

DoDEA Social Studies Standards may be viewed by clicking the link.

Course Outline

AP Macroeconomics is organized in a chronological order and broken into 6 modules that group content topics that are closely related. The content and level of depth of the material is equivalent to a college-level course.

The following topics are to be covered in the course:

1. Introduction to Economics
2. Measurement of Economic Performance
3. National Income and Price Determination
4. Financial Sector
5. Stabilization Policies
6. International Economics

Textbook | Supplementary Materials

Mankiw, Gregory. Principles of Economics, 5th edition. Harvard University Press. ISBN: 0-324-58997-2

Supplementary Materials

Morton, John. Advanced Placement Economics: Macroeconomics Student Activities, 3rd edition. New York: National Council on Economics Education, 2003

McConnell, Campbell and Brue, Stanley. Economics: Principles, Problems, and Policies, 17th edition. ISBN: 0-073-12663-2

Federal Reserve Bank websites

http://reffonomics.com/reff/index.html

Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Economist, Business Week, and Newsweek newspaper and magazine websites
Videos from the Federal Reserve and the Economics U$A series