Teaching macroeconomics with data: Materials for enhancing students’ quantitative skills

Abstract

This paper develops a class project – a set of empirical exercises integrated with simple econometric methods – and examines the pedagogical effectiveness of the class project in teaching undergraduate macroeconomics. Specifically, the class project is designed to connect empirical evidence to the three main areas of macroeconomics that have been taught widely in an advanced introduction to intermediate level course: 1) the short-run economy (economic fluctuations); 2) the long-run economy (classical economic theory); and 3) the very long-run economy (economic growth). For economics teachers, the class project presented here can be utilized as an interactive teaching tool to effectively demonstrate the bridge between macroeconomic theory and empirical evidence, and enhance students’ quantitative skills.