Course Content and Outcomes Guides (CCOG)

CCOG for EC 202 archive revision 202504

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Effective Term:
Fall 2025

Course Number:
EC 202
Course Title:
Principles of Macroeconomics (EC 202=EC 202Z)
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Explores the aggregate activity of a market economy, economic growth, inflation, unemployment, and the use of fiscal and monetary policy to address macroeconomic problems. This course is part of Oregon Common Course Numbering. EC 202 and EC 202Z are equivalent. Audit available.

Addendum to Course Description

Credits from this course qualify for general education purposes at Portland Community College and may be applied toward satisfying Associates Degrees at Portland Community College.  Books and other materials are at the discretion of each course instructor.  Prices for texts and/or other materials may be found at the Portland Community College bookstore. 

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to: 

  1. Interpret basic macroeconomic indicators including GDP, unemployment, and inflation.
  2. Identify the determinants of economic growth.
  3. Apply economic models to explain macroeconomic outcomes.
  4. Compare fiscal and monetary policy tools, and their uses and economic impacts.
  5. Differentiate paradigmatic perspectives regarding the stability or instability of the macroeconomy.

Social Inquiry and Analysis

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to apply methods of inquiry and analysis to examine social contexts and the diversity of human thought and experience.

General education philosophy statement

This course examines macroeconomic theory, method, and policy. It requires students to reason, both qualitatively and quantitatively, about contemporary economic institutions and processes. These institutions and processes include, inter alia, work, production, and employment; investment, growth, and inflation; fiscal and monetary policy; technological change and the natural environment. With this reasoning, and an appreciation of the historical origins of contemporary economic systems, students gain the ability to conceptually organize their experience of economic processes and discern its meaning. Furthermore, the course fosters an understanding of contemporary economic policy and politics with an aim to promote a sense of social responsibility and possibility.

Course Activities and Design

This course may include lecture and discussion formats utilizing faculty expertise, texts, supplementary reading materials, films, speakers, and other classroom aids at the discretion of the instructor.  Regular attendance and completion of assigned reading are essential to the successful completion of this course.  Instructors will teach in accordance with the goals and objectives listed in this Course Content Guide.  The course Content Guides are developed by college-wide subject area faculty and are approved by management. 

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Traditional and nontraditional techniques will be used to assess student mastery of the content, competencies, and outcomes. These techniques can assess either products or processes:

Products: multiple choice exams, essays, individual group projects, student demonstrations, research projects, other projects with specified rating criteria, and portfolios.

Processes: interviews, documented observations, web searches, journals, student self-evaluations.

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

  • What macroeconomics tries to explain; an introduction to GDP growth and fluctuations.

  • Macroeconomic measurement; Output, income, employment, and inflation.

  • The economy in the long run; explaining trends in output, labor, and financial markets; economic growth.   

  • The economy in the short run; explaining economic fluctuations.

  • Economic policy; the role of the Federal Reserve; fiscal policy and the government budget.

  • The international economy; exchange rates, the balance of payments; monetary and fiscal policy in an open economy

Skills and competencies

  • Build a vocabulary of economic terms that will enable the student to find the daily reading of papers and periodicals easier and more meaningful.

  • 沙巴体育官网 the ability to summarize an argument, understand economic reports, and to discern between positive and normative statements.

  • 沙巴体育官网 the ability to acquire and analyze quantitative data and make mathematical computations using formulas.

  • 沙巴体育官网 the ability to use and apply theoretical models.

  • 沙巴体育官网 the ability to think clearly about policy tradeoffs.