 Dear students, I am Dr. Muhammad Ali Bhatti and I will teach this course of macroeconomic analysis. This is an advanced course of macroeconomics. I have been teaching this course for the last so many years. I have taught this course right from the intermediate level to the PhD level. Before this course, you have taken a few courses of macroeconomics. So, let me introduce what is this course. We can define macroeconomics as the study of the behavior of the economy as a whole. In this course, we will study the structure and the performance of the economy and government policies that affect the economic performance. Dear students, you know that microeconomics and macroeconomics are the two main fields of economics. There are many common ideas between microeconomics and macroeconomics and methods are also common between these two. But the main difference between these two fields of economics is the level at which we study the economy. In microeconomics, for example, we study the utility maximization and the profit maximization, consumer behavior and the firms behavior, whereas in macroeconomics, we study consumption but not the consumption of an individual and similarly the production of a firm. Rather, we study consumption at aggregate level, aggregate consumption, aggregate production, aggregate output, aggregate investment. So, these are the topics of macroeconomics. So, how do we aggregate them? We calculate the national values from individual values. The way it is done is that we take a representative agent and the individual who represents the economy can also be a firm or a consumer. So, we represent the individual's behavior as the behavior of the economy. So, what are the main topics, main issues which we will study in this course? The most important one is the long-run economic growth. You know that in the world, some economists are rich and some are poor. Rich economists maintain a good living standard for their citizens whereas for poor economists, it is difficult to meet the basic needs of their citizens. So, how can we differentiate from the perspective of macroeconomics between rich and poor countries? If you look closely, you will see that historically rich countries are the ones who had extended periods of economic growth in the past. Whereas, poor countries were either not given a specific period of economic growth and if they had performed well economically in history, then the other ones also had declines which they have offset. So, this is the basic difference of growth. Growth rates are very important and this is a very small growth rate that has a wide impact on the long-run economy. So, our issue is that how can the economy improve its growth rate and improve its living standard in the long-run and maintain it. The second important topic which we will discuss in this course is about the business cycle. The business cycle means that in the short-run, there are a lot of sharp fluctuations in the economy. In the economy, there is a lot of boom, there is a lot of speed, there is a lot of economic activity on the entire economy and there is a lot of employment and so on. But sometimes, in the economy, there is a state of recession. Recession means unemployment is high, people are not getting employment and this is how the market demand decreases. So, these fluctuations obviously have a lot of impact on the economy. They have an economic impact, they have a political and social impact. So, as a macroeconomist, we think and see why these recession and these boom come, what are their causes and how can we control them. Another important issue is unemployment. You are all aware of unemployment. I think this is the most important issue because of its economic consequences, its social, political and a lot of other dimensions. So, unemployment is an important issue and no nation can afford to stay at a high level for unemployment. So, we will study the unemployment, what are its types, what are its causes and how can we control it and keep it at a minimum level. Similarly, there is a very important issue of inflation. Why do prices increase and how can we control these prices? And how can we control the economy of prices? So, inflation is also a very important issue and it significantly impacts a common person's life. So, this is also an important topic of this course. International economy. You know that we are living in a global village. Any economy, whether it is a small economy or a very large economy, whether it is poor or rich, no one can stay away from the rest of the world. They have to keep their economic relations with the rest of the world. Whether it is an American economy or a small economy like Afghanistan or Pakistan. So, what are the effects of this international economic linkage? What is the effect of international trade? What is the effect of borrowing and lending? What is the effect of foreign direct investment? We will study all these issues. And finally, macroeconomic policies. What is the role of the governments? How can they control their economy? How can they control their policies? How can they control their unemployment, inflation, employment, and lifestyle? So, we will study the policies of the government, fiscal policies, monetary policies, and other economic policies. Thank you very much.