A Shadow Federal Open Market Committee Exercise: A Semester-Long Approach to Teaching Monetary Macroeconomics in Real Time

Authors

Abstract

This paper describes a real-time, semester-long approach to helping upper-level undergraduates understand real-time decision-making by the Federal Open Market Committee. The exercise, which culminates in an end-of-semester “shadow” FOMC meeting that corresponds in time to an actual FOMC meeting (in May or December), is intended to illustrate (1) how the open-market committee incorporates real-time data as they unfold between meetings (2) how the real-life conduct and voting membership of the FOMC may differ from what is described in a typical textbook, and (3) that voting FOMC members are real people with different perspectives and backgrounds that inform their decisions.

Recommended Citation

(2024) "A Shadow Federal Open Market Committee Exercise: A Semester-Long Approach to Teaching Monetary Macroeconomics in Real Time," Journal of Economics and Finance Education: Vol. 23: Iss. 1, Article 8.
Available at: https://scholarship.rollins.edu/jefe/vol23/iss1/8