Brief Biography

I have been a member of the faculty at UNC since 1976. I received my Ph.D. in 1976 from the University of Minnesota. I wrote my dissertation on the German hyperinflation of 1920-23 under the direction of Thomas J. Sargent.

My research interests are domestic and international monetary theory and macroeconomics. My most recent research projects include an policy evaluation of U.S. monetary policy, estimation of models, subject to the restriction that policy is optimal, via maximum likelihood and generalized method of moments, and analysis of unemployment in Hong Kong using a dynamic generalized equilibrium model.

I have a long standing interest in economic education. I was Assistant Director of the Center for Economic Education at the University of Minnesota between 1973 and 1976. I have directed the Teacher Training Workshop Project that was jointly sponsored by the American Economic Association (AEA) and the National Council on Economic Education. Between 1994 and 2000, I was chair of the AEA Committee on Economic Education.

Please feel free to contact me by sending email to me at Michael_Salemi@unc.edu.
 

Professional Information
Curriculum Vitae


Economic Education

The Department of Economics at UNC-CH annually conducts a Teacher Training Program (TTP) for graduate teaching assistants and new faculty.
For information, please see: UNC-CH Economics Teacher Training Program

Teaching Innovations Program  I am currently Co-PI for the Teaching Innovations Program sponsored by the AEA Committee on Economic Education and funded by the National Science Foundation.  The project includes residential teaching workshops that will began in the Spring of 2005, a program of follow-on instruction that helps particpants introduce interactive teaching strategies into their own courses, and a set of opportunities for participants to participate in the scholarship of teaching and learning. 

Discussing Economics

Discussing Economics: A Classroom Guide to Preparing Discussion Questions and Leading Discussion is now available from Edward Elgar.  The book is co-authored with W. Lee Hansen.  It sets out a detailed approach to discussion modeled on the ideas of Mortimer Adler and the Great Books Foundation.  It explains why instructors should organize discussion around interpertive questions, how to plan and lead discussion and how to integrate discussion into a course.  It provides a guide to over 60 classic and contemporary readings that span much of the undergraduate economics curriculum providing a synopsis,
learning objectives and recommended discussion questions for each.
For more information, please click on the link:  Discussing Economics
 

Research Papers

  Economic Education 

Clickenomics: Using a Classroom Response System to Increase Engagement in a Large Enrollment Principles of Economics Course

Asking the Right Kind of Question Promotes Learning During Discussion (April 2005)

Teaching Economic Literacy: Why, What and How (March 2005)

Research in Economic Education: Five New Initiatives   (with J. J. Siegfried, K. Sosin, W. B. Walstad, M. Watts)

Use it or Lose it: Teaching Economic Literacy  (with W. Lee Hansen and John J. Siegfried)

An Illustrated Case for Active Learning          
        Active Learning Exercises for Economics Courses to accompany the above article.

A Model Teacher Education Program for Economics     (January 2003)

 

  Macroeconomics and Money

It's What They Do, Not What They Say: How to Infer the Stabilization Objectives of a Central Bank
Prepared for the Festchrift in honor of Alexander Swoboda, 2008

Long-run and Cyclic Movements in the Unemployment Rate in Hong Kong: A Dynamic, General Equilibrium Approach, March 2007

GMM and Inverse Control (with Gregory Givens) 
    2005 Triangle Econometrics Conference Presentation

Econometric Policy Evaluation and Inverse Control
     July 2005 Version:   pdf      postscript       extended version
    
Policy Evaluation with a Forward Looking Model    (2002, with Rouben V. Atoian and Gregory E. Givens) postscript version
        Matlab Code Used in Atoian, Givens, and Salemi

 

Money Macro Workshop and Reading Group

Current and Past Schedules
 

UNC Courses 

New Curriculum (Fall 2006 and Later)
Econ 101            Principles of Economics
Econ 423            Financial Markets

Spring 2006 and Earlier
Econ 10a            Principles of Economics (Honors)
Econ 6E             The Root of All Evil? Money as a Cultural, Economic and Social Institution
Econ 132a          Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory (Honors)
Econ 281            Monetary Theory
Econ 361/381     Monetary Theory and Policy: Domestic and International"