Abstract

The primary purpose of this paper is to introduce a holistic, visual “big picture” of the concepts and diagrams that are commonly covered in the course of intermediate macroeconomics. Intermediate macroeconomics discusses numerous concepts and diagrams in order to finally show how aggregate supply (AS) and aggregate demand (AD) are derived in an economy. A further learning objective defined for the intermediate macroeconomics course is to enable students to investigate the overall effects of macroeconomic policies on AS and AD in the economy. In order to better attain the aforementioned learning objectives, the present paper proposes a visual “big picture” which can be applied as a pedagogical tool in teaching intermediate macroeconomics classes. This visual “big picture” logically connects twenty-seven macroeconomic diagrams which are usually introduced in the intermediate macroeconomics course, and also describes the general pattern and overall structure of macroeconomics in terms of four separate markets in a visual way, namely labor market, capital market, money market, and goods market. Finally, it is suggested that this visual “big picture” should be provided to the students taking the course of intermediate macroeconomics so that they can readily grasp the logical order of the concepts and the underlying complex structure of the markets that are discussed in the course.

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