Spring 2027

Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory

Intermediate macroeconomic theory covering national income determination, savings, consumption, investment, and their relation to employment, inflation, and stabilization.

offering recorded4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Ananth Seshadri4.1/5Simeon Alder3.1/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Simeon Alder, Ananth Seshadri

Simeon Alder’s exams featured chain-linked questions with no margin for error, while Ananth Seshadri’s exams were described as harder than any advanced economics course. Seshadri’s exams were extremely difficult but came with a generous curve.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Use disaggregated data to inform the construction of economic models and policy

  • Critically evaluate economic models using publicly available data

  • Use mathematical methods to capture economic relationships

  • Distinguish between short run and long run theories and policy objectives

  • Identify how international markets affect the macroeconomy and macroeconomic policy

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

(ECON 102 or 111) and (MATH 213, 217, 221,ECON 205, or MATH 211prior to Fall 2024). Not open to students with credit forECON 312.

ECON 302 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Ananth Seshadri

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.32/5 from 56 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 4.3/5 raw quality · 3.4/5 difficulty · 41 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Ananth Seshadri

Ananth Seshadri’s lectures were described as crystal clear and engaging, with students noting he often previewed exam questions and provided practice tests that closely matched the real exams. Reviews indicated the course was challenging, with difficult long-form essay questions and a generous curve, while some students found the textbook unhelpful and emphasized attending lectures to succeed. Seshadri was frequently praised for being accessible, patient during office hours, and dedicated to ensuring students understood the material.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2022: 3.50 GPA, 67.0% A/AB (n=188 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.51 GPA, 72.4% A/AB (n=185 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.34 GPA, 54.0% A/AB (n=163 letter grades).

Simeon Alder

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.87/5 from 63 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 2.7/5 raw quality · 4.0/5 difficulty · 43 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Simeon Alder

Simeon Alder gave clear explanations, fair tests, and interesting lectures, according to some students.

Some students also found Simeon Alder's homework and midterms difficult; his lectures did not prepare them for homework similar to exams, and chain-linked questions left little margin for error.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 2.99 GPA, 48.9% A/AB (n=94 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.15 GPA, 46.8% A/AB (n=79 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.14 GPA, 50.0% A/AB (n=122 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Nicolas Roys, Paolo Martellini

Nicolas Roys taught the material in a way that was very easy to understand, and his tests were very fair. Paolo Martellini recommended the course for learning conceptual macroeconomics and applying it to real life.

ANANTH SESHADRI is recorded teaching in Spring 2009, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2014, Fall 2022, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

CHARLES ENGEL is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2013, Spring 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DAVID JOHNSON is recorded teaching in Fall 2016, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

ELIZABETH KELLY is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2009. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JAVIER BIANCHI is recorded teaching in Spring 2014. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JIAO SHI is recorded teaching in Fall 2008, Spring 2009. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MENZIE CHINN is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

NICOLAS ROYS is recorded teaching in Fall 2010, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2015. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

PAOLO MARTELLINI is recorded teaching in Fall 2021, Spring 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SIMEON ALDER is recorded teaching in Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

STEVEN RICK is recorded teaching in Spring 2016, Spring 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

WENDY EUDEY is recorded teaching in Spring 2010, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1680
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 323Classroom Instruction0 / 240
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 1680
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 322Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 321Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 324Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 307Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 325Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 326Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 327Classroom Instruction0 / 240

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Ananth Seshadri, Simeon Alder

Students described Ananth Seshadri as clear and helpful, while Simeon Alder’s class was viewed as manageable but with fair tests. Both instructors taught with distinct styles, though feedback varied significantly on preparation methods.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.34 GPA, 64.5% A/AB (n=279 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.47 GPA, 73.2% A/AB (n=347 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.25 GPA, 52.3% A/AB (n=285 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Simeon Alder, Ananth Seshadri

Simeon Alder’s exams featured chain-linked questions with no margin for error, while Ananth Seshadri’s exams were described as harder than any advanced economics course. Seshadri’s exams were extremely difficult but came with a generous curve.

Past student reviews · Simeon Alder, Ananth Seshadri

One student found Alder’s lectures poorly managed with excessive tangents, causing rushed content delivery. Conversely, Seshadri was praised for being extremely helpful outside of class and patiently answering questions during office hours.

Topics

  • National income determination
  • Macroeconomic aggregates: savings, consumption, investment
  • Employment, inflation, and stabilization
  • International markets and macroeconomic policy

Skills

  • Construct economic models using disaggregated data
  • Evaluate economic models with public data
  • Apply mathematical methods to economic relationships
  • Analyze employment, inflation, and stabilization

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.18 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
ECON 302 · Spring 2027

Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:296:005566",
    "course_id": "ECON 302",
    "course_uid": "course_9342eaf3d82a59634b605992",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "005566",
    "source_subject_id": "296",
    "title": "Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory",
    "credits_min": 4,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1Download part 2
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
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  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "3186955a8fd5a5b5651e711f9a9b32a45e4621c7a1b3de04fb2ac5a133b99643",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}