Senior Research Workshop I In this first semester, students will design and begin their projects. Emphasis will be on designing a novel research question (while making the case for its importance) and an appropriate strategy for answering it. This requires immersion in the academic literature on the topic. General research principles and tools will be taught in class, as a group, while those specific to individual projects will be covered in one-on-one meetings. By the end of the term, students will outline their plan for completing the project, including demonstrating that it is a feasible research question for which the necessary information (e.g., data or source materials) is available or can be generated by the student (e.g., lab or other experiment).

Introductory Macroeconomics  An introduction to macroeconomics: a consideration of macroeconomic problems such as unemployment and inflation. Theories and policy proposals of Keynesian and classical economists are contrasted. Topics considered include: banking, financial institutions, monetary policy, taxation, government spending, fiscal policy, tradeoffs between inflation and unemployment in both the short run and the long run, and wage-price spirals.

Political Economy In this course we will study the interaction between political and economic forces to understand how they shape our society. We will explore a variety of topics including political business cycles, partisanship in economic policies, voting and political decisions in practice, the origins and effects of political polarization, political instability and economic growth, the rise of populism, and the political impact of immigration. Emphasis will be given to empirical research in political economy. Experience with statistical analysis is strongly encouraged.

Senior Research Workshop II In this second semester of the senior research workshop sequence, the focus is on the execution of the research plan developed in ECON 0701.  Most instruction is now one-on-one but the workshop will still meet as a group to discuss and practice the presentation of results in various formats (seminars, poster sessions, et cetera) to the rest of the workshop and others in the college and broader communities. Feedback and critiques from such presentations will be incorporated into the project, which will culminate in a research paper in the style of an economics journal article.

Empirical Methods in Macroeconomics This course is designed to provide students the tools needed to carry out empirical research projects in macroeconomics. We will examine current empirical methods used to identify causal effects in macroeconomics using both time series and panel data sets. We will cover different identification strategies such as timing restrictions, external instruments, and the narrative approach. We will then apply these different methods to the analysis of contemporary and historical macroeconomic data. Prerequisites: (ECON 0211 and ECON 0250) 3 hrs. lct.

Raphaelle Gauvin-Coulombe

Reviews and ratings for Raphaelle Gauvin-Coulombe at Middlebury College.Raphaelle Gauvin-Coulombe teaches Senior Research Workshop I, Intro Macroeconomics, Political Economy and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Raphaelle Gauvin-Coulombe good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

Definitely would recommend taking this class; extremely valuable. She is very knowledgeable, and the material covered in class is everything needed to prep you well for the exams. There are problem sets every week and there is two midterms and a final but you can chose how to view your grading based on how you did on the exams. 

Your grade relies mostly on exams, and the professor isn’t good at explaining the material. Be ready to put in time outside class to figure things out on your own and make sure you’re ready for exams.

This is a decent course and not too bad for a requirement. Pretty normal econ class with one problem set each week, 2 midterms and a final. grade is calculated between problem sets, highest midterm score and final score. the in-class experience often felt super slow and sometimes felt that the class would go on forever due to a somewhat slow teaching style but it can be nice because you get to hear everything multiple times.