This set of three lectures provides you with a good introduction to the most often used data sources for the Earth Economy and their strengths and weaknesses. We study which activities generate value added and discuss both the merits and the drawbacks of the concept of Gross Planet Product (GPP). We will get a good idea about changes in the economic condition of our planet, both from business cycles and from changes in the world's unemployment rate. You will discover that economists are too optimistic about the reliability of their data but also that economist in the past have been too pessimistic about the development of the world economy.

We start with a discussion of the equilibrium concept and relate (in)stability to policy relevant questions such as (over)population, global warming and hyperinflation. We encounter comparative statics and scenario analysis. We discuss investment, saving and consumption and relate these concepts to the development of the Earth economy. At the end of these three lectures you will be able to build a model of the Earth economy and use that model to analyze the Great Recession of 2008/0. That is pretty cool.

In this Module we take a closer look at government. We study government spending and taxation and will discover any instances where government expenditures and receipts move in the same direction. An important issue is the development of public debt that has reached unprecedented levels for our planet. Finally we study money and its functions in the Earth Economy.

In this module we look at the money market and the role and impact of monetary policy. We start with the liquidity trap where interest rates are so low that monetary policy becomes impotent. Next we relate the money market and the product market in the so-called ISLM model. We use this model to shed light on economic debates about the role of government.

Earth Economics is especially relevant when we take a look at the long run because it enables us to analyse sustainability of economic processes and to understand how productivity is key for economic development. We will discover why Earth Economics is important for monitoring and understanding Sustainable Development Goals from a truly global perspective