Economics

This is the second course in the economics two-semester introductory sequence. It introduces the student to the microeconomic concepts of consumer choice, demand theory, consumer and producer surplus, the theory of the firm, perfect competition and market failure.

This course introduces students to the economics of interregional and international migration. The tools of microeconomics are applied to understand the theoretical and empirical aspects of migration decisions and their implications on regional growth. Using economic models the course explores and understands the causes and effects of migration on receiving and sending regions. While this course primarily focuses on interregional and international migration in the United States, it also includes additional discussions on current applications and topics concerning migration issues in other countries in the world. The final section of the course includes a discussion on immigration policies in the U.S. and abroad and the issues concerning them.

This course is an analysis of gender and race inequality, using the theoretical and empirical tools of economics. Topics include work and family issues, the labor market, occupational segregation, and discrimination. The students gain an understanding of what the market economy can and cannot do, its differing gender and racial impact, and how economic policy can lead to greater equality.

This course uses tools from economics and psychology to address individual decisions which are hard to account for with traditional, rational economic theory. Using both theoretical and laboratory methods, students explore topics involving both bounded rationality and bounded self-interest. These topics include the influence of altruism, trust, and emotion in economic decisions and alternative explanations for ’irrational decisions’: choice anomalies, bias in risk attitudes, and heuristics. Students participate in and develop controlled experiments to examine these issues empirically.

Global climate change is considered by many to be the most significant environmental challenge of the 21st century. Unchecked, the continued accumulation of greenhouse gases over this century is projected to eventually warm the planet by about 6 to 14 °F, with associated impacts on the environment, economy, and society. This course explores the economic characteristics of the climate change problem, assesses national and international policy design and implementation issues, and provides a survey of the economic tools necessary to evaluate climate change policies. It is largely discussion-oriented and thus requires a high degree of participation by students in the classroom. Cross-listed as ECON/ENVP 327.

This course develops the connections between economic theory and the online dating market. Economic techniques are used to examine unique features of the online dating market, such as the significance of market thickness, the prevalence of cheap talk, and search theory. Features of the online dating market are explored to simultaneously provide insight on more broadly applied economic principles including adverse selection, network externalities, and matching markets. The course emphasizes microeconomic theoretical techniques to model these phenomena.