This is the first course in the economics two-semester introductory sequence. It introduces students to the market model and macroeconomics. Topics explored in the market model unit include supply and demand, incentives, opportunity cost and comparative advantage. Topics in macroeconomics include national income determination, inflation, unemployment, fiscal and monetary policy and key macroeconomic institutions.
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 is a one-semester introduction to economics covering topics in both micro and macroeconomics. Topics in microeconomics include the functioning of the market system and theories of consumer and business decision-making in a world of limited resources. The concepts of opportunity cost, efficiency, and market failure are developed as well as consideration of the wisdom and efficacy of government intervention in the market process. Topics in macroeconomics include the theory of national income determination and the associated concepts of inflation and unemployment. Fiscal and monetary policy and the institutions through which those policies are carried out are also developed. An introduction to international trade theory and foreign exchange markets complete the course.
Economics of Power and Inequality is a 0.25 unit student-led reading and discussion course open to economics majors/minors as well as students of other social science disciplines. The course surveys the power hierarchies and issues of inequality that are a part of the relationship between people and economic structures in the U.S. context and broadens learning to other countries as often as possible. Weekly meetings are required to promote attentive learning and reflection. Students delve into topics across subdisciplines in economics and political economy; as such they should complete ECON 101 prior to or concurrently with this course, or receive permission of the instructor to enroll.
This course is an activity credit where students participate in Sound Economics, a student-run economics blog. Students become familiar with the style and technique for academic blog writing, ultimately producing weekly articles which generate novel content, engage in current economic events, and synthesize economic ideas from the literature and the broader economic blogosphere. Weekly meetings are required to promote economic discussions, participation in peer review, workshopping writing skills, and the promotion and management of Sound Economics itself.
This course utilizes the tools of elementary economic analysis to explain basic issues in American economic history. In general, the course is organized chronologically. The course begins with discussions of the colonial and revolutionary periods, then continues with analysis of banking development, slavery, the Civil War, and industrial and labor market changes in the later nineteenth century. The course concludes with an analysis of the causes and effects of the Great Depression.
The development of economic thought from late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. The relation of economic thought to other social, political, and scientific thought is emphasized. The class focuses primarily on seven major figures in the history of economic thought: Smith, Ricardo, Mill, Marx, Marshall, Veblen, and Keynes. Readings are from original and secondary sources.
This course introduces economic perspectives on modern environmental issues. Students study economic theories related to natural resources and the environment. The first half of the course focuses on general concepts and theory, including markets and market failures, non-market valuation, benefit-cost analysis, and dynamic optimization of resource use over time. The second half shifts to applications including renewable and non-renewable resources, pollution, global climate change, fisheries, water, and concepts of sustainability.
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.
The tools of microeconomics are applied to understand the theoretical and empirical topics in urban and regional economics. The course begins with a discussion about the different definitions of regions, followed by topics on location theory of firms, labor markets, and household migration decisions. The second part of the course focuses on the urban sector of the economy exploring urban growth, land-use patterns, and externalities associated with urban areas. The final section of the course includes a discussion on regional economic policies and its implications on economic growth.
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 combines Economic and IPE approaches to understand and compare different governments' choices to influence markets and how those choices affect incentives and the behavior of economic agents (consumers, suppliers, laborers, employers, policymakers, etc.) in markets which are "misbehaving". In one way or the other, the markets considered in this class do not meet the economic goals of efficiency, equity, stability, or growth, requiring government action. This action, however, often creates distortions of its own. By considering nations' differing approaches to common problems, the successes and failures of government policy can be evaluated. The purpose of this course is to identify the need for market intervention, apply and evaluate policies which seek to achieve national goals, and identify optimal government action in the context of both economic, political, and cultural realities. Policy areas considered include healthcare, environmental protection, education, taxation, and equity.
In this course, students learn tools for analyzing critical issues in global development. Students work with data from low-income countries to examine the economic strategies of households and the policy choices of governments. Examples range from using household-level data from Mexico to identify the effect of central government policies on poverty and inequality to examining how market failures and unremunerated household labor lead to underinvestment in the education of girls and women.. The course draws heavily from the book Poor Economics for rich narratives about the lives of the poor and for recent insights from behavioral economics that can inform development policy.
This course examines the role of money in a modern economy. The focus is on the role of money and financial institutions. Topics covered include interest rate determination, asset and liability management, the role of the Federal Reserve System, and the importance of monetary policy in the macroeconomy.
The objective of this course is to explore the many ways that countries interact and explores some of today's most pressing international economic policy issues, such as the return to protectionism, currency manipulation, and trade deficits. In particular, the course explores the question of whether countries should be more open or less open to trade, the impact of protectionist policies on producers and consumers, understanding the foreign exchange market and how foreign exchange rates are determined, and the interconnection between trade and capital flows.
This is a course dedicated to an in-depth study of poverty and inequality in the United States. It covers the measurement of poverty and inequality, trends over time, the underlying causes and resultant consequences of poverty and inequality. We will then consider how our views of the poor shape public policy. Our examination will include theories of the culture of poverty, social stratification and discrimination, concentrated poverty and the underclass, economic and family structure drivers as well as institutional causes of poverty such as education and incarceration. The class draws together some of the most influential research, as well as more up-to-date articles and data that have influenced the evolution of social policies in the United States. This class is intended to offer students the opportunity to apply economic and empirical skills learned in their previous introductory economics courses. While the course primarily focuses on the economics of poverty and inequality and utilizes a significant amount of statistical and quantitative analysis, we will cover this terrain from many vantage points: historical, political, philosophical, sociological, and anthropological.
This course concerns application of statistical theory to the analysis of economic questions. Students learn the tools of regression analysis and apply them in a major empirical project.
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.
This course develops and extends the methods of microeconomic analysis. Topics include consumer-choice theory, models of exchange, the theory of the firm, pricing models, and general equilibrium analysis.
The basic principles of national income determination are studied from a theoretical perspective. Various models of macroeconomics are analyzed with emphasis on effects of monetary and fiscal policy. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding the causes and consequences of unemployment, inflation, and economic growth.
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/ENVR 327.
The major focus of this course is on the application of microeconomic tools to legal issues. The course considers the general issues of legal analysis and microeconomic theory as applied especially to the areas of tort, property, and contract law.
This course is devoted to a microeconomic analysis of the labor sector in the U.S. economy. The emphasis is on the allocation and distribution of time as an economic resource. Topics to be discussed include demand for labor, supply of effort, non-market time allocation, market imperfections, human capital theory, and models of wage determination.
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.
The meaning and significance of competition is developed from a variety of theoretical perspectives. The theory of the firm is developed, and the activities of firms in various market settings (competitive, monopolistically competitive, oligopolistic, and monopoloistic) are analyzed. The impact of firm behavior on social welfare is also discussed. Substantial emphasis is placed on game theoretical models and their applications, including collusion, product differentiation, entry deterrence, and dynamic firm interaction.
The course examines the relationship between economic theory and contemporary philosophy. The first part of the course is concerned with the connection between economics and epistemology (theory of knowledge) and the second part with the relationship between economics and ethics (moral philosophy).
Game theory is a technique for modeling and analyzing strategic decision-making processes in a world of interdependence. Game theoretic techniques are based on strategic interdependence, recognizing that an individual entity's payoff is dependent on the actions of others including consumers, producers, and regulators. The major focus of this class is to introduce and develop the tools of game theory for application to a variety of economic topics such as auctions, investment decisions, competitive behavior, trade, and environmental negotiations.
This course introduces students to the theory and practice of laboratory methods in economics. The course explores and identifies the range of issues in economics to which experimental methods have been applied. In addition, the course focuses on the principles of experimental design, as applied to these issues. Along the way, students participate in a range of classroom experiments which illustrate key ideas.
This second course in econometrics explores more advanced techniques for addressing empirical questions in the social sciences. The course emphasizes applied methods for both observational and quasi-experimental data. Students develop an independent empirical research project applying the skills they have acquired.
This course develops those tools of economic analysis most useful to business managers. Topics include demand estimation and forecasting, demand analysis, production and cost analysis, the theory of the firm, theory of market structures, industrial organization and competitive analysis, capital budgeting and risk analysis, and strategic planning. Applications of microeconomics to practical business problems in strategic planning is emphasized.
This course applies calculus and linear algebra to the analysis of microeconomic and macroeconomic theory. The tools of mathematical optimization and programming are developed with direct application to the analysis of the problems of consumer behavior, the theory of the firm, general equilibrium, and aggregate economic analysis.
This senior seminar is an advanced study of current topics in economic theory and policy. Students undertake an original senior thesis. Note: Performance on a standardized field exam in economics constitutes one component of the senior research seminar.
Independent study is available to those students who wish to continue their learning in an area after completing the regularly offered courses in that area.
Independent study is available to those students who wish to continue their learning in an area after completing the regularly offered courses in that area.
This scheduled weekly interdisciplinary seminar provides the context to reflect on concrete experiences at an off-campus internship site and to link these experiences to academic study relating to the political, psychological, social, economic and intellectual forces that shape our views on work and its meaning. The aim is to integrate study in the liberal arts with issues and themes surrounding the pursuit of a creative, productive, and satisfying professional life. Students receive 1.0 unit of academic credit for the academic work that augments their concurrent internship fieldwork. This course is not applicable to the Upper-Division Graduation Requirement. Only 1.0 unit may be assigned to an individual internship and no more than 2.0 units of internship credit, or internship credit in combination with co-operative education credit, may be applied to an und