An introduction to the modes of thought of economics. Use of simple standard tools of economics to analyze important problems that arise frequently in public policy, the news media, and in daily life. An emphasis on how economists predict what choices societies make and how economists analyze whether those are good choices. Practical application of a variety of economic tools leading to a focus on the essential unity underlying these analytical tools, viewing economics as a discipline that applies a core methodology in different ways in different situations.

History shows that the gap between the rich and the poor has varied over time within and between countries, most recently seeming to increase within many countries while somewhat decreasing between countries. This course challenges students to investigate why people make different amounts of money, why income inequality has changed dramatically in recent years, what public policy tools exist to counter inequality increases, and what different institutional arrangements different countries use to lower inequality.

How does society balance the benefits of environmental protection and preservation against the costs? Though some might say that the environment is priceless, economists recognize that every action involves trade-offs. This course investigates sustainability through comparing costs and benefits. From this perspective, other questions arise: How can we design policies that incentivize sustainable choices? Why might usual market functioning fail to achieve sustainability? Do we need to put a price on the environment in order to protect it? How do we measure an economy's "success"?

Introduces economic models used to analyze economic behavior by individuals and firms and consequent market outcomes. Applies conceptual analysis to several policy issues and surveys a variety of specific topics within the broad scope of microeconomics.

Introduces economic models used to analyze economic behavior by individuals and firms and consequent market outcomes. Applies conceptual analysis to several policy issues and surveys a variety of specific topics within the broad scope of microeconomics.

An introduction to how market economies behave at the aggregate level. The determination of national income/output and the problems of unemployment inflation, will be examined, along with monetary and fiscal policy.

An introduction to how market economies behave at the aggregate level. The determination of national income/output and the problems of unemployment inflation, will be examined, along with monetary and fiscal policy.

Analysis of the determination of national income, employment, and price levels. Discussion of consumption, investment, inflation, and government fiscal and monetary policy.

Analysis of the theories of consumer behavior, producer behavior, different market structures, and various sources of inefficient outcomes. Analysis of microeconomic policies designed to improve market outcomes.

Economic concepts are used to analyze various aspects of the founding and early history of the U.S., including the British settlement of the North American colonies, the economics of the American Revolutionary war, the writing of the Constitution, the development of financial markets, policies on public lands and the spread of western agriculture, slavery, banking, and early industrialization.

Topics include: the economics of the Civil War, the performance of southern agriculture in the late 19th century, the rise of large corporations, industrialization, the development of financial markets, the creation of the Federal Reserve Board, the economics of the Great Depression and the New Deal, the economic impact of World War II, and the rise of the modern service economy in the late 20th century.

Analysis of policy options and debates on fostering economic growth and development in a global economy where national boundaries are no longer relevant. Topics covered will include real loanable funds markets in both local and international contexts during normal conditions and during financial crises, the design of trade and industrial policies, and the role of the World Bank, IMF, WTO, and other international agencies as well as regional and bilateral trade agreements. Emerging economies will be emphasized.

Introduction to the use of statistics in economics. Topics include: Probability, random variables and their distributions, sampling theory, estimation, hypothesis testing, analysis of variance, regression analysis and correlation.

Analysis of macroeconomic behavior and policy with emphasis on theoretical rigor. Topics include the determinants of economic growth, unemployment, inflation, and international economic flows.

Analysis of economic decision-making by individuals and firms, the resulting market outcomes, and applications to real-world problems. Emphasis on analytical logic and theoretical rigor. Topics covered include consumer preferences and utility maximization, perfect competition and market power, uncertainty and risk, externalities, and asymmetric information.

The structure of financial institutions and their role in the provision of money and near money. Analysis of the Federal Reserve System, the techniques of central banks, and the control of supply of financial assets in stabilization policy. Relationship of money and credit to economic activity and the price level.

See Department Advising Office for course eligibility, course requirements, and application information.
Contact department for information to register for this course.

Increase student knowledge of career paths, job search tools, and strategies for successfully obtaining a job with a BA or BS in economics. Students will engage in a range of different activities which build their understanding of job opportunities in economics and hone their abilities to find positions they want. Students will reflect on specific skills employers seek from economics graduates and incorporate that knowledge in their own individual job search and career plan.

First semester of the departmental honors sequence. Students will develop and apply research skills required to carry out original research. By the end of the semester students will have produced a complete draft of an honors thesis resembling a scholarly journal article.

Analysis of current economic problems and public policies. Topics could include poverty, income inequality, social insurance, education, environmental sustainability, immigration, and innovation. Other issues may be substituted depending on current events.

Analysis of the fluctuations in economic activity and the formulation and use of forecasting models of the economy. Illustrations of computer macro models and forecasting problems.

Expands on the assumptions of rational decision-making used in intermediate microeconomics and develops more complicated, more realistic models which address uncertainty, intertemporal choices, strategic interactions, social preferences and considerations of what is fair.

Institutions are the sets of rules that constrain the decisions and interactions of economic agents. The course uses economic analysis to understand both formal institutions (e.g. laws) and informal institutions (e.g. cultural norms). Practical examples are drawn from economics, law, and politics, and reflect the experience of many different countries.

Studies the competitive and cooperative behavior that results when several parties with conflicting interests must work together. Learn how to use game theory to analyze situations of potential conflict. Applications are drawn from economics, business, and political science.

Analysis of the determinants and influences on economic development. Emphasis on both theoretical models and econometric methods of explaining why some countries are poor, along with examination of policies to promote development.

Emphasizes the interaction between economic problems and the assumption employed in statistical theory. Formulation, estimation, and testing of economic models, including single variable and multiple variable regression techniques, theory of identification, and issues relating to inference.

Emphasizes the interaction between economic problems and the assumption employed in statistical theory. Formulation, estimation, and testing of economic models, including single variable and multiple variable regression techniques, theory of identification, and issues relating to inference.

Interaction between economic problems and specification and estimation of econometric models. Topics may include: autocorrelation, heteroscedasticity, functional form, simultaneous equation models, logit and probit models, instrumental variables, qualitative choice models, and other computational methods.

Provide the knowledge and skills necessary to accomplish and utilize basic applied econometric analysis utilized by many business service providers, government agencies, and nonprofits engaged in policy analysis. Topics include simple and multiple regressions using cross section, time series, and panel data, issues of heteroskedasticity, serial correlation, and multicollinearity, models with binary dependent variable, and program evaluation. Course emphasizes application of knowledge using software packages but still covers essential theoretical background.

Study of how to use cost benefit analysis and other similar tools of applied microeconomics to conduct policy analyses. Cost-benefit analysis is an empirical method of identifying an optimal choice from a set of policy alternatives, where optimal is defined in terms of economic efficiency. Real world examples are addressed, so that students understand limitations of the methods and also interactions of economic analysis with political and administrative processes.

Examines the economics of international economic integration, including the theory of customs unions and free trade areas, the role of GATT and the WTO, changes in individual countries' foreign trade policies during the new era of globalization, the special role of multinational firms in world trade, and recent controversies about the benefits and costs of globalized trade.

Analysis of collective decision making, economic models of government, program budgeting, and policy implementation; emphasis on models of public choice and institutions which affect decision making.

The role of the public sector in a market economy constitutes the over-arching topic of this course. Emphasis lies on analyzing government expenditure programs and the microeconomics of tax policy.

Relationship of the exchange process to the system of institutions and rules that society develops to carry out economic transactions. Topics covered include: Property rights; torts, negligence, and liability; contracts and exchanges; criminal control and enforcement; equity and efficiency issues.

Examines different theoretical models of firm behavior in markets with varying amounts of market power. Relates theory to specific industries and examines how market structure evolves over time.

Analysis of labor markets in theory and the real world. Topics include labor supply, labor demand, human capital, performance incentives, unemployment, discrimination, and immigration. Students will develop an understanding of how formal economic research is used to analyze U.S. labor markets and how research influences policy debates.

Introductory technical treatment of standard Keynesian, classical and new classical macroeconomic models. Expectations formation and microeconomic foundations of consumption, investment, money demand, and labor market behavior.

Introductory technical treatment of standard Keynesian, classical and new classical macroeconomic models. Expectations formation and microeconomic foundations of consumption, investment, money demand, and labor market behavior.

A detailed treatment of the theory of the consumer and of the firm, particularly emphasizing the duality approach. Topics include the household production model, imperfect competition, monopolistic and oligopolistic markets.

A detailed treatment of the theory of the consumer and of the firm, particularly emphasizing the duality approach. Topics include the household production model, imperfect competition, monopolistic and oligopolistic markets.

Survey of a variety of models explaining how market failures may lead to poverty and underdevelopment, with an emphasis on the empirical evaluation of constraints faced by individuals in developing countries and the programs that attempt to alleviate those constraints. Topics include: agricultural and land markets, labor markets, human capital in developing countries, credit markets, and consumption smoothing and risk coping.

Specification, estimation, hypothesis testing and prediction in the classical and generalized linear regression model. Topics include: ordinary least squares, generalized least squares, instrumental variableestimation, quantile regression, finite and large sample analysis and general testing principles including misspecification tests. The course will also provide instructions on the use of a major statistical packagesuch as Stata or TSP.

An examination of the specification, computation, estimation and interpretation of structural models that are widely used in applied microeconomics (empirical and theoretical Industrial Organization, public and urban economics, environmental economics, development, political economy (e.g., voting), health and education economics, trade) and Marketing. The focus will be on how to use these models in practice, and students will solve and estimate models in weekly problem sets, with solutions/code being discussed in class.

To provide students with the opportunity to use empirical techniques that are particularly valuable in the analysis of microeconomic data. Topics include panel data, nonlinear optimization, limited dependent variables, truncated, censored, selected samples, the analysis of natural experiments, and quantile regressions. This course will emphasize hands-on practical experience.

Essential computational methods used in macroeconomics. There will be particular focus on approximating the solution to dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models. Methods for representative-agent and heterogeneous-agent models will be extensively studied. Econometric methods such as Generalized Method of Moments, Maximum Likelihood, Vector Autoregressions wil also be covered.
Beginning on Fri, October 23rd, students will need to attend an evening meeting from 5:30p-830p

An introduction to the methodology of laboratory and field experiments. The course concentrates on a series of experiments to show how experiments build on one another, allowing researchers with different theoretical dispositions to narrow the range of potential disagreement.

Decision making is a process in which we select a course of action among available options. It begins when we need to do something but we do not know what. First, we embark on a journey into a land of rationality to study the normative approach. Since our ability to think and knowledge are limited and time is pressing, it is not surprising that some behavioral biases will observed in decision making processes. Of course, this will require adjusting our normative theories to capture these biases. This will be the second purpose of this course.

Review recent empirical literature in industrial organization. Covers price discrimination, cartel and collusion, entry and market structure, information and competition, technological change and adoption, auction, and firm organization.

Recent developments in macroeconomics with an emphasis on topics and techniques useful for conducting research in macroeconomics. Topics include advanced treatment of fiscal and monetary policy issues; the role of imperfect competition; real, sectoral and nominal business cycle models.

Advanced Topics in Applied and Theoretical Microeconomics

Advanced Topics in Applied and Theoretical Macroeconomics

Oriented towards macro-econometric methods. Topics covered will be selected from the following: Further discussion of topics covered in ECON624, nonlinear time series models, exogeneity and causality, non-stationary time series models (unit roots, co-integration, error correction models, vector autoregressive models), econometric models of volatility (ARCH and GARCH models, and Stochastic volatility models), rational expectations models, non-stationary panel data models, tests for structural change, Bayesian econometrics and methods for Bayesian computation.

Exchange rate determination; exchange rate regimes; international monetary reform; policy conflict and cooperation; the LDC debt problem; pricing of international assets; balance of payments crises.

Comparative advantage, Heckscher-Ohlin theory, specific-factors model, empirical verification, economies of scale, imperfect competition, commercial policy, factor mobility.

Modern analytical and quantitative labor economics. Labor supply decisions of individuals and households; human capital model and distribution of income. Demand for labor; marginal productivity theory, imperfect information and screening. Interaction of labor demand and supply; unemployment; relative and absolute wages; macroeconomic aspects of the labor market.

Workshop on Macroeconomics and Growth; Workshop in Applied Economics

Workshop in Econometrics

Workshop in International Development, and Comparative Economics

Workshop in Industrial Organization

Workshop in Labor Economics