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Course Criteria
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3.00 Credits
This course introduces students to the use of experiments by economists to study individual choice behavior, policy, and markets. Students learn methods through exploring the recent experimental literature in fields such as charitable giving, discrimination, incentives, cooperation, self-control, and education. Topics include causality, experimental design, internal and external validity, biases, and inference problems. Prereq: ECON 102.
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3.00 Credits
The term "game theory" refers to the set of tools economists use to think about strategic interactions among small groups of individuals and firms. The primary purpose of this course is to introduce students to the basic concepts of game theory and its applications. The class will stress the use of game theory as a tool for building models of important economic phenomena. The class will also include a number of experiments designed to illustrate the game theoretic results, and to highlight how reality may depart from the theory. The course will stress the value of thinking strategically and provide students with a framework for thinking strategically in their everyday lives. Rather than approaching each strategic situation they encounter as a unique problem, students will be taught to recognize patterns in the situations they face and to generalize from specific experiences. Prereq: ECON 102.
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3.00 Credits
This course will cover the relatively new field of Behavioral Economics, also sometimes called "Psychology and Economics." Behavioral economics involves incorporating insights into economics from other disciplines that enrich the understanding of how people make economic decisions. Most of the crossovers come from the field of psychology, but there is also a growing interest in ideas from sociology and neuroscience. We will cover fundamental concepts related to decision-making, such as how people respond to risk, how people make decisions over time, and the ways in which people really aren't as selfish as economists sometimes make it seem. We will also discuss empirical work that shows how these concepts affect how economists think about real-world issues. Examples include examining how to set the default options for 401k programs, understanding why people pay for costly gym memberships they do not use, and looking at whether sellers on Ebay use the best possible ending times for their auctions. Prereq: ECON 102.
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3.00 Credits
This course is about the economics of work and pay. We will take a comprehensive look at labor markets in the U.S. and other advanced countries and examine related social policy issues. This will include the effect of unions on wages, the underpinnings of the income distribution of the U.S., issues of poverty and welfare, discrimination and wage differential by gender and race, the relationship between work and family, education as a determinant of wages, and the way firms use wage and employment practices to motivate their employees to work productively. What makes labor economics special is that the commodity we examine is human labor, something that is central to the organization of our lives and the functioning of the economy. Labor economics thus applies the standard neoclassical model of demand, supply, and equilibrium to many areas that also have a profound human dimension. Prereq: ECON 102.
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3.00 Credits
Organizational Economics is the study of effective organizational design and management. It applies the powerful tools of modern economics to such questions as: what are the practices and structures that make for successful firms? Why are successful firms able to excel at some things (think Microsoft and word processors and spreadsheets) but not at other things (think Microsoft and web-based search)? Fundamentally organizations are human enterprises and their performance is driven by the people they employ. For this reason a good deal of organizational economics is concerned with how firms structure relationships with their employees. One of the important benefits students gain from studying organizational economics is a rigorous and logical framework for thinking about their jobs and careers. By applying this framework to many different real world settings, students become adept at translating general insights to their specific concerns. Organizational economics is built upon a hybrid approach to human behavior that draws from economics and social psychology. From economics, we take the idea that individuals can skillfully use the resources and information at their disposal to achieve their goals. From social psychology we take the idea that individual pursuit of their interests is complicated by the emotions, impulses, and cognitive biases built into human brains. The economic emphasis on goals implies that successful organizations must structure incentives and design jobs in ways that are consistent with the interests of employees. The psychological approach implies that successful organizations must also adopt motivational strategies that appeal to both the rational and non-rational drivers of human behavior. Prereq: ECON 102.
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3.00 Credits
This course emphasizes the importance of financial markets, the nature and role of the financial system, and the linkages between these--money and banking--and the economy. Emphasis is placed on both theoretical and practical constructs, on major innovations and contemporary changes, and the closely intertwined condition of financial and economic systems with monetary and fiscal policy. Offered as BAFI 341 and ECON 341.
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3.00 Credits
Government intervention is a pervasive feature of every modern economy. The goal of this course is to develop the economic tools for understanding and evaluating a wide range of government behaviors such as taxation and redistribution policy, the public provision of goods and services, and the regulation of private markets. ECON 342 begins by considering "market failures" that justify government intervention in a market economy. To respond to such failures, governments must raise revenues through taxation. Using the tools of microeconomic theory, we will develop a framework for thinking about the positive and normative effects of alternative forms of taxation. Particular attention will be paid to the individual income tax in the U.S., allowing students to understand the efficiency, distributional and behavioral implications of recent changes in the tax code. We will then turn to the expenditure side of the public sector. The economic principles used to evaluate public expenditures will be discussed and exemplified through the analysis of significant public programs. Of particular interest will be the effect of public programs on the incentives faced by workers and families. Offered as BAFI 342 and ECON 342. Prereq: ECON 102.
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3.00 Credits
This course uses economic analysis to gain insight in the U.S. system of state and local governments. In the case of local governments, unlike the familiar case of the U.S. government, people often display their displeasure with the government's actions by leaving rather than by voting against the incumbents. A careful consideration of the circumstances under which people will choose "exit" (moving out) over "voice" (voting) is central to the course. We'll also examine economic theories of why people vote and how people vote. We consider a broad range of policy issues. Among them are school finance, zoning, local government economic development policies, lotteries, and affordable housing policy. Of course, we also analyze the full range of state and local government taxes, including the property tax, personal income tax, corporate income tax, and sales tax. Prereq: ECON 102 or consent of instructor.
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3.00 Credits
This course examines important contemporary and historical issues from an economic perspective. It enables students to think about the world "like an economist." Possible topics of current interest include the transformation of Eastern Europe, ethnic and racial strife, environmental policy and sustainable development, and professional sports.
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3.00 Credits
The average person living in the industrialized world today has 10-20 times the annual income of his or her forbearers in 1800 and a much longer lifespan. What explains the massive increases in living standards for residents of the industrialized world? The average person living in Africa today has roughly the same if not less annual income than in 1800. Why haven't all the world's people seen a similar increase in living standards since 1800? These questions are the central themes of this course on the evolution of the world economy over the past millennium. Highlights of the class will include the pre-1800 Malthusian economy, the industrial revolution and its spread, 19th and 20th century globalization booms, and the development successes and failures of the 20th century. Prereq: ECON 102.
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