Course Offerings
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Winter 2025▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Introduction to Economics
ECON 100 - Negrete, Mario
Economics is the study of how a society (individuals, firms, and governments) allocates scarce resources. The course includes a survey of the fundamental principles used to approach microeconomic questions of consumer behavior, firm behavior, market outcomes, market structure, and microeconomic policy, and macroeconomic questions of performance of the aggregate economy, including unemployment, inflation, growth, and monetary and fiscal policies. Open only to students who have not taken ECON 101 and/or ECON 102. No retakes allowed.
Introduction to Economics
ECON 100 - Shester, Katharine
Economics is the study of how a society (individuals, firms, and governments) allocates scarce resources. The course includes a survey of the fundamental principles used to approach microeconomic questions of consumer behavior, firm behavior, market outcomes, market structure, and microeconomic policy, and macroeconomic questions of performance of the aggregate economy, including unemployment, inflation, growth, and monetary and fiscal policies. Open only to students who have not taken ECON 101 and/or ECON 102. No retakes allowed.
Introduction to Economics
ECON 100 - Shester, Katharine
Economics is the study of how a society (individuals, firms, and governments) allocates scarce resources. The course includes a survey of the fundamental principles used to approach microeconomic questions of consumer behavior, firm behavior, market outcomes, market structure, and microeconomic policy, and macroeconomic questions of performance of the aggregate economy, including unemployment, inflation, growth, and monetary and fiscal policies. Open only to students who have not taken ECON 180, ECON 180A, ECON 101 and/or ECON 102. Retake allowed only with instructor consent and if space allows after the first round of registration.
Introduction to Economics
ECON 100 - Silwal, Shikha
Economics is the study of how a society (individuals, firms, and governments) allocates scarce resources. The course includes a survey of the fundamental principles used to approach microeconomic questions of consumer behavior, firm behavior, market outcomes, market structure, and microeconomic policy, and macroeconomic questions of performance of the aggregate economy, including unemployment, inflation, growth, and monetary and fiscal policies. Open only to students who have not taken ECON 101 and/or ECON 102. No retakes allowed.
Introduction to Economics
ECON 100 - Grajzl, Peter
Economics is the study of how a society (individuals, firms, and governments) allocates scarce resources. The course includes a survey of the fundamental principles used to approach microeconomic questions of consumer behavior, firm behavior, market outcomes, market structure, and microeconomic policy, and macroeconomic questions of performance of the aggregate economy, including unemployment, inflation, growth, and monetary and fiscal policies. Open only to students who have not taken ECON 101 and/or ECON 102. No retakes allowed.
Introduction to Economics
ECON 100 - Grajzl, Peter
Economics is the study of how a society (individuals, firms, and governments) allocates scarce resources. The course includes a survey of the fundamental principles used to approach microeconomic questions of consumer behavior, firm behavior, market outcomes, market structure, and microeconomic policy, and macroeconomic questions of performance of the aggregate economy, including unemployment, inflation, growth, and monetary and fiscal policies. Open only to students who have not taken ECON 180, ECON 180A, ECON 101 and/or ECON 102. Retake allowed only with instructor consent and if space allows after the first round of registration.
Statistics for Economics
ECON 202 - Blunch, Hugo
Fundamentals of probability, statistics, estimation, and hypothesis testing and ending with an introduction to regression analysis. The topics are critical for success in upper-level economics electives and are important for careers that rely on empirical research in the social sciences. Students engage in a dialogue between theory and application and learn to think formally about data, uncertainty, and random processes, while learning hands-on methods to organize and analyze real data using modern statistical software. Not open to students with credit for BUS 202 or INTR 202.
Econometrics
ECON 203 - Anderson, Michael
Explorations of regression models that relate a response variable to one or more predictor variables. The course begins with a review of the simple bivariate model used in INTR 202, and moves on to multivariate models. Underlying model assumptions and consequences are discussed. Advanced topics include non-linear regression and forecasting. Examples in each class are drawn from a number of disciplines. The course emphasizes the use of data and student-directed research.
Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
ECON 255 - Casey, Jamie
The course serves as an introduction to environmental and natural resource economics. Economic principles are used to evaluate public and private decision making involving the management and use of environmental and natural resources. Aspects pertaining to fisheries, forests, species diversity, agriculture, and various policies to reduce air, water and toxic pollution will be discussed. Lectures, reading assignments, discussions and exams will emphasize the use of microeconomic analysis for managing and dealing with environmental and natural resource problems and issues.
International Trade
ECON 270 - Anderson, Michael
Specialization of production, the gains from trade, and their distribution, nationally and internationally. Theory of tariffs. Commercial policy from the mercantilist era to the present. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Transnational economic integration: the European Community and other regional blocs.
International Finance
ECON 271 - Davies, Martin
International monetary arrangements, balance-of-payments adjustment processes, and the mutual dependence of macroeconomic variables and policies in trading nations. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), international investment, and the World Bank. International cooperation for economic stability.
Comparative Institutional Economics
ECON 281 - Grajzl, Peter
Institutions such as laws, the political system, and cultural norms embed all social activity. They structure economic, political, and social interaction and as such play a central role in facilitating (or hindering) economic development. This course's objective is to explore from a broad perspective how institutions affect economic performance, what the determinants of institutions are, and how institutions evolve. We study examples from the existing capitalist economies, the developing and transition countries, as well as the more distant history. Because the study of institutions is necessarily an interdisciplinary endeavor, the course combines the approach of economics with the insights from law, political science, history, and sociology.
Special Topics in Economics: Energy Economics
ECON 295D - Guse, Joseph
From the time humans first started burning wood and using livestock to pull carts, the development of technologies to harness various sources of energy has shaped civilization’s path of economic development. The industrial revolution would not have been possible without coal, petroleum, and gas - fossil fuels that grew to dominate the energy systems of modern economies. That dominance, however, has eroded in recent years as nations begin to pay serious attention to climate change and as the relative cost of carbon-free sources such as wind and solar falls. This course introduces students to the microeconomics of key energy markets, the environmental consequences of our energy system and the technical, economic, and political challenges of decarbonization.
Special Topics in Economics: Macro Dynamics: How Macro Policy Affects Financial Markets, Politics, and Business
ECON 295E - Hooks, Linda
U.S. macroeconomic policy today is complex, significant, and controversial. Join this class to analyze current issues including the regulation of cryptocurrency, the federal government deficit and debt, inflation, Social Security reform, and national industrial policy. The course will consider these issues through the multiple perspectives of policy and politics, financial markets and investing, and business conditions. Students will develop skills in understanding and analyzing macro policy and in predicting the impact of policy. Students will work in groups to produce “macro shop” reports on selected questions and will share their analyses with the class. Other coursework includes several quizzes, active participation, and a final group project. The course is appropriate for all majors and academic interests.
Game Theory
ECON 302 - Guse, Joseph
This course abandons the assumptions of perfect competition. Buyers and sellers may be few; information may be privately held; property rights may poorly enforced; externalities abound and uncertainty is the rule. Game theory is a general framework for analyzing the messy world of strategic interactions. Standard solution concepts such as Nash Equilibrium, subgame perfection, and Bayesian equilibrium are introduced in the context of a broad array of microeconomic topics. These include auctions, bargaining, oligopoly, labor market signaling, public finance and insurance. Class time combines lectures, problem-solving workshops, and classroom experiments.
Special Topics in Economics: Macro Forecasting
ECON 395E - Negrete, Mario
Time-series analysis and forecasting methodologies that are applied to issues in business, finance, and economics. The course covers various analytical techniques used by economists to model and forecast macroeconomic levels of economic activity. Topics include smoothing techniques, time-series decomposition methods, regression-based forecasting, unit root tests, and ARMA and SVAR modeling. Students learn to perform time-series regressions, undertake forecasting exercises, and test a variety of hypotheses involving time-series data. Stata and Excel software are used throughout.
Directed Individual Research
ECON 423 - Anderson, Michael
Independent research culminating in an honors thesis. See the departmental website for requirements for honors in the major.
Directed Individual Research
ECON 423 - Guse, Joseph
Independent research culminating in an honors thesis. See the departmental website for requirements for honors in the major.
Directed Individual Research
ECON 423 - Shester, Katharine
Independent research culminating in an honors thesis. See the departmental website for requirements for honors in the major.
Honors Thesis Workshop
ECON 440 - Anderson, Michael
Group workshop and seminar for students pursuing an honors thesis in Economics. Includes directed readings and research as well as presentations of Individual work.
Fall 2024▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Introduction to Economics
ECON 100 - Shester, Katharine
Economics is the study of how a society (individuals, firms, and governments) allocates scarce resources. The course includes a survey of the fundamental principles used to approach microeconomic questions of consumer behavior, firm behavior, market outcomes, market structure, and microeconomic policy, and macroeconomic questions of performance of the aggregate economy, including unemployment, inflation, growth, and monetary and fiscal policies. Open only to students who have not taken ECON 101 and/or ECON 102. No retakes allowed.
Introduction to Economics
ECON 100 - Smith, Chantal
Economics is the study of how a society (individuals, firms, and governments) allocates scarce resources. The course includes a survey of the fundamental principles used to approach microeconomic questions of consumer behavior, firm behavior, market outcomes, market structure, and microeconomic policy, and macroeconomic questions of performance of the aggregate economy, including unemployment, inflation, growth, and monetary and fiscal policies. Open only to students who have not taken ECON 101 and/or ECON 102. No retakes allowed.
Introduction to Economics
ECON 100 - Silwal, Shikha
Economics is the study of how a society (individuals, firms, and governments) allocates scarce resources. The course includes a survey of the fundamental principles used to approach microeconomic questions of consumer behavior, firm behavior, market outcomes, market structure, and microeconomic policy, and macroeconomic questions of performance of the aggregate economy, including unemployment, inflation, growth, and monetary and fiscal policies. Open only to students who have not taken ECON 101 and/or ECON 102. No retakes allowed.
Introduction to Economics
ECON 100 - Anderson, Michael
Economics is the study of how a society (individuals, firms, and governments) allocates scarce resources. The course includes a survey of the fundamental principles used to approach microeconomic questions of consumer behavior, firm behavior, market outcomes, market structure, and microeconomic policy, and macroeconomic questions of performance of the aggregate economy, including unemployment, inflation, growth, and monetary and fiscal policies. Open only to students who have not taken ECON 101 and/or ECON 102. No retakes allowed.
FS: First-Year Seminar: The 4th Industrial Revolution and the Future of Work
ECON 180A - Casey, Jamie
This fall, millions of students will head off to start college, eager to understand more about themselves and the world they will work and live in. The technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution - voice and facial recognition, machine learning, and algorithms to guide predictions, all of which fall under the umbrella of artificial intelligence, and industrial robotics - are emerging as defining features of contemporary social and economic life. This course explores the determinants and socioeconomic impact of the 4th Industrial Revolution through an economic lens, while also embracing and utilizing insights from other disciplines. The full range of fundamental economic ideas and concepts found in a conventional course on the principles of micro and macroeconomics will be introduced, mastered, and drawn upon to facilitate our exploration. Indeed, this course meets the requirement for economics courses that have Economics 100 as a pre-requisite. Students will develop their analysis, writing, and presentation skills through readings, short compositions, essay exams, class discussion, and small group activities.
Statistics for Economics
ECON 202 - Blunch, Hugo
Fundamentals of probability, statistics, estimation, and hypothesis testing and ending with an introduction to regression analysis. The topics are critical for success in upper-level economics electives and are important for careers that rely on empirical research in the social sciences. Students engage in a dialogue between theory and application and learn to think formally about data, uncertainty, and random processes, while learning hands-on methods to organize and analyze real data using modern statistical software. Not open to students with credit for BUS 202 or INTR 202.
Econometrics
ECON 203 - Anderson, Michael
Explorations of regression models that relate a response variable to one or more predictor variables. The course begins with a review of the simple bivariate model used in INTR 202, and moves on to multivariate models. Underlying model assumptions and consequences are discussed. Advanced topics include non-linear regression and forecasting. Examples in each class are drawn from a number of disciplines. The course emphasizes the use of data and student-directed research.
Microeconomic Theory
ECON 210 - Grajzl, Peter
Contemporary theory relating to consumer behavior, the firm's optimizing behavior, the nature of competition in various types of markets and market equilibrium over time. Recommended for economics majors not later than their junior year.
Macroeconomic Theory
ECON 211 - Davies, Martin
This course develops the classical macroeconomic framework and uses this to explore the causes and consequences of economic growth, inflation, output, and employment. This same exercise is conducted using alternative theoretical frameworks, including those associated with Keynes, Monetarists, and New Classical thinkers. Emphasis is placed on investigating the impact and effectiveness of monetary and fiscal policy under each of the theoretical paradigms or schools of thought developed.
Money and Banking
ECON 215 - Hooks, Linda
A study of the fundamental principles of money, credit, and banking in the United States. Emphasis is on modern conditions and problems, with particular attention to the validity of monetary and banking theory in the present domestic and international situation.
Labor Economics
ECON 230 - Smith, Chantal
This course addresses how labor markets and institutions allocate labor and determine earnings and the distribution of income in the United States. Economic models are used to explain labor market outcomes generated by our economy. Where such outcomes are deemed less than socially optimal, these models are used to evaluate prospective and current labor market policies intended to address these shortcomings. Some attention is given to comparing American labor market outcomes with those in other developed countries.
The Economics of Social Issues
ECON 235 - Goldsmith, Art
This seminar is based on readings that set out hypotheses developed by economists and other social scientists regarding the causes and consequences of a wide range of social problems. Evidence examining the validity of these hypotheses is scrutinized and evaluated. The course is writing intensive and interdisciplinary since readings are drawn from a wide variety of fields. Topics discussed include, but are not limited to, poverty, education, health, crime, race, ethnicity, immigration, and fiscal matters.
Economics of War and Peace
ECON 241 - Silwal, Shikha
In this course. we will look at the economic conditions and behaviors during periods of conflict. As such. the focus of the course is to develop a theoretical understanding of how human interaction can be modeled to study both peace and violent outcomes. To do so, we will view individuals' decision to be engaged in conflict as a rational choice. This viewpoint allows us to use economic principles to study individual behavior, design policies to alter those behaviors, and assess economic losses due to conflict. The topics covered in this class range from civil wars and genocide to international terrorism.
Development Economics
ECON 280 - Casey, Jamie
A survey of the major issues of development economics. Economic structure of low-income countries and primary causes for their limited economic growth. Economic goals and policy alternatives. Role of developed countries in the development of poor countries. Selected case studies.
Advanced International Finance
ECON 312 - Davies, Martin
Prerequisite: ECON 211; or ECON 271 with instructor approval. The objective of this course is to give the student a strong grounding in international finance through the examination of both theoretical and applied material. The balance of each (theory/application) will be approximately equal, and there will be a strong focus on economic policy. Throughout the course there will be a special emphasis on relating course material to recent and current economic shocks and trends, for example COVID-pandemic, the Global Financial Crisis and secular stagnation. The course is aimed at the student who intends to undertake a career in economics or finance, or to undertake graduate work. A primary goal of the course is to give the student insight by teaching them the skill of applying models of international finance to real world situations.
Advanced U.S. Economic History
ECON 344 - Shester, Katharine
This course examines selected topics in the economic development of the U.S. economy. The goals are to review some major themes in U.S. economic history, to study professional research papers to learn how economists develop and interpret historical evidence, and to give students hands-on experience analyzing historical data. Major themes vary, but usually include: agriculture/environment; fertility; health; race; World War II; and urbanization. Students will read, discuss, and present empirical economic research papers, replicate results from select papers, and write original empirical research papers.
Directed Individual Research
ECON 423 - Hooks, Linda / Anderson, Michael
Independent research culminating in an honors thesis. See the departmental website for requirements for honors in the major.
Directed Individual Research
ECON 423 - Guse, Joseph
Independent research culminating in an honors thesis. See the departmental website for requirements for honors in the major.
Directed Individual Research
ECON 423 - Shester, Katharine
Independent research culminating in an honors thesis. See the departmental website for requirements for honors in the major.
Honors Thesis Workshop
ECON 440 - Anderson, Michael
Group workshop and seminar for students pursuing an honors thesis in Economics. Includes directed readings and research as well as presentations of Individual work.
Spring 2024▲
See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.
Introduction to Computational Economics
ECON 223 - Alvarez, Camilo
This course is an introduction to computer programming for economic applications. With no prior programming skills required, we will start by installing Python and end using it to solve economic models and analyze data. The goal of the course will be to give you the fundamental Python programming skills to read and write code that applies to economic and financial problems. Importantly, we will focus on giving you the skills so you are able to apply your Python knowledge to larger questions and other models. We will cover how to gather and clean data, solve macro and micro models, and run simple regression models
ECON246-01/REL246-01 Caste at the Intersection of Economy, Religion, and Law
ECON 246 - Silwal, Shikha / Lubin, Tim
Social stratification touches every aspect of life, and South Asia's traditional caste structure is a special case: this highly complex, strictly-adhered-to system has been religiously legitimized and criticized over a 3,000-year history, and is nowadays seen as being at odds with the modern world. Yet it remains a crucial factor in social identity, economic roles, legal status, and religious practice. This course offers a 360-degree survey of caste both historically and in practice today in Nepal. The course addresses four themes, respectively providing for each a combination of historical background, social scientific analysis of the modern situation, and direct field experience for the students. ECON 100 or 101 required only for credit as an elective in the Economics major.
Supervised Study Abroad
ECON 288 - Landry, Emily / Casey, Jamie
For advanced students, the course covers a topic of current interest for which foreign travel provides a unique opportunity for significantly greater understanding. Likely destinations are Europe, Latin America, Africa, or Asia. Emphasis and location changes from year to year and is announced each year, well in advance of registration. This course may not be repeated. Other prerequisites as specified by the instructor(s).
Health: A Social Science Exploration
ECON 376 - Blunch, Hugo
Much of the work done by consulting companies, banks, insurance companies, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, etc., is based on applied statistical and econometric analysis. This course helps prepare students for careers in these environments using a hands-on approach and emphasizing the use of data and student-directed research in the specific context of health-related issues. Example of these issues include obesity, vaccinations, pre- and post-natal care, contraceptive use, or child mortality; possible determinants include poverty, education, or distance to the nearest health clinic or hospital. An interdisciplinary perspective is highlighted, as is the use and importance of quantitative analysis for public policy.