Course	ECON 101 Introduction to Microeconomics
Professor	Sanjaya DeSilva
CRN	18178
Schedule	Wed Fr 9:00 - 10:20 am Olin 204
Distribution	Social Science

Cross-listed: Environmental Studies; GISP; Social Policy

This course covers the essential ideas of economic analysis. Students will learn how economists explain human behavior as we seek to satisfy our needs and wants. The first part of the course develops models of consumer and firm behavior, including demand and supply, in the context of an idealized competitive market. From there we analyze several ways in which the real world deviates from this model, including monopoly and other forms of imperfect competition, information problems, minimum wages and other price controls, taxes, and government regulation. Along the way we will explore public policy problems such as pricing the environment, winners and losers from international trade, health care costs and insurance, and the high price of textbooks. Econ 101 and 102 may be taken in either order. On-line registration

Course	ECON 101E Experimental Microeconomics
Professor	Tsu-Yu Tsao
CRN	18179
Schedule	TuTh 1:00 -2:20 pm Olin 205
Distribution	Social Science

Cross-listed: Environmental Studies; GISPTraditionally, economics has been regarded as a non-experimental science, where researchers have to rely on direct observations of the real world to verify their theories. That view, however, has changed in the last twenty years as many researchers begin to test economic theories in laboratory settings. In this course, we will follow this relatively new methodology in economics and use in-class experiments to study economic concepts. Each week, we devote one class meeting to conducting an experiment and the other to understand the underlying principles of the experiment and how those principles can be applied to analyze real-world issues. Topics to be addressed include minimum wage law, legality of drug use, farm subsidies in the U.S., the protection of intellectual property and pricing of AIDS drugs in developing countries, tradeoffs between efficiency and equity associated with taxation, the use of pollution permits in combating environmental degradation, international trade, and labor market discrimination. This course can be used to fulfill the requirement of Econ 101: Introduction to Microeconomics for students who intend to moderate into economics. On-line registration

Course	ECON 102A Introduction to Macroeconomics
Professor	Pavlina Tcherneva
CRN	18180
Schedule	Mon Wed 9:00 - 10:20 am Olin 205
Distribution	Social Science

Cross-listed: Social Policy; GISP

This course begins with the examination of the aggregate behavior of modern economies: the factors leading to economic growth, explanations of booms and recessions, unemployment, interest rates, inflation, budget deficits or surpluses, and international trade. We will also analyze the government’s ability (or inability) to use monetary and fiscal policies to achieve economic goals such as full employment and price stability. Throughout the course, we will debate whether government should use monetary and fiscal policy tools to try to ‘fine tune’ the economy and what the likely effects of such government involvement are. We will analyze these issues using current domestic and international examples. Econ 101 and 102 may be taken in either order. On-line registration

Course	ECON 102B Introduction to Macroeconomics
Professor	Andrew Pearlman
CRN	18181
Schedule	Mon Wed 10:30 - 11:50 am Olin 204
Distribution	Social Science

See description above. On-line registration

Course	ECON 105 Foundations of Finance and Investment
Professor	Tsu-Yu Tsao
CRN	18182
Schedule	TuTh 2:30 -3:50 pm Olin 202
Distribution	Social Science

This course explores the foundations of the pricing of financial

instruments and the structure and organization of financial markets. Methods will be developed to analyze and measure financial performance, price stocks and bonds, evaluate portfolios and understand financial derivatives as these relate to financial data. Additional topics include the investment decision-making process; trading practices; risk assessment and diversification. This course involves a substantial amount of statistical analysis and calculation, but no prior knowledge of statistics is required. On-line registration

Course	ECON 125 Economics from the Ground Up
Professor	Kris Feder
CRN	18185
Schedule	TuTh 9:00 - 10:20 am Albee 106
Distribution	Social Science

Cross-listed: Environmental Studies (core course)

Microeconomics textbooks typically focus on markets involving exchanges of goods and money among millions of “agents” (households and firms), who are implicitly assumed to obey established social conventions and governmental directives. This course develops economic principles through successive variations of a simple intuitive model. Following the standard conception of economics as the study of constrained choice, we first explore the economizing behavior of a single individual, acting alone, who struggles to survive by employing available resources to produce food and shelter. The model of production with no exchange reveals the meaning and practical significance of core concepts such as: Income, wealth, and utility; opportunity cost; labor and wages; capital and interest; land and rent; risk, profit and loss; competition; the equimarginal principle of optimization. We then build complexity and realism into the model, introducing cooperation and exchange among persons. We analyze markets, prices, property rights, externalities, public goods, and the economic functions of government. Throughout the course, the economic is understood as embedded in the ecological system. Particular attention is paid to the nature and function of capital. Algebra and graphing are used extensively. This course is a suitable alternative to Economics 101, especially for students concentrating in Environmental Studies, Political Studies, Human Rights, and related fields.

Prerequisite: Pre-calculus, or the equivalent. On-line registration

Course	ECON 200 Money and Banking
Professor	Dimitri Papadimitriou
CRN	18186
Schedule	TuTh 10:30 - 11:50 am Olin 205
Distribution	Social Science

Cross-listed: Global & Int’l Studies

An examination of the role of money and financial intermediaries in determining aggregate economic activity. Interactions of savers, investors, and regulatory authorities in domestic and international capital markets are analyzed, and the linkage between the financial system and the real economy traced. The functions of central banks, commercial banks, securities dealers, investment banks, and other intermediaries are covered in detail. The debate over the goals, tools, indicators, and effectiveness of monetary policy is considered in the light of current national and international economic problems. On-line registration

Course	ECON 202 Intermediate Macroeconomics
Professor	Tamar Khitarishvili
CRN	18187
Schedule	Tu Th 2:30 -3:50 pm Olin 201
Distribution	Social Science

Cross-listed: Global & Int’l Studies, Social Policy

This course is the continuation of the introductory macroeconomics course. In it, students will get acquainted with main models that macroeconomists use to analyze the way economies behave. The course starts by looking at the models that explain long run economic growth. We then focus our attention on investigating economic theories that explain short run business cycles, the periods of recessions and booms that occur on a regular basis. An important part of the course is to investigate the role of governments in affecting the long run and short run economic prospects of their countries. We apply the acquired theoretical knowledge to a range of current economic issues, including budget deficits and national debt, international trade, and the role of institutions. Prerequisite: Econ 102 (Introduction to Macroeconomics) On-line registration

Course	ECON 229 Statistics
Professor	Andrew Pearlman
CRN	18189
Schedule	Mon Wed 3:00 – 4:20 pm HEG 102 Th 12:30 -2:20 pm HDRANX 106
Distribution	Mathematics & Computing

Cross-listed: Environmental Studies, Global & Int’l Policy, Social Policy

The first of a two-course series designed to examine empirical economics, and a Prerequisite for Economics 329, Econometrics. Basic concepts of statistics, probability, probability distributions, random variables, correlation, and simple regression are introduced; the techniques of statistical inference hypothesis testing are developed. Numerous examples and computer-based exercises are included. Prerequisite: Economics 101 or 102. On-line registration

Course	ECON 242 Environmental Economics
Professor	Kris Feder
CRN	18190
Schedule	Mon Wed 12:00 -1:20 pm Albee 106
Distribution	Social Science

Cross-listed: Environmental Studies (core course); Social Policy

The interrelationships between economic and ecological systems: the materials balance; the economic role of ecosystem services; the economic value of extractive and in situ uses of the environment as a source of productive inputs and a repository for wastes; market and non-market allocations of natural resources among alternative uses. The standard neoclassical analysis of pollution as a consequence of externality and market failure is developed, general conditions for efficient resource use and waste disposal are derived, and rationales for public management of environmental resources are examined. Conventional policy solutions are evaluated with particular focus on United States environmental policy. Orthodox analyses of environmental problems are contrasted with alternative interpretations, including those of ecological economics, steady-state economics, and geoclassical economics. Of special interest are the questions of land tenure and entitlement—of individual and collective rights to nature. Prerequisite: ECON 101. On-line registration

Course	ECON 254 Feminist Economics
Professor	Rania Antonopoulos
CRN	18191
Schedule	TuTh 1:00 -2:20 pm Olin 310
Distribution	Social Science/ Rethinking Difference

Cross-listed: American Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Social Policy

This course reexamines economics by looking at traditional theories through a feminist lens. Emerging feminist approaches challenge the currently used framework of economic analysis, at both the micro and macro levels, for omitting a crucial analytical category, that of gender. In introducing this centrally important category, feminist economics seeks to correct the mainstream vision of how contemporary societies organize the activities of production and distribution. From a scientific point of view, a gender-based schema makes the complexity of economic interactions among institutions and people more transparent, and is thus better suited to address issues of public policy and ultimately societal transformation. Topics that will be covered, include: feminist critiques of economic theories:“en-gendering” the economic question per se; the importance of re-conceptualizing the economy as a three sector model: household sector, market sector and government sector; household production versus market oriented production: a gendered system; social division of labor by gender: structures of gender occupation and segregation; contemporary labor market issues and policies: wage gap, comparable worth, discrimination and affirmative action; economic growth, poverty trends and government policy: gendered impact; “efficient” versus “equitable” growth: how do we evaluate economic prosperity? On-line registration

Course	ECON 301 Topics in Microeconomics
Professor	Sanjaya DeSilva
CRN	18192
Schedule	Wed 1:30 -3:50 pm Olin 308
Distribution	Social Science

An examination of advanced topics in microeconomics: general equilibrium analysis; welfare economics and efficiency; missing markets, externality, and indivisibility; uncertainty and asymmetric information; game theory; intertemporal decisionmaking. Students read from the primary journal literature and write a term paper. Prerequisite: Econ 201.

On-line registration

Course	ECON 325 Open-Economy Macroeconomics and International Finance
Professor	Tamar Khitarishvili
CRN	18193
Schedule	Fr 1:30 -3:50 pm Olin 204
Distribution	Social Science

Cross-listed: GISP

This course analyzes the variables that characterize open economies, including the balance of payments, foreign exchange regimes and international capital movements, among others. Careful attention is paid to the relationship between them and to the impact of macroeconomic policies on these variables. Also covered is the history of the international monetary system. Prerequisites: Econ 101 and Econ 102

On-line registration

Course	ECON CONF Senior Conference
Professor	Kris Feder / Sanjaya DeSilva / Tsu-Yu Tsao
CRN	18194
Schedule	Mon Tu 5:00 -7:20 pm Albee 106

Students writing Senior Projects in Economics will be required to attend the Senior Conference, which will meet not more than one evening every two weeks throughout the fall and spring terms. Not for credit. On-line registration