ECON 467 Data Science for Economists
In this new course, we will look at how to collect and manage economic data sets, how to use data for prediction and to evaluate the likely impacts of policies. Specifically, we’ll cover “data wrangling” using dataframes, machine learning for prediction, and causal inference with machine learning.
With the advent of powerful machine learning / AI methods, it’s very important to understand how these methods work and when to use them, so the course will not just be about the mechanical aspects of using the methods, but also about analyzing the methods and developing tools for assessing their reliability.
ECON 483 will NOT be required as concurrent enrollment. Contact an adviser in the Department of Economics to enroll.
Core Courses
Required of every Economics major. Sections of the same course are listed together.
ECON 302 Intermediate Microeconomic Analysis
ECON 302 develops the tools economists use to understand how consumers and firms make decisions and how those decisions interact in markets. We begin with consumer behavior. How do changes in prices and income affect what people buy? How much would someone need to be compensated for an increase in the cost of living? How much is access to lower prices-such as through a wholesale club-worth to a consumer? And how does demand change when goods are substitutes or complements?
We then study exchange between consumers and see how prices can emerge through market interactions. In the second half of the course, we turn to firms: how they make production and pricing decisions, and how outcomes differ under perfect competition and monopoly. Throughout, we ask whether market outcomes are Pareto efficient-whether there is any way to make someone better off without making someone else worse off-and consider the implications for government policy.
ECON 302 also develops skills in careful logical reasoning. Students learn to work with necessary and sufficient conditions, construct economic arguments, and use tools such as proof by contrapositive. These skills are useful both for advanced work in economics and for thinking rigorously about problems in many other fields.
ECON 302H Intermediate Microeconomic Analysis (Honors)
ECON 304 Intermediate Macroeconomic Analysis
ECON 306 Introduction to Econometrics
ECON 306 builds on the statistical tools introduced in ECON 106 to study how economists use data to estimate relationships and assess whether they are likely to be causal.
We begin with Ordinary Least Squares regression and then examine common challenges in real-world data, including omitted variables, multicollinearity, heteroskedasticity, and selection. The course introduces methods such as fixed effects and difference-in-differences, as well as logit and probit models for yes/no outcomes.
Throughout the course, students use statistical software to analyze actual data, estimate models, interpret results, and evaluate economic claims.
Behavior and Strategy
What people actually do when their choices depend on each other.
ECON 479 Economics of Matching
Economics of Matching studies how economists design markets and allocation systems when prices alone cannot determine who gets what. The course examines how the rules of these markets affect incentives, efficiency, and fairness.
We begin with auctions, including online advertising and wireless spectrum, and then turn to matching problems such as assigning doctors to residency programs, students to schools and dorms, and organizing kidney exchanges.
Ultimately, ECON 479 is about designing the rules of the market. Rather than simply asking how people behave, we ask: How should a market be designed so that individual choices lead to better outcomes?
ECON 402 Decision Making and Strategy in Economics
ECON 402 studies situations where outcomes depend not only on your own choices, but also on the choices of others. Using game theory, the course examines how individuals and firms compete, cooperate, bargain, and interact repeatedly.
Applications range from economics and business to politics, history, and everyday strategic situations. You will explore questions such as why closing a road can improve traffic, why burning bridges can create a strategic advantage, and why having more options is not always better.
ECON 411 Behavioral Economics
A model is a useful lie: it simplifies a complicated world so that we can hone in on a few features. That idea is our starting point. We begin with the standard model of rational choice, ask what it predicts, and then explore the systematic ways human behavior departs from those predictions. Why do defaults change what we choose? Why do gains and losses feel different? Why do we misjudge probabilities?
We use evidence from psychology and economics, together with mathematical models, to make these questions precise and formalize their implications for choices, markets, and government regulations.
ECON 417 The Economics of Uncertainty
This course explores one of the most fundamental challenges people and societies face: making decisions when the future is uncertain. Using economic models, we study how individuals evaluate risk, how people and firms make choices when outcomes are uncertain, and how uncertainty shapes economic behavior.
We also examine how markets help people share and manage risk and how economic policies can improve social outcomes. Throughout the course, we connect theoretical models to real-world questions involving individual decision-making, insurance, financial markets, and economic policy.
Markets and Policy
Firms with power, governments that respond, and the fields in between.
ECON 444 Economics of the Corporation
ECON 444 studies how firms create and use market power, combining the theory of Industrial Organization with the empirical methods economists use to study real firms.
We examine monopoly and oligopoly, product differentiation, price discrimination, and collusion-helping explain how firms set prices, design products, and compete. The course also introduces empirical tools such as regression, instrumental variables, and discrete-choice models.
By the end, students will have a stronger understanding of how firms behave in imperfectly competitive markets and how economists use data to study market power.
ECON 445 Health Economics
Why is health care so expensive in the United States? How do insurance, imperfect information, and market power shape the health care system?
ECON 445 uses microeconomic models to study health insurance, demand for health care, physician and nurse labor markets, hospital competition, and government policy. The course focuses primarily on the United States while also drawing comparisons with other countries, giving students tools to understand major debates over health care policy.
ECON 447 Economics of Sports
Why are superstar contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars? Why do sports leagues receive special antitrust treatment? How are ticket prices determined?
ECON 447 uses microeconomics to study sports as a business. The course applies ideas from industrial organization, labor economics, game theory, and bargaining to topics such as team relocation, broadcasting rights, salary caps, player drafts, free agency, and dynamic ticket pricing. No deep sports expertise is required.
ECON 449 Economics of Collusion
ECON 454 Economics of Mergers
ECON 428 Environmental Economics
How can pollution be reduced efficiently? Can markets help solve environmental problems? How should resources such as oil, forests, and fisheries be managed? And how can societies address climate change?
This course uses economic theory to study environmental problems and the policies designed to address them. Students examine how externalities can cause markets to fail and compare possible solutions, including taxes, the creation of new markets, and command-and-control regulation. The course also considers the management of renewable and non-renewable resources and international approaches to climate change.
ECON 432 Urban Economics
Why do cities exist, and why do people and firms cluster in particular places? Why are some cities much larger than others, and why do neighborhoods within the same city look so different?
ECON 432 uses economic theory to understand how cities form, grow, and change. The course examines where firms and households locate, land prices and land use, transportation and commuting, and challenges such as congestion, crime, education, segregation, and urban sprawl.
ECON 443 Economics of Law and Regulation
Why do governments regulate firms and individuals? When do markets fail to produce efficient outcomes, and when can government intervention improve them?
ECON 443 uses economic theory to study antitrust and regulation, including market power, economic regulation of firms and industries, and policies addressing health, safety, and environmental concerns. Throughout, students examine the benefits and unintended consequences of government intervention and develop tools for evaluating when regulation is justified and how it should be designed.
Trade and International
Goods, money, and firms crossing borders – and who gains.
ECON 333 International Economics
ECON 433 Advanced International Trade Theory and Policy
This course develops the basic tools needed to understand international trade and economic policy. Each part of the course introduces a tool and then uses it to answer a real economic question. No calculus is used—just diagrams and algebra. The ideas are deep, interesting, and relevant.
Did trade cause the rise in income inequality, or was technological change more important? Who actually pays for tariffs? How are quotas different from tariffs? Who gains and loses from outsourcing, and can its gains be shared more broadly?
ECON 433 uses economic theory and empirical evidence to make sense of these questions and to understand current debates about trade policy.
ECON 434 International Finance and Open Economy Macroeconomics
ECON 437 Multinationals and the Globalization of Production
ECON 470 International Trade and Finance
This course explores how countries, firms, and individuals interact through international markets and how these interactions shape the global economy. We develop economic models to understand why countries trade, what determines patterns of trade, and how international financial markets operate.
The course examines goods prices, exchange rates, capital flows, and other forces connecting economies across borders. Throughout, we apply these models to current developments such as globalization and de-globalization, international competition, exchange-rate movements, and cross-border investment.
The goal is not only to learn the models, but also to develop an economic perspective for understanding an increasingly interconnected world.
Money and Macro
Goods, money, and firms crossing borders – and who gains.
ECON 471 Growth and Development
Why are some countries rich and others poor? ECON 471 takes up this central question of macroeconomics, giving students the theoretical tools, empirical evidence, and data literacy needed to understand long-run economic growth and development.
Alongside exams, students complete a group research project on an emerging economy that has experienced catch-up growth. Using economic data, groups identify the main drivers of that country’s growth, diagnose the obstacles it still faces, and propose policy responses grounded in course concepts.
ECON 351 Money and Banking
In this course, students learn all about the Federal Reserve and the conduct of monetary policy: both conventional and unconventional. Students will examine many different interest rates and learn how they are determined. Students will study the importance of the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate and become familiar with business cycles in the U.S. economy since 1970 and the associated federal policy during these episodes.
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to contribute to any discussion about the U.S. economy and Federal Reserve policy, analyze real world events as they relate to U.S. monetary policy, and share their newly acquired human capital with others.
ECON 422 Applying Monetary Theory and Monetary History
ECON 451 Monetary Theory and Policy
Why do we use money, what determines interest rates, and how does the Federal Reserve affect inflation, output, and employment?
ECON 451 studies money, financial markets, banks, and monetary policy. We examine how interest rates are determined, how banks operate, why financial crises occur, and how the Federal Reserve conducts monetary policy.
Throughout the course, we connect economic theory to data, historical episodes, and current policy debates involving inflation, interest rates, financial crises, and the broader economy.