Teaching

This course is an introduction to the essential concepts of economic analysis and their implications for public policy. We study decisions of individuals and firms (microeconomics); we also study how to evaluate the operation of the national economy (macroeconomics). We use both theory and current policy applications to study these topic areas.

This course explores the role of the government in the economy. We focus on three distinct areas: when governments enter the market (externalities and public goods), social insurance and redistribution (expenditures) and revenue collection (taxation). We use both theory and current policy applications to study these three topic areas.

This course systematically explores the role of government in business. The course is concerned with how productive activities meet the demand for goods and services through an organizing mechanism such as a market, and how variations and imperfections in the organizing mechanism affect the degree of success achieved by firms in satisfying demand. We will examine why markets fail, and consider how they might be adjusted through government intervention (antitrust policies and regulation) to make actual performance measure up more closely to the ideal. To understand this interaction in the American economy, we will look at the historical, legal and theoretical reasons for government policies toward firms. A significant component of the course will involve students conducting investigations of various industries to see how the theory matches up to actual practice.

This course focuses on techniques for estimating regression models and on problems that are encountered in applying these estimation techniques. The goal of the course is to teach you the theory of econometrics and to give you experience in estimating econometric models with actual data. The course involves an intensive course paper that will expose you to the different stages of the research process.

This is a course in the history of the American economy and an exploration of the historical roots of economic issues. The events of history will help us to better understand and evaluate economic theory, and economic theory will help us to better understand history. The readings in this course may challenge commonly held perceptions of historical events as well as help us to recognize the important role history has in understanding current economic issues.