Economics

Courses Taught

• DS 265 "Just" Data?
  Massive data collection and sophisticated “Big Data” methods are used in marketing and recruiting, teacher evaluation, criminal justice, national security, and many other fields. These methods have potential to improve social outcomes, but can also perpetuate historical socioeconomic injustices, reinforce biases, and paint a veneer of rational objectivity over erroneous assumptions. This course introduces relevant statistical and computational concepts through lab activities, while also reflecting critically on these methods’ limitations and ethical implications through discussion of specific case studies. Prerequisite: Previous credit or concurrent registration in one of: CS 107 or 111; OR Math 107 or equivalent; OR DS 256.
• ECON 103 Principles of Microeconomics
  Courses provide general understanding of economic systems and economic analysis, with emphasis on the operation of the U.S. economy. Topics include the price system, theory of consumer behavior, theory of production, theory of the firm, income distribution, welfare economics, and the micro aspects of international trade.
• ECON 105 Economics of Public Issues
  Fundamentals of economics for citizens, businesses, nonprofits, and policymakers, through the lens of social issues. Microeconomics topics include making optimal production and consumption decisions with limited resources, gains from specialization and trade, price coordination, market competition versus market power, consequences of imperfect markets, and common remedies. Macroeconomics topics focus on measurement and determinants of headline statistics like GDP growth, unemployment, and inflation, interest rates, government deficits and debt, and effects of government spending, taxation, and income redistribution. Students that have received credit for ECON 103 cannot receive credit for ECON 105.
• ECON 270 Health Economics and Health Care Policy
  Introduction to economic analysis of health care markets and health policy. In this course, we use economic analysis to understand individuals' demand for medical care and their role in health production, socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes, uncertainty and the role of insurance, adverse selection and moral hazard problems, the roles of physicians and hospitals as suppliers, pharmaceutical innovation and medical technologies, and the role of government programs in the US and internationally. Prerequisite: ECON 103 or ECON 105. ECON 270 and PP 270 are cross-listed.
• ECON 352 Advanced Econometrics
  Study of the application of mathematical economic theory and statistical procedures to economic data. Coverage includes the development of appropriate techniques for measuring economic relationships specified by economic models and testing of economic theorems. Prerequisite: Econ 350, plus one other 300-level course.