Economics 494MI - Correcting Market Failures

This course is both an Integrative Experience course and a Civic Engagement course. In it, we will use microeconomic tools to analyze how markets function, how they fail, and how intervention can correct market failures. The basic point of the course will be to answer the following question: What are the market failures that governmental entities or nonprofit organizations attempt to correct? Another way of asking this is: Why doesn't the free market fulfill the needs or provide the services that government or nonprofits do? During the semester, students must do weekly volunteer work for a government agency or private nonprofit organization of their choice. The volunteer work will provide the case studies for answering the above questions.

ECON 103 or RES-ECON 102 Fulfills the IE requirement only for Econ PRIMARY majors.

This course fulfills one S-L requirement for the UMass interdisciplinary Certificate in Civic Engagement & Public Service (CEPS). For more information on the CEPS visit: www.umass.edu/cesl/programs/civic-engagement-public-service-certificate