This course provides an approach to the current challenges in the interactions between development and the environment, using the lens of the current tools of behavioral sciences. By looking at the micro-foundations of how economic agents interact through their behavioral and institutional restrictions and incentives, we will tackle the questions that today many societies around the world face regarding their attempts to lift people out of poverty, eliminate injustices and preserve the natural base for future generations.

Theoretical and empirical analysis of labor market issues primarily using tools developed in microeconomics and econometrics. First semester: a general survey of neoclassical, institutionalist, and Marxian theories and empirical work on wage determination. Second semester: an intensive analysis of selected topics. Prerequisite for: ECON 781.

Advanced treatment of contemporary theoretical and empirical research in Marxian political economy. Topics include: debates in the labor theory of value; the so-called transformation problem; circuit of capital model; theories of exploitation; theory of finance capital and imperialism; distribution of surplus value - interest, commercial profit, rent; profitability and capital accumulation; theories of capitalist crisis. Prerequisite: ECON 708 or 709