Money and Banking

In this course, we study the role played by money, banking, and financial markets in the modern economy, with a particular emphasis on how financial intermediation facilitates exchange and how financial conditions promote (or inhibit) economic activity. Specific topics include stock and bond markets, financial institutions and banking regulation, central banking and monetary policy, international finance, and financial crises.

Introduction to ESG

Climate change and enhanced public awareness about environmental (E) and social (S) issues have transformed how businesses operate. Analysts and shareholders have long understood the consequences of poor corporate governance (G). In contrast, incorporating environmental and social factors into investment decision-making has evolved more slowly. The course considers ESG factors in their complexity and interconnection by assessing companies’ ESG performance and its material impact on stakeholders’ current and long-term wealth.

Financial Economics

This is an introduction to financial markets and the economic fundamentals of investment decisions. The overarching course goal is to increase financial literacy and awareness of how financial and investment decisions are made. Students will gain an integrated perspective on how time, risk, return, and uncertainty are interconnected.

Industrial Organization

This course examines the determinants of and linkages between market structure, firm conduct, and industrial performance. Some of the questions that will be addressed include: Why do some markets have many sellers while others have only a few? How and why do different market structures give rise to different prices and outputs? In what ways can firms behave strategically so as to prevent entry or induce the exit of rival firms? Under what circumstances can collusion be successful? Why do firms price discriminate? Why do firms advertise?

Public Choice

The state plays a large role in the economy, employing a substantial fraction of the labor force, producing and consuming a wide variety of goods and services, building infrastructure, taxing economic activity, enforcing contracts, redistributing wealth, regulating industries, and so on. Therefore, the allocation of society’s resources - the subject matter of economics - depends crucially on how political decisions are made.

Inequality in the U.S.

The United States is in an unprecedented period of rising inequality. This course begins by examining the history of inequality in the U.S. since the start of the twentieth century. It then uses cutting-edge and detailed national data to document and explore the current state of inequality and intergenerational mobility in the U.S. We consider inequality by various metrics, such as race, gender, and geography, and in various outcomes, such as income, wealth, health, educational attainment, and incarceration.

Econ and Psychology

This course introduces the field of behavioral economics, which incorporates insights from psychology into economics with the aim of improving human welfare. Behavioral economics studies how individuals actually make decisions, which may deviate from the way "rational actors" are modeled in terms of making decisions in classical economics. Motivated by non-fiction readings and academic articles, we will use behavioral economic frameworks to characterize this actual decision-making and to explore its consequences for markets and for policy.

Pluralist Economics

Mainstream economics is fundamentally neoliberal, employing narratives of meritocracy to explain, normalize, and justify racial capitalism and the inequality and exploitation it inevitability produces.  Pluralist economics provides alternative explanations and understandings, directly challenging the conceptualizations, models, methods, values, topics, and pedagogy of economic practice.  This sophomore seminar engages students in an exploration of pluralist economics.

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