Inequality is arguably one of the primary issues of our time.  In this course, we will focus on understanding the particular manifestations of inequality in health and individual well-being that derive from inequality in environmental conditions.  We will start with the canonical models of public economics, studying the role of government and paying particular attention to how failures of standard assumptions of rationality, perfect information, and perfect competition will lead to inefficiencies and inequities.

This course will introduce students to the field of behavioral economics, which combines insights from psychology with the tools of economics.  We will review some of the major findings in behavioral economics, and try to understand their implications for market outcomes and government policies.  In doing so, we will review both academic papers as well as popular non-fiction in the field.

Requisite: ECON 111/111E.  Limited to 35 students. Spring semester.  Professor Raymond.

In Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates says “race is the child of racism, not the father.”  How might this view help reshape our understanding of race and identity? In the United States, how does racism generate the ways that we think of ourselves as white, or of color, or as individuals for whom race somehow does not matter?  Is our racial identification a permanent marker, or is it a process?