This course will examine the economics of socially constructed groups and the inequalities in income, wealth, and power between them. The course will include, as a central feature, an examination of inequalities based on race and ethnicity. However, the course will also explore economic dynamics and disparities between a range of socially constructed groups, including those based on gender, caste, nationality/citizenship, different concepts of class, and sexuality.

This course focuses on the economics of women, minorities and work in the labor market and the household. Using economic theory along with empirical investigation, we will study issues such as employment decisions, earnings determination, occupational choice, discrimination, and family formation. Emphasis will be placed on public policies related to the labor market experiences of women and minorities.

The course provides an overview of the economics of health and of health care with special attention to the roles of market failure, equity, and policy. Economics of Health will apply the tools of economics and quantitative analysis to understanding the structure, performance, and problems of health and the health care sector. Students will develop institutional knowledge and analytic tools needed to contribute to public policy debates about health and health care.

The goal of this course is to use the analytic tools of microeconomic theory to study the worker-firm employment relationship.

This course will introduce students to skeptical and effective consumption and production of information in the era of big data. Students will learn how to spot and avoid statistical pitfalls, irrational decisions, fake news, information out of context, and blind faith. The course will draw from historical examples and current events and from contemporary debates in economics and political economy. Students will practice interpreting, visualizing, and writing about big data.

This course covers the economic theory, history, and policy of immigration. The standard labor market model of immigration is detailed, as are more dynamic and inter-disciplinary alternatives. The models are used to analyze immigration flows and policies in the United States, Canada, and the European Union over the past two centuries as well as contemporary immigration issues. At the end of the course, students are challenged to develop suggestions for contemporary immigration policy.

The role of organized business advocacy in the regulation of the economy. Covers theories of business power in society, empirical analysis of lobbying in economic policy making, and the formal and informal methods to maintain, supplement and moderate competition.

A topical study of key industrial and technological developments in U.S. economic history. Focuses on the periods of transition leading to the ascendance of U.S. manufacturing power and the subsequent decline in U.S. manufacturing leadership in the growing globalized economy. Prerequisites: Econ 103 or RESECON 102 or ECON 104.

Introduction to labor economics; emphasis on public policy issues such as unemployment, age and sex discrimination, collective bargaining, labor law reform, occupational safety and health.

The pure theory of non-monetary international trade, including analysis of the costs and gains of trade, application of the theory to problems of commercial policy. Prerequisite: ECON 203 or RES-ECON 202