This course develops the tools of modern microeconomic theory and notes their applications to matters of utility and demand; production functions and cost; pricing of output under perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, etc.; pricing of productive services; intertemporal decision-making; the economics of uncertainty; efficiency, equity, general equilibrium; externalities and public goods. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 300 and ECON 301.

Requisite: MATH 111, or equivalent and at least a "B" grade in ECON 111/111E or a "B-" in ECON 200–290, or equivalent.

Independent reading course. Full course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: TBD based on student plan with faculty advisor(s).

“Economics” is often defined as the study of the allocation of scarce resources. But what do we want to achieve from this allocation? We seem to want some idea of well-being – either for ourselves, certain groups or for a society at large. Economics is essentially the study of how we and the societies around us provide opportunities (sometimes only for selected groups…) to attain and sustain well-being given the constraints faced.

This course surveys the recent wave of financial globalization and assesses both its merits and potential risks. In particular, we will examine the most important potential benefit of financial globalization, an increased rate of economic growth that can be a powerful tool in alleviating poverty. We will analyze the theoretical arguments for a growth-enhancing effect of globalization and discuss the empirical evidence.

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?

This course uses economic models and tools to analyze environmental and natural resource problems such as climate change, air and water pollution, depletion of renewable and non-renewable resources, and land-use change. The frameworks studied include market failure due to externalities or public goods situations, the cost-effective allocation of pollution control, cost-benefit analysis, firm decision-making in response to regulations, and the management of renewable and non-renewable resources.

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.

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.

(Offered as ECON 111E and ENST 230) An introduction to the core theories and measures of markets and the current economic system. We study both microeconomics, which addresses the central problem of resource scarcity and how markets for individual goods and services function, and macroeconomics, which addresses the economy as a whole and key aggregate measures such as unemployment and inflation.