Course Descriptions and Pre-requisites for 300 (Special Topics in Economics)... (Advanced Topics in Economics)

Course Descriptions and Pre-requisites for 300 (Special Topics in Economics) and 400
(Advanced Topics in Economics)
1. Econ 300: Health Economics (offered in in spring 2014)
The course description is:
Course includes theoretical, institutional, and policy analysis of healthcare markets, with
special attention to (1) the economic theory of insurance; (2) recent developments in
American healthcare policy; and (3) the economics of healthcare innovation. For Health
Econ, the only prerequisite is Econ201.
2. Econ 300: Economics of Immigration ( offered in spring 2014)
In this course, we will study the history, politics and economics of migration
movements. We ask who moves, why people move, where they move to and how they
fare after moving. Of particular interest is the economic impact on labor markets when
large scale immigration occurs. Pre-requisites GECON 200 and Econ 201.
3. Econ 400: Experimental Economics: (offered in spring 2014)
A study of design techniques, methods, and data analysis pertinent to the use of a
laboratory approach to exploring economic behavior. Applications discussed may
include markets, public choice, risk, bargaining, behavioral phenomena, and information.
Pre-requisites are Econ 331 (intermediate micro) or 327 (game theory)
4. Econ 300: Economic and Financial Integration (Suggested course offering in the
near future).
This course will provide a historical and current perspective on the various attempts at
regional integration throughout the world. We will discuss the role of history, culture, and
politics in economic and financial integration. We will also discuss various institutions
established to promote free international trade. We will gain a better understanding of the
reasons for success and failure of various integration attempts, as well as the barriers to
greater integration. Concentrating on the European Union, we will spend time
understanding the issues related to financial integration. We will draw lessons for future
attempts at economic and financial integration.
Prerequisites: Gecon200 and Econ 201
Econ 300: Institutional Economics: (To be offered in the near future).
5. The class addresses the institutional underpinnings of a market economy. The purpose is
to give the student a clear understanding of the institutional preconditions of exchange
and contracting among economic agents. We will focus on the institutional environment,
the background constraints, or "rules of the game," that guide individuals' behavior.
These can be both formal, explicit rules (constitutions, laws, property rights) and
informal, often implicit rules (social conventions, norms). Business firms, long-term
contracts, public bureaucracies,
nonprofit organizations, and other contractual agreements are examples of institutional
arrangements.
Prerequisites: GECON 200 and ECON 201 or instructor permission.
6. Econ 300: Economics of the Not-for- profit sector: (To be offered in the near future)
Course Overview
The traditional economics foci on the role and behavior of private firms and governments
overlooks organizations that are hybrids, combining elements of both. Nonprofit
organizations have grown enormously in number and size over the post-WWII period.
They have, in fact, contributed a growing share of GDP while the share attributable to
government has declined. Within the U.S. economy nonprofit organizations dominate the
hospital industry and constitute major segments of such other industries as nursing
homes, higher education, museums, the arts, day care, environmental and species
preservation, and anti-poverty efforts. They constitute 20% or more of the entire service
sector of the economy.
Topics
The course addresses such matters as: What is the economic rationale for having
nonprofit organizations? Why are they so important in some industries but unimportant
in others? Why are they far more important in the U.S. than in other countries? What is
the evidence that their behavior differs from that of private for-profit firms and
governmental agencies? To what extent do nonprofits compete with these other forms
of organization, and what is the issue of “unfair competition” by nonprofits with
private firms? How does the tax system treat nonprofits? Why do people donate to
nonprofits and otherwise engage in “altruistic” behavior? Why do people volunteer
their labor, why does almost all volunteer labor go to nonprofits, and what forces affect
the amount of volunteering? This is but a partial list of important and intriguing
questions that will be addressed in the course.
The study of nonprofit organizations offers rich insights into questions involving
“privatization” of industry, the consequences of informational asymmetries, problems
of measuring and, hence, of rewarding “good performance,” and much more. The
course will blend theoretic with empirical work, making considerable use of recent
research in order to relate that research to issues of public policy.
Prerequisites GECON 200 and Econ 201
Econ 400: Applied Time Series Analysis (May be offered in fall 2014)
Pre-requisites: Econ331/332, Econ 385
Course Objectives:
1) Understanding the nature and importance time series data analysis
2) Learning theoretical models that are commonly used for describing
macroeconomic and financial markets data
3) Learning how to apply various theoretical models to effectively analyze a given
time series data
4) Given the applied nature of this course, emphasis on the use the Econometric
software (SAS) to
a) estimate and forecast different types of macroeconomic d and financial market
data,
b) evaluate alternative models in terms of their accuracy
5) Since this is an advanced level course, a secondary objective is to improve the
critical thinking and communication skills of students. Therefore, lot of emphasis
will be on independent reading, reviewing published work and presenting material
in class. To facilitate this objective each of students will be working on a term
paper and will also present the same to the class.
Econ 400: Open Economy Macroeconomics (Suggested course offering in the
near future)
Pre-requisites: Econ331/332 (Econ 385 is recommended)
Course Objectives:
1) Understand the macroeconomics of an increasingly integrated world economy
2) Cover topics such as exchange rate market analysis, formation and
determinants of currency unions, behavior of capital in global markets,
contagion effect of financial crises, global trade imbalances, emerging markets
dynamics
3) A recurring theme would be to establish the link between foreign market
fluctuations and domestic economic and policy environment
4) The focus will be on application of macroeconomic models to data. Hence
there will be a lot of emphasis on empirical anomalies such as asset pricing
puzzles, risk-sharing puzzles, law of one-price etc.
5) Since this is an advanced level course, a secondary objective is to improve the
critical thinking and communication skills of students. Therefore, lot of
emphasis will be on independent reading, reviewing published work and
presenting material in class. To facilitate this objective each of students will be
working on a term paper and will also present the same to the class.