ECON 101

Principles of Microeconomics

This is a Category D GE (general education) course.
This is a required course for economics majors and minors, business majors, and several other majors.
 

Objective

The objective of this course is to discover and apply the basic elements of economic reasoning, and begin to understand the importance of this discipline for the well being of societies.
 

Prerequisites and other information

This course was formerly ECON 201.  There are no prerequisites for this course.  Students may enroll in ECON 100 concurrently.  Students may not enroll in this course if they have taken ECON 300.


ECON 310

Microeconomic Theory


This is a required course for economics majors and minors, and minors in Business Economics .

Objective

The objective of this course is to analyze economic concepts and their applications to business situations.  The emphasis is on supply and demand analysis, cost of production, market conditions, and various aspects of the operations of an enterprise.

Prerequisites and other information

This course has three pre-requisites:  ECON 100 and 101 (formerly 201 and 202), and either Math 115 or 122.
 


ECON 441

Labor Economics

This is an intermediate level course designed for students in the Economics Major and students in other majors that have taken ECON 310, and are interested in applied economics.
 

Objective

The course will examine basic themes from the labor economics' field of study.  These include: labor supply, labor demand, and human capital.  Students will also learn how to access and process information on labor markets indicators.  The key data source accessed will be the Bureau of Labor Statistics  (http://www.bls.gov/).
 

Prerequisites and other information

This course has ECON 310 as a prerequisite.  Students are required to have an internet account, and they will be guided to use the internet as a source of general information on labor policy, labor research, and as a source of survey data.  Basic training on STATA (statistical program to process survey data) will be offered.


ECON 450

Public Sector Economics

This is an intermediate level course designed for students in the Economics Major that have approved ECON 310 and Econ 311.

Objective

This course is about economic policy and will prepare students to understand what governments do or can do, as oppose to what they often claim they will do.  The central questions to be answered in this class are:  When should governments intervene in the economy?  How might the government intervene?  What is the effect of those interventions on economic outcomes? Why do governments chose to intervene in the way they do?  Topics include the state of California’s budget, the various arguments for public financing and provision of goods and services, program design (i.e. unemployment insurance and social security), tax analysis, and other forms of government funding (including debt).   

Students should expect to learn:

Prerequisites and other information

ECON 310 and Econ 311
In addition to a main textbook, students will be assigned a series of articles and they will be required to use  the computer lab in order to prepare assignments according to the course objectives.


ECON 465/565

Economic Development

This is an advanced level course designed for students in the Economics Major that have approved ECON 310 and Econ 311 and students in the Masters of Economics program.

Course Objective

This course will expose students to the challenges of economic progress, the evolution of ideas regarding economic development, and the current state of thinking on this topic.
The central questions to be answered in this class are: Why do we measure economic development? What are the economic indicators that are associated with economic development?  What is the role of public policy in the development process?

Prerequisites and other information

ECON 310 and Econ 311
In addition to a main textbook, students will be assigned a series of articles and they will be required to use the computer lab in order to prepare assignments according to the course objectives.

ECON 670

Seminar on International Development Economics

This is an advanced seminar designed for M.A. students who are interested in applied economics. The course examines key current economic and policy issues for developing and transition economies.  Topics include labor, education, and social security reforms and their implication for incentives, market functioning, economic growth, and income distribution.
 

Objectives

Economic policy reforms are the result of ideas, persuasion, consistency and patience. Economists have a central role to play in providing policy makers and the population at large, with clear reasons for change.  There is a significant amount of research available on the most basic aspects of economic policy.  Just as physicians diagnose and recommend treatments based on their understanding of the human body, their learned experience with other patients, and published results, economists must use their analytical thinking and the available literature to prepare an informed opinion.  I expect students in this class to use good economics in combination with the evidence available, to distinguish correct from incorrect diagnosis and prepare a persuasive defense in favor or against specific policy proposal.  Students should expect to:

· Be exposed to samples of quality research focussed on rules and regulations that affect the functioning of markets.

· Be exposed to the methodologies used by economists to address research issues on regulation.

· Gain experience in formulating testable hypotheses, identifying appropriate data, determining the appropriate methodology, and interpreting results.

· Gain experience in communicating findings to non economists.
 

Prerequisites

Prerequisites:  ECON 510 and 511, and one the following ECON 465 or 472.
 
 



 

ECON 690

Seminar on Applied Economics

This course will prepare students in the final stage of their M.A. program to evaluate (published or unplublished) research papers, will guide students towards the completion of an individual research paper, and will improve student's writing and oral presentation skills.
 

Objectives

This course has four primary objectives:
· To apply the quantitative skills acquired in Econometrics and the analytical
  skills acquired in theory courses to the evaluation of other’s research
· To provide students with basic training in data downloading
  (http://www.bls.census.gov/cps/ ) and Stata programming
  (http://www.stata.com/ )
· To facilitate student’s completion of their own research paper
· To improve student’s writing and oral presentation skills
 

Prerequisites

Prerequisites:  ECON 510, 511, and 486/586.