ECON

This scheduled weekly interdisciplinary seminar provides the context to reflect on concrete experiences at an off-campus internship site and to link these experiences to academic study relating to the political, psychological, social, economic and intellectual forces that shape our views on work and its meaning. The aim is to integrate study in the liberal arts with issues and themes surrounding the pursuit of a creative, productive, and satisfying professional life. Students receive 1.0 unit of academic credit for the academic work that augments their concurrent internship fieldwork.

Independent study is available to those students who wish to continue their learning in an area after completing the regularly offered courses in that area.

Independent study is available to those students who wish to continue their learning in an area after completing the regularly offered courses in that area.

This senior seminar is an advanced study of current topics in economic theory and policy. Students undertake an original senior thesis. Note: Performance on a standardized field exam in economics constitutes one component of the senior research seminar.

This course applies calculus and linear algebra to the analysis of microeconomic and macroeconomic theory. The tools of mathematical optimization and programming are developed with direct application to the analysis of the problems of consumer behavior, the theory of the firm, general equilibrium, and aggregate economic analysis.

This course develops those tools of economic analysis most useful to business managers. Topics include demand estimation and forecasting, demand analysis, production and cost analysis, the theory of the firm, theory of market structures, industrial organization and competitive analysis, capital budgeting and risk analysis, and strategic planning. Applications of microeconomics to practical business problems in strategic planning is emphasized.

This second course in econometrics explores more advanced techniques for addressing empirical questions in the social sciences. The course emphasizes applied methods for both observational and quasi-experimental data. Students develop an independent empirical research project applying the skills they have acquired.

This course introduces students to the theory and practice of laboratory methods in economics. The course explores and identifies the range of issues in economics to which experimental methods have been applied. In addition, the course focuses on the principles of experimental design, as applied to these issues. Along the way, students participate in a range of classroom experiments which illustrate key ideas.

Game theory is a technique for modeling and analyzing strategic decision-making processes in a world of interdependence. Game theoretic techniques are based on strategic interdependence, recognizing that an individual entity's payoff is dependent on the actions of others including consumers, producers, and regulators. The major focus of this class is to introduce and develop the tools of game theory for application to a variety of economic topics such as auctions, investment decisions, competitive behavior, trade, and environmental negotiations.

The course examines the relationship between economic theory and contemporary philosophy. The first part of the course is concerned with the connection between economics and epistemology (theory of knowledge) and the second part with the relationship between economics and ethics (moral philosophy).