Economics

ECON UN1105 PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS. 4.00 points.

Corequisites: ECON UN1155
Corequisites: ECON UN1155 How a market economy determines the relative prices of goods, factors of production, and the allocation of resources and the circumstances under which it does it efficiently. Why such an economy has fluctuations and how they may becontrolled

ECON UN1155 PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS-DISC. 0.00 points.

Required Discussion section for ECON UN1105 Principles of Economics

ECON UN2029 FED CHALLENGE WORKSHOP. 1.00 point.

Prerequisites: (ECON UN1105)
Prerequisites: (ECON UN1105) The workshop prepares students to compete in the annual College Fed Challenge sponsored by the Federal Reserve. Topics covered include macroeconomic and financial conditions, monetary policy, financial stability and the Federal Reserve System

ECON UN2105 THE AMERICAN ECONOMY. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN1105
Prerequisites: ECON UN1105 The course surveys issues of interest in the American economy, including economic measurement, well-being and income distribution, business cycles and recession, the labor and housing markets, saving and wealth, fiscal policy, banking and finance, and topics in central banking. We study historical issues, institutions, measurement, current performance and recent research

ECON UN2257 THE GLOBAL ECONOMY. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN1105
Prerequisites: ECON UN1105 Covers five areas within the general field of international economics: (i) microeconomic issues of why countries trade, how the gains from trade are distributed, and protectionism; (ii) macroeconomic issues such as exchange rates, balance of payments and open economy macroeconomic adjustment, (iii) the role of international institutions (World Bank, IMF, etc); (iv) economic development and (v) economies in transition

ECON UN3025 FINANCIAL ECONOMICS. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201 Institutional nature and economic function of financial markets. Emphasis on both domestic and international markets (debt, stock, foreign exchange, eurobond, eurocurrency, futures, options, and others). Principles of security pricing and portfolio management; the Capital Asset Pricing Model and the Efficient Markets Hypothesis

ECON UN3211 INTERMEDIATE MICROECONOMICS. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN1105 and MATH UN1101 and (MATH UN1201 or MATH UN1207)
Prerequisites: ECON UN1105 and MATH UN1101 and (MATH UN1201 or MATH UN1207) The determination of the relative prices of goods and factors of production and the allocation of resources

ECON UN3212 INTER MICROECONOMICS-DISC. 0.00 points.

Required Discussion section for ECON UN3211 intermediate Economics

ECON UN3213 INTERMEDIATE MACROECONOMICS. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: (MATH UN1101 or MATH UN1207) and ECON UN1105 or the equivalent.
Corequisites: MATH UN1201
Prerequisites: (MATH UN1101 or MATH UN1207) and ECON UN1105 or the equivalent. Corequisites: MATH UN1201 This course covers the determination of output, employment, inflation and interest rates. Topics include economic growth, business cycles, monetary and fiscal policy, consumption and savings and national income accounting

ECON UN3214 INTER MACROECONOMICS-DISC. 0.00 points.

Discussion section for ECON UN3213 Intermediate Macro. Student must register for a section

ECON UN3265 MONEY AND BANKING. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 or the equivalent. Introduction to the principles of money and banking. The intermediary institutions of the American economy and their historical developments, current issues in monetary and financial reform

ECON UN3412 INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMETRICS. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: (ECON UN3211 or ECON UN3213) and (MATH UN1201 or MATH UN1207) and STAT UN1201
Prerequisites: (ECON UN3211 or ECON UN3213) and (MATH UN1201 or MATH UN1207) and STAT UN1201 Modern econometric methods; the general linear statistical model and its extensions; simultaneous equations and the identification problem; time series problems; forecasting methods; extensive practice with the analysis of different types of data

ECON UN3413 INTRO TO ECONOMETRICS-DIS. 0.00 points.

Required discussion section for ECON UN3412: Intro to Econometrics

ECON UN3901 ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: (ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412)
Prerequisites: (ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412) Course objective: This course has two objectives: (1) To develop students' skills in research and writing. Specifically, participants will work on: formulating a research question, placing it in the context of an existing literature and/or policy area, and using economic and econometric tools to address it in writing. Specifically, in the first part of the class, readings, problem sets, and a midterm exam will build skills in these areas. In the second part, students will come up with a research question, and address it in a research proposal/report. While all the applications will be on the economics of education, these skills will be useful in students' subsequent careers,regardless of the area of economics they focus on. (2) To provide an introduction to key issues in the economics of education. Specifically, education is a signicant industryevery person entering this course will have already spent years in this industry as a customer, as a worker, as an input, or all of the above. The course will address questions like: What does economics have to say about how this industry is organized and what determines its output? Why do individuals invest in education? What determines the behavior, productivity, and reputation of rms in the industry? What role should government and public policy (if any) play in its operation?

ECON UN3952 MACROECONOMICS＆FORMATION OF EXPECTATIONS. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 This course has two main objectives: To introduce students to the process of writing a research paper. This includes identifying and formulating a research question, reviewing the previous literature and positioning the problem in that context, identifying the proper tools and data to answer the question, and finally writing the findings in the format of a research paper. An immediate goal is to prepare the students to undertake a senior thesis project. To provide an introduction to selected topics and survey evidence in macroeconomics, with a focus on the expectation formation process of economic agents. We will start by going through some canonical models that are widely used for economic and policy analysis to understand the role of expectations in the decision making of households and firms. We will then go through a series of survey data and relate the empirical evidence to the theoretical predictions of those canonical models

ECON UN3981 Applied Econometrics. 3 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412

The objective of this course is to develop students' research skills and to learn the process of writing an original research paper. The skills and process include the ability to identify a problem and state in a concise manner, literature review, data collection, model formulation and estimation, evaluation of the problem and writing up the findings in a format of a research paper. An immediate and more specific goal is to prepare students to tackle a senior thesis project.

Towards this goal, this course will review or introduce the most widely used econometric techniques for empirical research. These include multiple regressions, probit and logit models, instrumental variables methods, panel data methods, regression discontinuity designs. This course will also introduce some time series methods such as vector autoregressive process, cointegration analysis, financial time series, and modeling of volatilities. Students will need to practice these methods with a computer software package (R or STATA) and with actual economic data sets.

ECON GU4020 ECON OF UNCERTAINTY ＆ INFORMTN. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201 Topics include behavior uncertainty, expected utility hypothesis, insurance, portfolio choice, principle agent problems, screening and signaling, and information theories of financial intermediation

ECON GU4211 ADVANCED MICROECONOMICS. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and MATH UN2010 Students must register for required discussion section.
Corequisites: MATH UN2500,MATH GU4061
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and MATH UN2010 Students must register for required discussion section. Corequisites: MATH UN2500 or MATH GU4061 The course provides a rigorous introduction to microeconomics. Topics will vary with the instructor but will include consumer theory, producer theory, general equilibrium and welfare, social choice theory, game theory and information economics. This course is strongly recommended for students considering graduate work in economics. Discussion section required

ECON GU4212 ADV MICROECONOMICS - DISC. 0.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and MATH UN2010 Students must register for lecture course ECON GU4211
Corequisites: MATH UN2500
MATH GU4061
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and MATH UN2010 Students must register for lecture course ECON GU4211 Corequisites: MATH UN2500MATH GU4061 Required discussion section for ECON GU4211 Advanced Microeconomics. The course provides a rigorous introduction to microeconomics. Topics will vary with the instructor but will include consumer theory, producer theory, general equilibrium and welfare, social choice theory, game theory and information economics. This course is strongly recommended for students considering graduate work in economics. Discussion section required

ECON GU4213 ADVANCED MACROECONOMICS. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 and MATH UN2010 Required discussion section ECON GU4214
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 and MATH UN2010 Required discussion section ECON GU4214 An introduction to the dynamic models used in the study of modern macroeconomics. Applications of the models will include theoretical issues such as optimal lifetime consumption decisions and policy issues such as inflation targeting. This course is strongly recommended for students considering graduate work in economics

ECON GU4214 ADV MACROECONOMICS - DISC. 0.00 points.

ECON GU4228 Urban Economics. 3 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213

Congestion and other games, and the pricing of transit services. Location theory and land rents. Segregation and discrimination. The fiscal structure of American cities. Zoning and the taking issue. Abandonment and city-owned property. Economic development, abatements, subsidies, and eminent domain. Crime, deadweight losses, and the allocation of police services.

ECON GU4230 ECONOMICS OF NEW YORK CITY. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201 This course takes New York as our laboratory. Economics is about individual choice subject to constraints and the ways that choices sum up to something often much more than the parts. The fundamental feature of any city is the combination of those forces that bring people together and those that push them apart. Thus both physical and social space will be central to our discussions. The underlying theoretical and empirical analysis will touch on spatial aspects of urban economics, regional, and even international economics. We will aim to see these features in New York City taken as a whole, as well as in specific neighborhoods of the city. We will match these theoretical and empirical analyses with readings that reflect close observation of specific subjects. The close observation is meant to inspire you to probe deeply into a topic in order that the tools and approaches of economics may illuminate these issues in a fresh way

ECON GU4235 HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN ECONOMICS: Adam Smith to J M Keynes. 3 points.

Not offered during 2023-24 academic year.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213

A survey of some of the major intellectual developments that  have created the discipline of economics.  Particular attention to the works of Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, Irving Fisher, and J. M. Keynes.

ECON GU4251 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 The study of industrial behavior based on game-theoretic oligopoly models. Topics include pricing models, strategic aspects of business practice, vertical integration, and technological innovation

ECON GU4260 MARKET DESIGN. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201 This course uses modern microeconomic tools for understanding markets for indivisible resources and exploring ways to improve their design in terms of stability, efficiency and incentives. Lessons of market design will be applied to developing internet platforms for intermediating exchanges, for auctions to allocate sponsored search advertising, to allocate property rights such as public lands, radio spectrums, fishing rights, for assigning students to public schools, and for developing efficient kidney exchanges for transplantation

ECON GU4280 CORPORATE FINANCE. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201 An introduction to the economics principles underlying the financial decisions of firms. The topics covered include bond and stock valuations, capital budgeting, dividend policy, market efficiency, risk valuation, and risk management. For information regarding REGISTRATION for this course, go to: http://econ.columbia.edu/registration-information

ECON GU4301 ECONOMIC GROWTH ＆ DEVELOPMNT I. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213. Economic development is a complex and multifaceted process. Once considered a goal in itself, more recently it has become to be viewed as the fundamental means to world poverty alleviation. Today, about half of the world population still lives on less than $2 /day. Why? What does it mean to be poor? What are the forces that prevent so many people from enjoying a higher standard of living? The course opens on some fundamental macroeconomic models of economic growth and the recent debate on the geographical or institutional nature of the ultimate causes of growth or arrested development. Then we will move into the most recent microeconomic literature that sheds light on the lives of the poor and on the forces - in particular the market distortions and the market failures - that keep billions in poverty. Among others, we will discuss interesting topics like nutrition and health, the cultural origins of corruption, the effect of global warming, and the design of effective anti-poverty programs

ECON GU4321 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 Historical comparative examination of the economic development problems of the less developed countries; the roles of social institutions and human resource development; the functions of urbanization, rural development, and international trade

ECON GU4325 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF JAPAN. 3.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 The growth and structural changes of the post-World War II economy; its historical roots; interactions with cultural, social, and political institutions; economic relations with the rest of the world

ECON GU4370 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201 or POLS 4710 for those who declared prior to Spring 2014.
The objective of this course is to develop understanding of how political institutions and behavior shape economic outcomes, and vice versa. Starting from the micro level study of political behavior, we will build up to analyze the internal workings of institutions and ultimately macro level economic and political outcomes. During the course we will cover the following topics • Limits and potential of markets • Public goods provision • Voting • Redistribution

ECON GU4400 LABOR ECONOMICS. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213

The labor force and labor markets, educational and man power training, unions and collective bargaining, mobility and immobility, sex and race discrimination, unemployment.

ECON GU4411 ADV ECONOMETRICS-DISC. 0.00 points.

ECON GU4412 ADVANCED ECONOMETRICS. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 and MATH UN2010 Students must register for required discussion section.
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 and MATH UN2010 Students must register for required discussion section. The linear regression model will be presented in matrix form and basic asymptotic theory will be introduced. The course will also introduce students to basic time series methods for forecasting and analyzing economic data. Students will be expected to apply the tools to real data

ECON GU4413 Econometrics of Time Series and Forecasting. 3 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412
Corequisites: MATH UN2010

This course focuses on the application of econometric methods to time series data; such data is common in the testing of macro and financial economics models. It will focus on the application of these methods to data problems in macro and finance.

ECON GU4415 GAME THEORY. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 Introduction to the systematic treatment of game theory and its applications in economic analysis

ECON GU4438 ECONOMICS OF RACE IN THE U.S.. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 ECON GU4400 is strongly recommended.
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 ECON GU4400 is strongly recommended. What differences does race make in the U.S. economy? Why does it make these differences? Are these differences things we should be concerned about? If so, what should be done? The course examines labor markets, housing markets, capital markets, crime, education, and the links among these markets. Both empirical and theoretical contributions are studied

ECON GU4445 Economics Models of Discrimination. 3.00 points.

Not all difference results from discrimination. Not all discrimination results in observable differences. This course focuses on understanding issues of difference and discrimination associated primarily with race, but also other markers of difference, including gender, sexual orientation, national origin, etc. A critical skill for economic analysis of discrimination is econometric method. This course looks carefully at the ways in which econometrics is used to address questions of discrimination, and critically evaluate these models and the studies that rely upon them

ECON GU4465 PUBLIC ECONOMICS. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 Types of market failures and rationales for government intervention in the economy. Benefit-cost analysis and the theory of public goods. Positive and normative aspects of taxation. The U.S. tax structure

ECON GU4480 GENDER ＆ APPLIED ECONOMICS. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 This course studies gender gaps, their extent, determinants and consequences. The focus will be on the allocation of rights in different cultures and over time, why women's rights have typically been more limited and why most societies have traditionally favored males in the allocation of resources

ECON GU4500 INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 The theory of international trade, comparative advantage and the factor endowments explanation of trade, analysis of the theory and practice of commercial policy, economic integration. International mobility of capital and labor; the North-South debate

ECON GU4505 INTERNATIONAL MACROECONOMICS. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213. ECON GU4505 is an elective in the economics major. The course develops models for the analysis of the determinants of international capital flows, trade imbalances, and exchange rates. The models are then used as the basis for the discussion of topics such as Global Imbalances, Uncertainty and the Current Account, The Global Saving Glut, Purchasing Power Parity, Sudden Stops, Real Exchange Rates and Productivity, Covered Interest Rate Parity, Uncovered Interest Rate Parity, Borrowing Externalities and Optimal Capital Controls, Overborrowing, Macroeconomic Adjustment under Flexible and Fixed Exchange Rates, Twin Deficits, and Balance of Payment Crises

ECON GU4526 Transition Reforms, Globalization and Financial Crisis. 3 points.

Not offered during 2023-24 academic year.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and UN3213.

Covers reform issues in transition economies such as price liberalization, currency reform, asset privatization, macroeconomic stabilization, trade liberalization and exchange rate policies, and foreign resource flows with suitable examples from the experience of the transition economies of Russia, the post-Soviet states, East-central Europe, China and Vietnam.

ECON GU4615 LAW AND ECONOMICS. 3.00 points.

ECON GU4625 Economics of the Environment. 3 points.

Not offered during 2023-24 academic year.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and UN3213.

Microeconomics is used to study who has an incentive to protect the environment. Government's possible and actual role in protecting the environment is explored. How do technological change, economic development, and free trade affect the environment? Emphasis on hypothesis testing and quantitative analysis of real-world policy issues.

ECON GU4630 Climate Finance. 3.00 points.

In lieu of the failure of legislatures to pass comprehensive carbon taxes, there is growing pressure on the financial system to address the risks of global warming. One set of pressures is to account for the heightened physical risks due to extreme weather events and potential climate tipping points. Another set of pressures are to find approaches to incentivize corporations to meet the goals set out in the Paris Treaty of 2015. These approaches include (1) mandates or restrictions to only hold companies with decarbonization plans, (2) development of negative emissions technologies such as direct-air capture and (3) promotion of natural capital markets that can be used to offset carbon emissions. Moreover, financial markets also provide crucial information on expectations and plans of economic agents regarding climate change. This course will cover both models and empirical methodologies that are necessary to assess the role of the financial system in addressing global warming

ECON GU4700 FINANCIAL CRISES. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201

This course uses economic theory and empirical evidence to study the causes of financial crises and the effectiveness of policy responses to these crises. Particular attention will be given to some of the major economic and financial crises in the past century and to the crisis that began in August 2007.

ECON GU4710 FINANCE AND THE REAL ECONOMY. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: (ECON UN3211) and (ECON UN3213) and (STAT UN1201)
Prerequisites: (ECON UN3211) and (ECON UN3213) and (STAT UN1201) This course uses economic theory and empirical evidence to study the links between financial markets and the real economy. We will consider questions such as: What is the welfare role of finance? How do financial markets affect consumers and firms? How do shocks to the financial system transmit to the real economy? How do financial markets impact inequality?

ECON GU4750 GLOBALIZATION ＆ ITS RISKS. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 The world is being transformed by dramatic increases in flows of people, goods and services across nations. Globalization has the potential for enormous gains but is also associated to serious risks. The gains are related to international commerce where the industrial countries dominate, while the risks involve the global environment, poverty and the satisfaction of basic needs that affect in great measure the developing nations. Both are linked to a historical division of the world into the North and the South-the industrial and the developing nations. Key to future evolution are (1) the creation of new markets that trade privately produced public goods, such as knowledge and greenhouse gas emissions, as in the Kyoto Protocol; (2) the updating of the Breton Woods Institutions, including the creation of a Knowledge Bank and an International Bank for Environmental Settlements

ECON GU4840 BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 Within economics, the standard model of behavior is that of a perfectly rational, self interested utility maximizer with unlimited cognitive resources. In many cases, this provides a good approximation to the types of behavior that economists are interested in. However, over the past 30 years, experimental and behavioral economists have documented ways in which the standard model is not just wrong, but is wrong in ways that are important for economic outcomes. Understanding these behaviors, and their implications, is one of the most exciting areas of current economic inquiry. The aim of this course is to provide a grounding in the main areas of study within behavioral economics, including temptation and self control, fairness and reciprocity, reference dependence, bounded rationality and choice under risk and uncertainty. For each area we will study three things: 1. The evidence that indicates that the standard economic model is missing some important behavior 2. The models that have been developed to capture these behaviors 3. Applications of these models to (for example) finance, labor and development economics As well as the standard lectures, homework assignments, exams and so on, you will be asked to participate in economic experiments, the data from which will be used to illustrate some of the principals in the course. There will also be a certain small degree of classroom ‘flipping’, with a portion of many lectures given over to group problem solving. Finally, an integral part of the course will be a research proposal that you must complete by the end of the course, outlining a novel piece of research that you would be interested in doing

ECON GU4850 COGNITIVE MECH ＆ ECON BEHAVIOR. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201 Standard economic theory seeks to explain human behavior (especially in economic settings, such as markets) in terms of rational choice, which means that the choices that are made can be predicted on the basis of what would best serve some coherent objective, under an objectively correct understanding of the predictable consequences of alternative actions. Observed behavior often seems difficult to reconcile with a strong form of this theory, even if incentives clearly have some influence on behavior; and the course will discuss empirical evidence (both from laboratory experiments and observations in the field) for some well-established anomalies. But beyond simply cataloguing anomalies for the standard theory, the course will consider the extent to which departures from a strong version of rational choice theory can be understood as reflecting cognitive processes that are also evident in other domains such as sensory perception; examples from visual perception will receive particular attention. And in addition to describing what is known about how the underlying mechanisms work (something that is understood in more detail in sensory contexts than in the case of value-based decision making), the course will consider the extent to which such mechanisms --- while suboptimal from a normative standpoint that treats perfect knowledge of one's situation as costless and automatic --- might actually represent efficient uses of the limited information and bounded information-processing resources available to actual people (or other organisms). Thus the course will consider both ways in which the realism of economic analysis may be improved by taking into account cognitive processes, and ways in which understanding of cognitive processes might be advanced by considering the economic problem of efficient use of limited (cognitive) resources

ECON GU4860 BEHAVIORAL FINANCE. 3.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 Neoclassical finance theory seeks to explain financial market valuations and fluctuations in terms of investors having rational expectations and being able to trade without costs. Under these assumptions, markets are efficient in that stocks and other assets are always priced just right. The efficient markets hypothesis (EMH) has had an enormous influence over the past 50 years on the financial industry, from pricing to financial innovations, and on policy makers, from how markets are regulated to how monetary policy is set. But there was very little in prevailing EMH models to suggest the instabilities associated with the Financial Crisis of 2008 and indeed with earlier crises in financial market history. This course seeks to develop a set of tools to build a more robust model of financial markets that can account for a wider range of outcomes. It is based on an ongoing research agenda loosely dubbed “Behavioral Finance”, which seeks to incorporate more realistic assumptions concerning human rationality and market imperfections into finance models. Broadly, we show in this course that limitations of human rationality can lead to bubbles and busts such as the Internet Bubble of the mid-1990s and the Housing Bubble of the mid-2000s; that imperfections of markets — such as the difficulty of short-selling assets — can cause financial markets to undergo sudden and unpredictable crashes; and that agency problems or the problems of institutions can create instabilities in the financial system as recently occurred during the 2008 Financial Crisis. These instabilities in turn can have feedback effects to the performance of the real economy in the form of corporate investments

ECON GU4911 MICROECONOMICS SEMINAR. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 Registration information is posted on the department's Seminar Sign-up webpage.
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 Selected topics in microeconomics

ECON GU4913 MACROECONOMICS SEMINAR. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 Registration information is posted on the department's Seminar Sign-up webpage.
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 Registration information is posted on the departments Seminar Sign-up webpage. Selected topics in macroeconomics. Selected topics will be posted on the departments webpage

ECON GU4918 SEMINAR IN ECONOMETRICS. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 and sign-up in the department's office. Registration information is posted on the department's Seminar Sign-up webpage.
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 and sign-up in the departments office. Registration information is posted on the departments Seminar Sign-up webpage. Analyzing data in a more in-depth fashion than in ECON UN3412. Additional estimation techniques include limited dependent variable and simultaneous equation models. Go to the departments undergraduate Seminar Description webpage for a detailed description

ECON GU4995 RESEARCH COURSE. 1.00 point.

ECON GU4996 RESEARCH COURSE. 1.00-2.00 points.

Prerequisites: the director of undergraduate studies permission. Provides students with the experience of participating in the research process by matching them to a faculty mentor who will put them to work on one of his or her current research projects. A list of available research positions is distributed each semester on the major listserv

ECON GU4998 SUPERVISED INDEPENDENT STUDY. 1.00-4.00 points.

Prerequisites: the director of undergraduate studies permission

ECON GU4999 SENIOR HONORS THESIS WORKSHOP. 3.00 points.

3 points per semester.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 and the director of the departmental honors program's permission. Students must have a minimum GPA of 3.7 in all required major courses, including calculus and statistics, prior to enrollment.
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 and the director of the departmental honors programs permission. Students must have a minimum GPA of 3.7 in all required major courses, including calculus and statistics, prior to enrollment. The honors thesis seminar is a year-long course, beginning in the fall semester and ending in the spring semester. Students who have been approved to enter the workshop will be registered for both semesters by the department during the first two weeks of classes; 3 points are earned per semester. This workshop may only be taken by students applying for departmental honors, and it also fulfills the economics seminar requirement for the economics major and all joint majors. Students must see the director during mid-semester registration in the spring to discuss their proposed thesis topic, at which time they will be matched with appropriate faculty who will act as their thesis adviser. Students will meet their adviser over the course of the year at mutually agreed upon times. A rough draft of the thesis will be due during the first week of February in the spring semester, and the final draft will be due three weeks before the last day of classes. Please note that for those joint majors that require two seminars, one in economics and one in the other discipline (i.e. Political Science), the economics senior honors thesis seminar only fulfills the economics seminar requirement