Undergraduate Catalog 2023-2024

3000

ECON 3100 Personal Finance

A survey of the principles of planning and managing personal income, insurance, and investments. Crosslisted as FINC 3100.

3

ECON 3220 International Trade

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106, or ECON 2100. An analysis of fundamental economic principles, institutions, and governmental policies which determine the economic relations between nations under conditions of increasing global independence.

3

ECON 3240 International Finance

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106, or ECON 2100. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to international finance. Main topics include foreign exchange markets, the purchasing power parity, the interest parity, and basic theories of the balance of payments.

3

Cross Listed Courses

FINC 3240

ECON 3440 Comparative Economic Systems

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106, or ECON 2100. A study of the various types of economic systems used by societies to organize economic activity. This course is non-repeatable.

3

ECON 3460 History of Economic Thought

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106, or ECON 2100. The development of contemporary economic theory from early economic ideas. A study of the development of economic methods of analysis and philosophies and their relation to current theory.

3

ECON 3600 Intermediate Microeconomics

Prerequisite: ECON 2106 and Junior standing. A study of the tools of microeconomic theory. Consumer and Producer Theory, general equilibrium theory, and methods of marginal analysis are emphasized.

3

ECON 3620 Industrial Organization

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and ECON 2106, or ECON 2100. A study of the interaction between business organizations and government. Emphasis on industry structure and performance. Includes government policies concerning regulation, control, and promotion of business enterprise.

3

ECON 3640 Public Economics:Taxation

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106, or ECON 2100. This course covers basic tax theory, with a primary focus on the U.S. federal government. Topics include income distribution, income taxes, and consumption taxes. The course will address the political and economic motivation for various tax policies, and the efficiency and equity ramifications of various taxes.

3

ECON 3645 Public Economics Expenditure

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106, or ECON 2100. This course deals primarily with expenditure theory with application to the U.S. federal government. Topics include the budgeting process, redistribution programs, social security, health care, and national defense and other public goods. The course will address the political and economic motivation for various programs, and the efficiency and equity ramifications of various programs. This course is non-repeatable for credit.

3

ECON 3650 Public Choice Theory

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106, or ECON 2100. This course deals with non-market behavior from an economic perspective. The behavior of voters, politicians, committees, bureaucracies, special interest groups and lobbyists, among others, are analyzed from the standard self-interest model in economics. The course material has an overlap with topics from political science.

3

ECON 3660 Controversial Economic Issues

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106, or ECON 2100. This course presents an economic analysis of numerous interesting and controversial current social issues. Topics include the economic effects of legalized gambling, drugs, alcohol prohibition, and prostitution; private markets for human organs; polygamy; and other current issues. A major focus is the unintended consequences of prohibiting mutually-beneficial voluntary transactions.

3

ECON 3670 Labor Economics

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and ECON 2106, or ECON 2100. This course is designed to provide students with an overview of labor economic theory and its practical applications. The course will concentrate on labor supply and labor demand and how economic conditions affect labor markets and individual labor supply and demand decisions. Topics of interest include: investment in human capital, wage policies of workers, minimum wage/living wage legislation, labor market discrimination, public policy, labor unions, and unemployment. Emphasis will be placed on how public policy affects labor markets and how labor markets affect public policy. After completion of the course, a student should be able to evaluate how changing economic conditions and changes in public policy will affect the labor market, individuals and businesses.

3

ECON 3680 Nat Resource & Environment Eco

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106, or ECON 2100. A study of how economic forces can lead to environmental degradation and how the same forces can be directed to enhance environmental quality. Topics include resource and environmental valuations, property rights and externalities, market failure, alternative solutions and policies, problems in monitoring and enforcement, economic analysis of the development of legislation and regulation, and applications to current policy issues.

3

ECON 3690 Energy Economics

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and ECON 2106. The course takes an economic approach towards international energy markets. We will address the fundamental and applications of models to understand markets for oil, gas, coal, electricity, and renewable energy resources. Models, modeling techniques, and issues included are supply and demand, market structure, futures markets, environmental issues, energy policy, and energy regulation. The emphasis of this course will be developing analytical skills, communication skills, and on the application of economic concepts to real-world situations.

3

ECON 3800 Intermediate Macroeconomics

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106 and Junior standing. A study of macroeconomic theory, including types and causes of inflation, fiscal and monetary policy, and the impact of international trade on the economy.

3

ECON 3820 Money & Banking

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106 or ECON 2100. A study of the nature of money and of the development of banking in the United States. Consideration of functions of money, the types of money used in early banking practices, modern financial institutions, the Federal Reserve System, and foreign exchange. Crosslisted as FINC 3820.

3

ECON 3830 Fin Markets & Institutions

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106, or ECON 2100. A study of the principal institutions and markets of the financial system and their role in the intermediation process. Topics include: Analysis of money and capital market instruments, innovations and regulations, interest rate determination and relationships, financial policies of financial intermediaries; international aspects of financial markets. This course is non-repeatable. Crosslisted as FINC 3830.

3

ECON 3840 Economic Growth

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106, or ECON 2100. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the modern theories of economic growth including alternative endogenous growth models.

3

ECON 3850 International Economic Develop

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106, or ECON 2100. This course examines the economic causes and remedies of underdevelopment primarily in the third world.

3

ECON 3940 GC Nudge Unit

Prerequisites: junior or senior status; Economics major or minor; ECON 2106 with a grade of C or higher; MATH 1401 with a grade of C or higher; permission of instructor. An individually designed and planned learning experience involving on- or off-campus field experience applying behavioral economic theory to solving problems in the private or public sector. This course is repeatable for credit.

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