By the end of the sophomore year, the prospective major should have completed ECON 12100, Principles of Macroeconomics, and ECON 12200, Principles of Microeconomics; MATH 10500, 10800, and 24300; also WRTG 10600 Academic Writing I, and other required or elective courses. All courses in the Department are open to non-majors.
ECON 12100-all sections PRINCIPLES OF MACROECONOMICS SS 1b
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTORS:
01, 02: Albert Alexander, Muller 304, 4-1579
03: Elia Kacapyr, Muller 426, 4-3274
04, 06: Stephen Younger, Muller 418A, 4-3134
05: Roger Hinderliter, Muller 331, 4-3582
08, 09: Kenny Christianson, Muller 418A, 4-3134
10, 13: Patrick Meister, Muller 319, 4-3883
11, 12: Darius Conger, Muller 318, 4-3259
ENROLLMENT: 35
OBJECTIVES: This course is an introduction to economics as a discipline. Graphs are often used to analyze economic theories and solve problems. Macroeconomics includes the following topics: production-possibilities frontiers, determination and measurement of national income, business cycles, money and banking, fiscal and monetary policy, schools of economic thought, taxation, price levels, and applications to current economic problems.
STUDENTS: Freshman and sophomores from a variety of majors.
FORMAT AND STYLE: Lectures/discussions. Tutoring available.
GRADING: Exams (15% each); final (10%).
ECON 12200 PRINCIPLES OF MICROECONOMICS SS 1b
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTORS:
01: Frank Musgrave, Muller 410, 4-3613
02, 03: William Kolberg, Muller 430, 4-3609
ENROLLMENT: 35 per section
OBJECTIVES: To introduce students to microeconomics with topics such as determination of price by supply and demand, theory of consumer demand and utility, analysis of costs and supply, market structures and industry organization including monopoly, distribution of income, pricing of productive resources (wages, interest, profits, and rents), international economics, comparative economic systems, and applications to current economic problems.
STUDENTS: Generally first year students from all majors with economics and business majors taking the course as a requirement.
FORMAT AND STYLE: Lectures and discussions.
GRADING: Letter grades with pass/fail available for some majors (not economics) see major advisors for specifics.
ECON 22000-01 MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS SS LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Patrick Meister, Muller 319, 4-3883
ENROLLMENT: 25
PREREQUISITES: ECON 12100, ECON 12200, and two courses in the humanities, social sciences or business.
OBJECTIVES: The study of methods of managerial business decision making using (mostly) microeconomic tools of analysis. Topics include pricing principles and strategies, strategic decisions (e.g., whether or not to enter a market, whether or not to place a bid for a business asset available via auction, etc.), production and cost considerations, marginal analysis (e.g., marginal cost, marginal revenue) as it applies to optimization, and application of what you know about the demand for your product(s). This course is more application and case-study intensive than traditional intermediate level microeconomics courses.
REQUIREMENTS: McGuigan, James, Charles Moyer, and Frederick DeB Harris: Managerial Economics: Applications, Strategy, and Tactics, 9th edition (Southwestern, 2002).
ECON 28100-01 ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS SS 1b
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Bill Kolberg, Muller 430, 4- 3609
ENROLLMENT: 35
PREREQUISITE: ECON 12200
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this course is to provide a methodology for examining the underlying causes for the crisis of the environment, to analyze existing regulatory programs and to explore policy alternatives. Topics include: stationary source, mobile source, regional and global air pollution; water pollution; toxic substances; site preservation; distributional effects of environmental policy; and international aspects of environmental problems.
STUDENTS: Sophomores through seniors; all majors and schools.
FORMAT AND STYLE: Lecture/discussion.
ECON 28800-01 GLOBALIZATION STORIES IN THE MOVIES SS LA
1 CREDIT
INSTRUCTOR: Shaianne Osterreich, Muller 420, 4-3552
ENROLLMENT: 25
PREREQUISITES: ECON 12100, ECON 12200, and two courses in the humanities, social sciences or business.
OBJECTIVES: Many films in the recent past have touched on economic themes in globalization. This course will use the stories told in films as case studies to learn about global economic issues. The course will contain film screenings, lecture/discussion and assignments. This course works as a stand-alone course or as a one-credit add-on to ECON-36800, Globialization and Human Development and/or ECON-41100, International Economics.
FORMAT AND STYLE: 1 hour lecture/discussion every week; film screening every other week.
ECON 29900-01 MARKET EXPERIMENTS
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Bill Kolberg, Muller 430, 4- 3609
ENROLLMENT: 30
PREREQUISITE: ECON 12200.
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this course is to provide an experiential arena for students who have taken Principles of Microeconomics to engage in economic analysis. Students run computerized firms, making decisions each day. A variety of market settings are used giving students an opportunity to apply economic theory of the firm covered in Principles of Microeconomics. At the end of the course, we will evaluate the performance of the experimental market from the perspective of the community, using normative tools of economic analysis.
FORMAT AND STYLE: On-Line course.
ECON 29901-02 REDUCING WORLD POVERTY
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Stephen Younger, Muller 418A, 4-3134, syounger@ithaca.edu
ENROLLMENT: 35
OBJECTIVE: This course will examine the causes and consequences of poverty in the world. In 2001, about 1.1 billion people – one sixth of the world’s population -- lived on less than one dollar per day. About 2.7 billion lived on less than two dollars per day. These people are overwhelmingly concentrated in “developing” or “third world” or “poor” countries, so the course will focus on poverty in those countries. The course will evaluate and debate a variety of proposed policies to achieve significant poverty reduction.
STUDENTS: The course is open to students with little or no knowledge of economics, but who are interested in how economics can be applied to the issue of world poverty.
FORMAT: Most meetings will be discussions of reports, books, and articles that are aimed at a non-specialist audience. The instructor will lecture only occasionally, when some explanation of technical material will help facilitate the discussion. We will also hold a series of debates on policies meant to reduce poverty, in the style of the Copenhagen Consensus (www.copenhagenconsensus.com). Students write a major policy paper as part of these debates.
GRADING: Students will be evaluated on their contributions to class discussions and debates, a term paper, and a final exam.
ECON 30400-01 ECONOMICS OF HEALTH CARE SS
(cross listed with HLTH-30400)
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Frank Musgrave, Muller 410, 4-3613
ENROLLMENT: 40
PREREQUISITE: ECON 12100, ECON 12200, and two courses in humanities, social sciences, or business.
OBJECTIVES: Peculiar economic characteristics of health care industry. Supply and demand for health care services, casual and remedial forces of institutionalized frameworks, market mechanisms and government intrusions. Analysis of pricing in terms of the above forces and productivity. Ideal economic characteristics of medical insurance as contrasted with several proposals for national health insurance. Production function, cost-effectiveness and benefit-cost analysis. This semester we will discuss the recent reform of Medicare.
STUDENTS: About 2/3 of students are health studies majors; others are from economics, politics, business, sociology, and others.
FORMAT AND STYLE: Informal lectures (questions from instructor and students), transparencies, guest speakers; instructor always available outside of classroom or office hours by telephone or in person.
REQUIREMENTS: Two exams, one final exam and one paper.
ECON 32100-01 MONEY AND BANKING SS LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Roger Hinderliter, Muller 331, 4-3582.
ENROLLMENT: 35
PREREQUISITES: ECON 12100, ECON 12200 and two courses in the humanities, social sciences, or business.
OBJECTIVES: Basic topics include: functions of money and monetary standards, financial institutions and markets, financial decision-making, commercial banks and the role of money and financial institutions in exchange and the determination of output and employment, the level of prices, and economic growth.
STUDENTS: Sophomores through seniors; required for economics majors.
FORMAT AND STYLE: Lecture and discussion.
REQUIREMENTS: TBA.
GRADING: 2 exams and a final exam; out of class projects
ECON 32200-01 MONETARY THEORY AND POLICY SS LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Roger Hinderliter, Muller 331, 4-3582.
ENROLLMENT: 20
PREREQUISITES: ECON 32100 or FINA 20300.
OBJECTIVES: Advanced topics include: theory of the demand for money, theory of the supply of money, alternative stabilization policies, strategy of monetary policy. Major objective: to obtain understanding of how monetary policy decisions are made, and the implication of the policy process for general economic activity.
STUDENTS: Sophomores through seniors.
FORMAT AND STYLE: Lecture and discussion.
GRADING: Exams and papers.
ECON-32500-01 PUBLIC FINANCE SS LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Frank Musgrave, Muller 410, 4-3613
ENROLLMENT: 25
PREREQUISITES: ECON 12100, ECON 12200, and two courses in the humanities, social sciences or business.
OBJECTIVES: To study how government taxation and expenditure policies affect the economy and the welfare of its citizens. Focus is on resource allocation and income distribution.
STUDENTS: Economic majors and Business majors.
FORMAT AND STYLE: Informal lectures.
REQUIREMENTS: Two preliminary exams, final exam and assignments.
GRADING: A-F.
ECON 33400-01 ECONOMICS II SS LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Elia Kacapyr, Muller 426, 4-3274
ENROLLMENT: 25
PREREQUISITES: ECON 33300.
OBJECTIVES: Advance topics in econometrics, including problems in regression (multicollinearity, autocorrelation, heteroscedasticity), tests of linear restrictions, dummy variables, distributed lags and simultaneous-equation models. Exposure to econometric computer packages.
ECON-34200-01,02 MACRO ANALYSIS SS LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Shaianne Osterreich, Muller 420, 4-3552
ENROLLMENT: 30
PREREQUISITES: ECON 12100, ECON 12200, and two courses in humanities, social sciences, or business. Not available to students who have taken ECON 34400.
OBJECTIVES: This intermediate course in macroeconomics examines mainstream and alternative approaches to understanding trends in unemployment, national income, and inflation. With particular attention to the current economic crisis, we will learn how to evaluate (and find) economic data and we will debate theoretical frameworks for policy that influencing interest rates, taxes, and government spending programs.
STUDENTS: Sophomore and Junior Economics, Applied Economics, and Business Majors.
FORMAT AND STYLE: Lecture/discussion.
ECON-36800-01 CURRENT INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ISSUES SS
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Shaianne Osterreich, Muller 420, 4-3552
ENROLLMENT: 30
PREREQUISITE: ECON 32100; permission of instructor. (Please seek permission if you are interested and have not taken ECON 32100.)
OBJECTIVES: Policy makers, NGOs, labor unions, and business around the world are engaged in deep debate about the the connections between poverty alleviation and free international trade and finance. It is sometimes argued that liberalization will, in time, lead to making people better off and that policy should focus on speeding up the spread of markets. Others disagree. This course will investigate these debates about global trade, international financial flows, and “well-being.” Topics covered will include free trade agreements, private capital flows to developing countries, currency and debt crisis, and multinational corporations. We will use case studies from Latin America, South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Transition Economies and we will examine how the dynamics of globalization effect and reflect well-being, social institutions, national sovereignty, and gender and ethnic relations.
FORMAT AND STYLE: Discussion.
REQUIREMENTS: Several short papers and one long paper.
ECON 41100-01 INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS SS LA
3 CREDITS
INSTRUCTOR: Shaianne Osterreich, Muller 420, 4-3552
ENROLLMENT: 30
PREREQUISITES: ECON 34200; two course in humanities, social sciences, or business.
OBJECTIVES: The major goal of this course will be to develop your skills as an attentive and capable participant in the global society. This course will start with mainstream Classical and Non-Classical theories of international trade. This section will focus on the issues of comparative advantage, ‘gains from trade’ and the role of ‘exogenous endowments’ in determining trade patterns. We will then move on to integrate the monetary sphere by covering balance of payments, exchange rates, and internationally mobile financial capital. In addition, this class will discuss relatively new and alternative theoretical frameworks that seek to broaden our understanding of an increasingly global economy – the emphasis will be on the roles of technology and monopoly power, however we will also cover politics, gender, ethnicity, and history.
