This course introduces fundamental business and economics concepts to students, including, how the free market works (demand and supply), understanding key macro-economic variables; the various functions within business (management, leadership, marketing, accounting and finance), basic financial principles (simple and compounding interest, time value of money), and basic accounting principles (the accounting equation; reading and understanding financial statements). Students are also introduced to Excel, and learn how to do career planning, network, and develop a resume and LinkedIn profile. Prerequisites: first and second years, or permission of instructor.

In the past few decades, economies of South and East Asia have rapidly integrated into the global economy and achieved phenomenal economic success. How did they do it? In the first part of the course, students examine these countries’ economic policies and discuss lessons for other countries. In the second part of the course, against the macroeconomic background provided in part I, students learn to identify and evaluate business strategies that are relevant for international business expansion to a diverse and rapidly globalizing Asia. Offered once every other year. Prerequisite: Economics 199.

Students learn the fundamentals of accounting, including the accounting equation, the accounting process, journal entries, and cash vs. accrual accounting. Some fundamentals of finance are also covered: time value of money, present value, future value, and how to value an asset using the discounted cash flow approach. For the final project, students learn to read and interpret financial statements and do financial ratio analysis. Usually offered in fall semester. (1S). Prerequisite: Economics 199.

This course teaches students both theoretical and practical applications of modern finance. This course covers topics such as: time value of money, bond valuation, capital budgeting, and long-term financing. Students learn how to read and analyze financial statements; calculate and analyze financial ratios; evaluate firm and stock performance price or value assets including bonds, stocks and other securities and derivatives; measure and manage risk; construct an investment portfolio; and evaluate its performance. Prerequisite: Economics 199 and Business 216.

Finance is often seen as an obstacle to a better world. However, this course focuses on how financial markets can be used as a tool to bring about positive social and environmental impact. Financial markets can do this by redirecting capital to flow toward initiatives and projects that confront climate and environmental issues. The course covers a wide range of topics, including Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), microfinance and microcredit, impact investing, climate finance, and fintech. This course also complements Economics 205 Environmental Economics and other courses in the Environmental Studies program. Prerequisite: Business 216.

This course provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental concepts, principles, and practices of marketing. Marketing is a dynamic and essential discipline that plays a critical role in the success of business, organizations, and individuals. Students explore the key components of marketing, including research, consumer behavior, product development, pricing strategies, promotion, distribution, and the ever-evolving digital landscape. Through a combination of lectures, case studies, group discussions, and project work, students gain valuable insights into how marketing strategies are developed and executed to achieve business objectives. Whether they’re a business student, entrepreneur, or marketing enthusiast, this course empowers students to understand, analyze, and create effective marketing strategies. Prerequisite: sophomore standing.

In this course students examine the relationship between having agency and taking responsibility for what they do. Students consider the limits of self-interest and instrumental rationality, and the intrinsic relationship between power and justice. Texts include Plato’s “Gorgias,” Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics,” and Michael Sandel’s “What Money Can’t Buy.” (5T) (Also listed as Philosophy 225) Prerequisites: none.

This course is designed to increase student awareness and understanding of the sport industry structure and operations. Additionally, the course increases student knowledge of the scope and variety of career opportunities in the sport profession. Focus is given to the business of sport and current issues facing sport organizations along with management strategies utilized to solve challenges in the sports business. Prerequisites: Sophomore standing and Economics 202, Sociology 219, or permission of instructor.

This course examines the comprehensive planning for the development and operations of new and existing sport facilities and the management of events in those facilities. Topics covered include planning, design and production, financing, general management, service delivery, scheduling, supervision, and technology management. Prerequisites: At least sophomore standing and Sociology 219, Economics 202, or permission of instructor.

In depth study of one or more selected topics in business. May be repeated for credit if topic is different. Prerequisites: vary, depending on topic and instructor.

This course develops and applies microeconomic theory to determine optimal business management strategies while considering scarce resources, risk, and competitive market structures. Students learn how to apply economic concepts in analyzing production, pricing, and risk in a firm. In addition, students learn and develop Excel spreadsheet skills as a quantitative tool applied to managerial economic problems such as sensitivity analysis, cost analysis, data analysis, and linear programming. Offered most fall semesters. Prerequisite: Economics 199 and 211.

Students discover the core principles of business analytics integrated with Python programming in this comprehensive course. Students delve into essential techniques for data analysis, interpretation, and its practical application within modern business settings. The course focuses on statistical methods, predictive modeling, and data visualization tools, all while leveraging Python as a primary analytical instrument. Through real-world case studies and hands-on experience with Python-based analytics, students gain the skills to extract meaningful insights from data and make informed, data-driven decisions. Offered each year. Prerequisite: Economics 251.

An introduction to the research methods used by organizations (public and private, profit and non-profit) to understand the wants and desires of their customers, clients, and constituents to more effectively deliver a product or service. Topics covered will include: the research process, use of secondary data, collection of primary data (from focus groups to experimental design), survey design, attitude measurement, sampling, data analysis, and presentation of research finding. Prerequisite: Economics 199 and 251.

In this class, students learn how to lead, no matter who they are, no matter what they want to pursue in life. Students study leadership through diverse contexts, case studies on complicated global, community, business, and organizational issues, interactions with guest speakers who are successful leaders. Students gain a deeper understanding of their strengths and learn to creatively find and communicate solutions to complex problems, build and lead effective teams, develop a strategic plan to achieve their vision, and act in organizations and the world to influence change for the better. Prerequisites: Junior standing; sophomores by exception. (Also listed as Praxis 304.)

Marketing is an essential part of running a successful business, and it has never been more data driven than it is today. Almost every business now relies on data to guide marketing strategy and decision making. For anyone interested in marketing, the ability to work with data, analyze it, and transition it into effective decisions are now essential skills. The goal of this course is to help students build the skills needed to analyze marketing data and turn insights into business recommendations. Students use case studies to solve real world business problems through a mix of lectures, readings, class activities, and lab sessions. By the end of the course, students work through a business question and present their findings and recommendations to the rest of the class. (3B) Prerequisite: Economics 251 (or any intro quant/stat course).

This course covers the basics of experimental economics, which is an empirical method used to identify or test causal relationships, and behavioral economics, a sub-discipline within economics that studies how people make decisions. Knowledge and skills learned from both behavioral economics and experimental economics are applied to consumer behavior and marketing/advertising strategies. Students do a final group project in which they apply a behavioral economic concept or theory to solve a marketing problem or answer a marketing question, then design an experiment to test the solution or answer. (3B) Prerequisites: Economics 111 or 199, and a statistics course, such as Mathematics 106, Economics 251, Sociology 205, Psychology 161, Political Science 201, or another statistics course by permission of the instructor.

This course provides a basic understanding of the investment process and the investment management world and career. Students learn: the various types of investment instruments and trading mechanisms available in the financial markets, how to measure and manage risk in the context of portfolio management, analytical techniques used for the evaluation of financial assets, and how to construct, manage, and evaluate the performance of an investment portfolio. Students also connect with industry professionals to explore a career in investment management. Prerequisites: Business 216 and 217.

This course explores the critical financial decisions faced by firms operating across multiple countries. It delves into the complexities arising from diverse economic conditions, political landscapes, currency fluctuations, and varied legal systems globally. Four main topics are covered: (i) macroeconomics of international trade and international monetary system (ii) the foreign exchange rate determinants and relationships to other macroeconomic variables, (iii) capital budgeting, direct foreign investments and the political risks of foreign operations and taxes, (iv) how to manage currency exposures in a multinational corporation. Prerequisite: Business 217.

This course is an upper level course for advanced students. It focuses on the mathematics behind financial modeling. The course focuses on financial theory rather than the applied implementation of these theories. The course covers topics such as portfolio optimization, discrete probabilities, arbitrage pricing models, annuities calculations, and derivative pricing. Prerequisites: Business 216, Business 217, and Mathematics 110.

The first half of this course focuses on international finance, covering topics such as fundamentals of exchange rate determination, the international monetary system, the relationships among exchange rate, interest rate, and inflation rate, and financial crises. The second half of the course covers international financial markets and global investment opportunities. Students learn to do country analysis and construct and manage a global investment portfolio, to prepare for a career in portfolio management. Prerequisites: Economics 212, 251, and Business 340.

Marketing is a dynamic and essential discipline that plays a critical role in the success of business, organizations and individuals. This course provides a unique opportunity for students to actively participate in the development and execution of marketing strategies and plans, using customer profiles and journeys, market research, innovation, project management, integrated marketing communications plan development, cross-functional collaboration, leadership presentation development and event execution to cement learning outcomes. Learning goals and outcomes include hands-on application of marketing principles and strategies, effective presenting to leadership, problem-solving, collaboration, communication and professional leadership development. (CP) Prerequisites: Business 220 and 230, or permission of instructor.

The goal of this course is to build, understand, and implement the tools prevalent in applied finance and statistical modeling. This course primarily focuses on modeling as opposed to theory. Students are expected to have a rudimentary understanding of financial topics, such as time value of money, bond valuation, and capital budgeting. Students use Microsoft Excel throughout the course to build comprehensive, and multi-purpose financial models, but prior familiarity with Excel is not required. At the end of the course, students should have built a strong familiarity with Excel and have the confidence to use it to create financial models and apply them in typical finance and investments scenarios. The course explores the time value of money, bond valuation, financial statement analysis, capital budgeting, portfolio analysis, time series, and forecasting. (CP) Prerequisites: Business 216, Business 217, and Economics 251.

Individual work, under faculty supervision, on projects related to a business topic. Prerequisites: at least sophomore standing and Economics 199.

Work with faculty in classroom instruction; provide tutoring to students.

Research work under faculty supervision. Graded credit/not credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

This course covers fundamental economic principles, such as opportunity cost, marginal thinking, and benefit-cost analysis, how a free market works, trade and comparative advantage, firm’s behavior and market structures, and consumer behavior. After examining the theoretical perfect market and its efficiency in resource allocation, students learn the real markets with its various imperfections and inefficiencies, and how policies might help alleviate such imperfections and inefficiencies. Applications include relevant economic, social or environmental issues such as minimum wage, rent control, poverty, inequality, climate change, health care and health insurance, and other topics based on students’ interests. (3B) Prerequisites: none.

This course provides students with a basic understanding of how the aggregate economy works in both the long-run and the short-run. In studying the economy in the long run, we try to answer questions such as: What explains the unprecedented economic growth that the world economy has experienced in the last 200 years? Why some economies are richer or grow rich faster than others? What factors or policies can promote long-run economic growth? In studying the economy in the short run, we examine the nature and causes of short-term economic fluctuations (why the economy goes through booms and crises) and how government policies can or cannot help alleviate such fluctuations. (3B) Prerequisites: none.

This course is designed to teach students how to use SQL (structured query language) for data analytics. Students first study the basics of relational database management systems (RDBMS) and database schema which are used widely in many businesses. As part of RDBMS, students learn SQL which is used to gather meaningful information from data files. Students explore various utilities of SQL such as creating reports for business as per the business’ requirements, creating tables in a database, modifying information in those tables, and so on. Students may also look at advanced SQL topics such as stored procedures, views, and triggers. By end of the course, students are familiar with different features of SQL and their use cases in businesses. (1S)

This course takes an analytical approach to economic reasoning and contemporary economic issues. It introduces microeconomic and macroeconomic theories with applications to relevant issues such as employment, growth, international trade and finance, monetary and fiscal policy, and environmental issues. (3B) Offered each semester.

This course examines how race plays a role in determining various life outcomes of the people in the United States, including the disparities in economic outcomes caused by differences in gender, sexual orientation, and other personal traits. Students are introduced to economic theories of discrimination; they review the empirical research around those theories and study the policies intended to reduce this discrimination. Students learn how to read research papers in economics and also learn econometric tools that economists use to calculate discrimination. If time permits, students look at other types of inequalities in an international context such as caste-based inequalities in India. By the end of the course, students learn how to think about various types of inequalities from an economics lens. (3B). Prerequisite: Economics 199.

This course applies economics to sports in the U.S. and around the world. Applications of economics include analytical tools from the fields of industrial organization, public finance, and labor economics. Theoretical outcomes for economic variables such as revenues, costs, and profits as well as sports variables such as winning percentages, team payrolls, and competitive balance are compared with data on these variables from the real world. Cost-benefit analysis of new sports infrastructure is considered both for recurring use by local teams and for non-recurring use to host events such as Olympics or other championships. Offered each year. Prerequisite: Economics 199.

This course examines three main aspects of economic globalization: international trade, international migration, and international capital flows. We will use economic models to study why each aspect of globalization happens, who are the winners and losers from each, and the impacts of globalization on matters of interests such as economic growth, poverty and inequality, the environment, labor standards, etc. The theoretical analyses are then confronted with data and country case studies. This will enable us to understand why some people are against globalization while others embrace it, whether we should have more or less globalization, or how we should reform or change globalization. This course is recommended for students who plan to work for government and international organizations in activities affected by international economic relations. (3B) Offered once per year. Prerequisite: Economics 199.

This course has two main themes: First, the most pressing environmental problems, such as climate change, are directly connected to the production and consumption of energy. Second, the design and critique of environmental policies must be grounded in a solid understanding of economics. (3B) (Also listed as Environmental Studies 205.) Offered each fall. Prerequisite: Economics 199.

This course compares the theoretical foundations and empirical performance of various economic systems, including Marxist socialism, Soviet-type economies, and markets in different cultural contexts. The course also addresses the issues of economic reform, including monetary reform and privatization. Offered every other spring. Prerequisite: Economics 199.

This course is an introduction to health economics. Topics that are covered include: demand for health care, economics of health innovation, the supply of health care, moral hazard, adverse selection, health policy, social determinants of health, public health economics, behavioral health economics and economic epidemiology (population aging, obesity, environmental health, and infectious diseases). The main objective of the course is to equip students with the tools to understand healthcare markets and health outcomes. The course is designed be as approachable as possible and does not require a strong background in mathematics or quantitative methods to do well. (3B). Prerequisite: Economics 199.

Microeconomics is the study of how households and firms allocate scarce resources to competing ends. Students learn to use economic models and optimizing techniques to address a variety of decision-making processes, including consumer utility optimization and producer profit maximization in the context of competitive markets, monopoly, oligopoly, and monopolistic competition. (3B) Offered most semesters. Prerequisite: Economics 199.

This course analyzes macroeconomic theories and policies in the short run and long run. Topics covered include national income, unemployment, money and inflation, economic growth, economic fluctuation, and open economies. Students analyze and apply macroeconomic models and discuss macroeconomic policies in real-world contexts. Prerequisite: Economics 112 or 199.

The nature and functions of money and of commercial banks and a critical analysis of the operation of the modern commercial banking system. Central banking, the Federal Reserve System, and monetary policy. The relationships of money and credit to price levels and national income. Offered each fall. Prerequisite: Prerequisite: Economics 111, 112, 199, or 211.

An introduction to the quantitative tools used by decision makers in both private business and public institutions. The course reviews introductory statistical methods and builds to the multiple regression model. Applications of these techniques are then developed to explain, predict, and forecast economic and business events. Offered each semester. Prerequisite: Economics 199 and at least sophomore standing.

In-depth study of one or more selected topics in economics. Stress upon primary research materials, case studies, and/or applied experience of economists or policy analysts. May be repeated for credit if topic is different. Offered occasionally. Prerequisite: Economics 199 and 211.

In this course, students employ analytic methods to describe, diagnose, prescribe, and predict aspects of sporting activity using data sets from the U.S. and around the world. Through applications to sports, students deepen their understanding of probability, statistics, linear and non-linear regression analysis, and coding languages such as Stata and Excel. Prerequisites: a statistics course, such as Mathematics 106, Economics 251, Sociology 205, Psychology 161, Political Science 201, or another statistics course by permission of the instructor.

This course introduces students to techniques of econometric analysis and to models of economic activity. It treats issues about specification and estimation of single- and simultaneous-equation models. Students become acquainted with methods of interpreting statistics describing the performance of estimated models, and they learn techniques for addressing any problems such statistics may reveal. Offered each spring. Prerequisite: Economics 199, 211, and 251.

This course teaches the basic methods, implementation, and applications of machine learning for understanding and solving contemporary business and economic problems using large datasets. The course builds upon students’ understanding of traditional statistical models. The topics that are covered include: OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) regressions, LASSO (Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator) regressions, regression model selection, and regularization; classification; tree-based methods (Decision Trees, Random Forests, Casual Trees); causal inference; and applications of machine learning methods in economic policy analysis. (1S). Prerequisites: Economics 199, 251 (or comparable quantitative or statistics-based research methods course like Mathematics 205) and Computer Science 111.

This course uses techniques from mathematics to extend the models developed in the Intermediate Microeconomic and Macroeconomic Theory courses. Static, comparative static, dynamic, and optimal control models track the behavior of economic variables. These models illustrate applications of linear algebra, differential calculus, and integral calculus. Offered occasionally. Prerequisite: Economics 199, 211, 212, Mathematics 115.

Tools and concepts from game theory (e.g., simultaneous-move games, sequential-move games, Nash equilibrium, and Bayesian equilibrium) are used to model topics from international political economy (e.g., strategic trade policy, bargaining, and voting games), macroeconomics (e.g., unemployment and optimal policymaking), industrial organization (e.g., cartels, oligopoly, contestable markets, and mergers and acquisitions) and the financial sector (e.g., insurance, credit rationing, and auctions). Offered each spring. Prerequisite: Economics 199 and Mathematics 110 or 115.

This capstone course is for all majors in the department of economics. As the title suggests, the central question raised in this course is, “What are the nature and causes of wealth and well-being?” This is among the discipline’s most important questions, and it is therefore a fitting one to pursue in this capstone course. Economists have addressed this question with a wide variety of intellectual tools and paradigms, and it is the source of continuing debate and discovery. Each year this course is redesigned around the ideas and influence of a major thinker, school of thought, and/or sub-discipline within economics. This design will reflect the content of an annual event: The Wealth and Well-Being of Nations: A Forum in Honor of Miller Upton. (CP) Offered each fall. Prerequisite: senior standing.

Individual work, under faculty supervision, on projects acceptable to the department. This course affords the opportunity to qualified seniors for more intensive work in fields in which they already have taken the appropriate intermediate level course (e.g., Money and Banking, International Trade and Finance, etc.). Offered occasionally. Prerequisite: Economics 199.

Work with faculty in classroom instruction. Graded credit/no credit.

Course and curriculum development projects with faculty.

Research work under faculty supervision. Graded credit/no credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.