International Economics Major

This course applies economic theory to some key economic institutions and policies of the European Union. It addresses some key issues in the process of European economic integration, under three broad groups: the degree of economic integration historically achieved with the common market and the European Monetary System; an analysis of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) regime; an economic analysis of the changes related to EU enlargement, both for old and new members. Questions discussed include the question whether there is an economic case for EMU, current issues with respect to fiscal, monetary, and labour market policies, and the problems that lie ahead until broader adoption of the euro. (Recommended ECN 256)

The course investigates in a simple but rigorous way some of the fundamental issues of modern microeconomics, exploring the main concepts of game theory, as well as the basic elements of the economics of information, and of contract theory. A solid background on these topics is essential to the investigation of strategic decision making, the assessment of the relevance of asymmetric and/or incomplete information in decision processes, and the design of contracts. These, in turn, are among the most important issues that firms and individuals commonly need to face in all situations in which the consequences of individual decisions are likely to depend on the strategic interactions among agents' actions, and on the signaling value of information. Proceeding from intuition to formal analysis, the course investigates the methodological approach of game theory (allowing for a systematic analysis of strategic interaction) and the main concepts of the economics of information (allowing to assess the effects of asymmetric or incomplete information on agents' decisions). Further, it combines both game theory and economics of information to provide an introduction to the essential elements of contract theory.

India has often been described as one of the developing countries that has achieved considerable economic success by following a neo-liberal policy regime in the past twenty years. However, over the last two years, India’s growth has stagnated. Moreo-ver, a substantial part of the population continues to live below the poverty line and lack access to basic services like clean water, health care, education etc. This course has been designed to use India as a case study to investigate the impact of globaliza-tion on development and will introduce students to different facets of globalization and allow students to understand the complicated interrelations between globaliza-tion and development. Students will study about labor reforms, environmental sus-tainability, politics of land grab, agricultural policies, urbanization-all within the framework of political economy of globalization and economic development. Students will be introduced to the flourishing IT and financial service sector, one of the main beneficiaries of globalization and the impact these sectors have had on India’s grow-ing middle class. Students will then be introduced to the problems and issues faced in the semi urban regions of the country. This travel course will allow students to ob-serve and recognize the causes of uneven growth and the consequent impact on peo-ple’s standards of living.

Traditionally, efficiency has been given priority over sustainability in orthodox economics. With the declaration of Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations, the idea of sustainability has become central in mainstream economic and policy discussions, thereby challenging many fundamental building blocks of economics. This course will examine the different approaches used in economics to study sustainability within the context of economic development. This will include both mainstream approach that uses neoclassical assumptions of market clearing and the rational choice theory and non-mainstream schools of thoughts that include Marxian economics, Ecological economics and Institutional economics. The course will then explore the relationships between sustainability and various economic and political issues like employment generation, property and resource rights, mode of production, economic growth and poverty. The aim of this course is to provide tools to students that will allow them to critically examine the various approaches to sustainable development. A grade of at least C is highly recommended in the prequisite ECN 100. This Academic Travel course carries a supplemental fee, to be announced prior to registration.

This course studies the market behavior of firms with market power. Topics like oligopoly, price discrimination, vertical relations between firms, product differentiation, advertising and entry barriers represent the core of the course. These concepts will be applied to the specific case of European firms, which live in an economic and monetary union. Students will study the principles of European competition policy and some famous European antitrust cases. A comparison with American antitrust will be made.

This course is designed to introduce students to the foundations of political economy. Political economy is the study of the economic system from a critical, historical and interdisciplinary perspective to provide a greater understanding of our current economic system. In this course, students will learn about different theories in political economy and how these theories help us understand the transformation of a pre capitalist system to the current capitalist system. Some of the approaches that students will be introduced to are Institutional, Marxian, Sraffian, Post-Keynesian and Austrian. This course will also draw from these various theories and examine their implications for different issues that arise from the current social and economic formation. Some of the issues that will be considered in this course are social and economic inequality, gender inequality, issues concerning the ecology, power relations and conflict in modern society, political economy of poverty and uneven development.

The course introduces the basic principles of econometrics as a set of tools and techniques to quantitatively investigate a variety of economic and financial issues. The application of econometric methods allows studying the relationships between different economic and financial variables, hence providing a natural way to test and confront alternative theories and conjectures, as well as to forecast and simulate the effects of different economic and financial policies. The course approach is mainly focused on applications. A discussion of the main theoretical issues and a systematic analysis of econometric tools are prerequisites for the investigation of a number of economic and financial applications.

Research proposals are to be coordinated with the faculty advisor and the Division Chair.

Internship experiences are to be coordinated in advance with the faculty advisor and the Division Chair.

This course is offered when students and instructors arrange a special seminar on material that is beyond the scope of a particular course. It is open to students majoring in IE or IBF with Department Head permission. The course must be supervised by an Economics Department faculty member to be counted towards the major.

The course will introduce students to the evolution of theory and practice in economic development in three stages. First, models of economic growth and development including work by Harrod-Domar, Robert Solow, Arthur Lewis, and Michael Kremer are compared to provide students with a feeling for how economists have conceived of the development process. The class then proceeds to examine particular development issues such as population growth, stagnant agriculture, environmental degradation, illiteracy, gender disparities, and rapid urbanization to understand how these dynamics reinforce poverty and deprivation. In the final stage, students will read work by supporters as well as critics of international development assistance and use the knowledge and perspective they have gained thus far to independently evaluate efficacy of a specific development intervention.

This course applies economic theory to some key economic institutions and policies of the European Union. It addresses some key issues in the process of European economic integration, under three broad groups: the degree of economic integration historically achieved with the common market and the European Monetary System; an analysis of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) regime; an economic analysis of the changes related to EU enlargement, both for old and new members. Questions discussed include the question whether there is an economic case for EMU, current issues with respect to fiscal, monetary, and labour market policies, and the problems that lie ahead until broader adoption of the euro. (Recommended ECN 256)

The course investigates in a simple but rigorous way some of the fundamental issues of modern microeconomics, exploring the main concepts of game theory, as well as the basic elements of the economics of information, and of contract theory. A solid background on these topics is essential to the investigation of strategic decision making, the assessment of the relevance of asymmetric and/or incomplete information in decision processes, and the design of contracts. These, in turn, are among the most important issues that firms and individuals commonly need to face in all situations in which the consequences of individual decisions are likely to depend on the strategic interactions among agents' actions, and on the signaling value of information. Proceeding from intuition to formal analysis, the course investigates the methodological approach of game theory (allowing for a systematic analysis of strategic interaction) and the main concepts of the economics of information (allowing to assess the effects of asymmetric or incomplete information on agents' decisions). Further, it combines both game theory and economics of information to provide an introduction to the essential elements of contract theory.

This course examines media in the context of globalization. Most broadly, students will explore what constitutes globalization, how globalization has been facilitated and articulated by media, how media have been shaped by the processes of globalization, and perhaps most significantly, the social implications of these complex and varied processes on politics, international relations, advocacy and cultural flows. In order to map this terrain, students will survey the major theories that constitute this dynamic area of study.

This course uses key topics, themes and trends in journalism to explore the foundations and functions of the press, learn techniques of gathering and writing news, discuss the shifting terrain of journalism, and reflect upon the status and functions of journalism in different cultural contexts. As a writing-intensive course, this course is designed to help students produce high quality written work through a process of drafting, workshopping and editing. Written work may include journalistic reviews, letters to the editor, pitches to the editor and interviews.

This case study based course serves as the bridge experience for students completing their introductory course requirements for the ESS major or the ENV minor and who are now moving into the upper-level courses (However it is open to all interested students meeting the prerequisite). Through detailed examination of several case studies at the local, regional, and global levels, students synthesize material from introductory level courses to explore the interdisciplinary nature of today’s environmental issues. They examine what different disciplines offer to our understanding of and attempt to solve these issues.

As long as humans have walked the planet, they have faced dangers from the environment, such as earthquakes, floods, and volcanoes. Today's technology creates new possibilities for disasters, including climate change, killer smog, and nuclear accidents. Students in this course will study the science behind natural disasters as well as examine society's preparedness for and response to these problems from an interdisciplinary perspective. It will look at both historical and recent events and consider what disasters await us in the future. Students who have already taken SCI 110 must obtain permission to enroll.

The Cold War was many things. It was primarily a global power struggle between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, two Superpowers which divided the world into competing alliances and engaged in proxy wars. It was a tense and often unstable nuclear standoff. It was also an ideological clash between freedom and totalitarianism; between economic equality and exploitation; and between imperialism and anti-colonial nationalism. This course examines these intersecting facets as well as the ways in which the Cold War is interpreted and its profound and continuing impact not only on the principal protagonists but on all of the peoples of the world.

The world today has been shaped to a large extent by Europe and America in the long nineteenth century between the Enlightenment and the First World War. During this period dramatic changes in social, economic, political and cultural ideas and institutions were related to changes in how people in the West conceptualized the world around them. Although Europeans and Americans exerted global influence through industrialization and imperialism, in turn they were influenced by people beyond the West from Africa to the Far East. Thus globalization is not a recent phenomenon. With emphasis on Christopher Bayly's recent book The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914: Global Connections and Comparisons, among other works, this course will focus on major themes in the study of modernity such as political ideologies and the roles of science and religion as related to the development of the idea of ''Europe'' or ''the West'' with special reference to the British colonies, Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and Japan. It is intended to provide not only a broad view of a crucial period in modern history but also a functional knowledge of themes and concepts necessary for understanding the contemporary world. Students read primary as well as secondary sources, and attention is devoted to methodological considerations and recent trends in scholarship.

This course is designed to familiarize students with the major currents of political philosophy. It covers a broad range of central thinkers from the major philosophers of ancient Greece up to the proponents of modern-day liberalism. The course situates political philosophies in their historical context of emergence and thereby provides an overview of the history of the central ideas which are at the heart of thinking about politics, society and justice. The reading of primary and secondary sources serves as the basis for in-depth class discussions and a critical engagement with the normative underpinnings of societal organization.

The interplay between political and economic issues has become central to the study of international relations in the modern world. This course will examine the traditional theoretical foundations of International Political Economy (the views of the liberals, the Marxists, the nationalists, etc.) and their applicability to today's world. Using an inter-disciplinary approach, the course will look at both historical background and present-day issues and conditions. The problems of development and North-South relations and the question of sustainability will be examined. International trade issues, such as the relations between trade globalization and environmental and human rights concerns and the role of institutions such as, the WTO, the IMF and G8 meetings will be studied. Finally the course will also consider new problem areas such as the internet and its control and e-commerce and the emerging role of non-governmental organizations.(Formerly POL 277. Students cannot earn credit for both POL 277 and POL 377.)

This upper-level course in economics is the first part of an ideal two-semester sequence including ECN 328. This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the monetary dimension of contemporary economies. This includes the nature of the means of settlement, the technology of monetary payments, the banking system and its pro-cyclical, crisis-prone character that requires control and regulation, the response of financial markets to changing policy conditions and perceived risks, and central banks’ operations and goals when setting interest rates. Special attention is devoted to current monetary policy issues with special reference (but not limited) to the practice of the U.S. Fed and the European Central Bank. Recommended prerequisites: ECN 225, ECN 256, BUS 326

This upper-level course in economics is the second part of an ideal two-semester sequence including ECN 325. This course is designed to provide students with an appreciation of the meaning and consequence of international monetary relations, notably with respect to cross-border payments and investments under different monetary, banking, financial, and political institutions. In the first part, the class will investigate currency exposure, the currency market and its actors, the determination of exchange rates, measures and indices of the external value of a currency. In the second part, focus will be on the structure of balance-of-payments accounting, the size and significance of current account imbalances, and exchange rate policies. Finally, students will study monetary unions with special reference to the current issues and future prospects of Economic and Monetary Union in Europe. Recommended prerequisites: ECN 225, ECN 256, ECN 325

India has often been described as one of the developing countries that has achieved considerable economic success by following a neo-liberal policy regime in the past twenty years. However, over the last two years, India’s growth has stagnated. Moreo-ver, a substantial part of the population continues to live below the poverty line and lack access to basic services like clean water, health care, education etc. This course has been designed to use India as a case study to investigate the impact of globaliza-tion on development and will introduce students to different facets of globalization and allow students to understand the complicated interrelations between globaliza-tion and development. Students will study about labor reforms, environmental sus-tainability, politics of land grab, agricultural policies, urbanization-all within the framework of political economy of globalization and economic development. Students will be introduced to the flourishing IT and financial service sector, one of the main beneficiaries of globalization and the impact these sectors have had on India’s grow-ing middle class. Students will then be introduced to the problems and issues faced in the semi urban regions of the country. This travel course will allow students to ob-serve and recognize the causes of uneven growth and the consequent impact on peo-ple’s standards of living.

Traditionally, efficiency has been given priority over sustainability in orthodox economics. With the declaration of Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations, the idea of sustainability has become central in mainstream economic and policy discussions, thereby challenging many fundamental building blocks of economics. This course will examine the different approaches used in economics to study sustainability within the context of economic development. This will include both mainstream approach that uses neoclassical assumptions of market clearing and the rational choice theory and non-mainstream schools of thoughts that include Marxian economics, Ecological economics and Institutional economics. The course will then explore the relationships between sustainability and various economic and political issues like employment generation, property and resource rights, mode of production, economic growth and poverty. The aim of this course is to provide tools to students that will allow them to critically examine the various approaches to sustainable development. A grade of at least C is highly recommended in the prequisite ECN 100. This Academic Travel course carries a supplemental fee, to be announced prior to registration.

This course studies the market behavior of firms with market power. Topics like oligopoly, price discrimination, vertical relations between firms, product differentiation, advertising and entry barriers represent the core of the course. These concepts will be applied to the specific case of European firms, which live in an economic and monetary union. Students will study the principles of European competition policy and some famous European antitrust cases. A comparison with American antitrust will be made.

The course introduces the basic principles of econometrics as a set of tools and techniques to quantitatively investigate a variety of economic and financial issues. The application of econometric methods allows studying the relationships between different economic and financial variables, hence providing a natural way to test and confront alternative theories and conjectures, as well as to forecast and simulate the effects of different economic and financial policies. The course approach is mainly focused on applications. A discussion of the main theoretical issues and a systematic analysis of econometric tools are prerequisites for the investigation of a number of economic and financial applications.

Research proposals are to be coordinated with the faculty advisor and the Division Chair.

Internship experiences are to be coordinated in advance with the faculty advisor and the Division Chair.

This course is offered when students and instructors arrange a special seminar on material that is beyond the scope of a particular course. It is open to students majoring in IE or IBF with Department Head permission. The course must be supervised by an Economics Department faculty member to be counted towards the major.