I teach a number of courses that deal in one way or another with microeconomics and econometrics, as well as electives in economics and race and in normative economics. I also contribute to Union’s first-year preceptorial, and have also taught sophomore research seminar in the more distant past.
Race and Economics
Economics 213, Economics and Race in the United States, deals with the question of why economic outcomes in the United States are so deeply intertwined with race. Building on Economics 101, and also drawing on sociology, political science, and history, it develops conceptual tools for analyzing the way that race influences the distribution of goods and services in the US economy. It then looks in detail at various segments of the economy where differences between races are particularly significant, including income and labor markets, education, banking and finance, housing market, health services, and environmental protection.
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Normative Economics
Economics 123, Norms, Values, and Economic Justice, which is cross-listed as Philosophy 123, is a course in normative economics. Economists have been known to claim that we deal only in the analysis of facts and don’t make vaue judgments about what policy should be; but in practice, it’s hard to get through a week of Economics 101 without seeing a number of normative claims (e.g, society benefits when industries with constant or increasing average costs are competitive rather than monopolized). There is a standard moral framework by which the large majority of economists make normative decisions – welfare economics – but it is rarely taught explicitly, and when it is, it is not usually taught as a moral argument for making policy choices. The first third of Economics/Philosophy 123 is devoted to teaching welfare economics as a philosophical argument in favor of achieving Pareto-optimal outcomes. The second third is devoted to alternative philosophical methods that are broadly compatible with welfare economics but extend it or disagree with it in places – utilitarianism, libertarianism, Austrian economics, egalitarianism, and Rawlsian justice as fairness. The final third is devoted to alternative methods that more directly contradict welfare economics – communitarianism, religious and humanist economics, paternalism, feminist economics, and environmental ethics. At the end of the class students are prepared to have much more sophisticated discussions of why particular economic policies are, or are not, good for society.
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Elective Courses
Economics 353, Seminar in Econometrics, is an advanced course in econometrics, building off the department’s required Economics 243, Introduction to Econometrics (see below). The course covers both advanced microeconometric topics as instrumental variables and limited dependent variables, and macroeconometric topics such as vector autoregression and error correction models. Students write seminar papers in groups of three student on a topic of their choice and present their paper to the class.
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Economics 341, Topics in Microeconomics, is a course in game theory, describing how individuals make decisions in strategic environments, meaning that the consequences of their decisions are dependent on decisions made by others. The course covers basic tools such as games in normal and extensive form, a variety of equilibrium concepts, limited information, and repeated games, and applies those tools to economic topics such as trade negotiations, oligopoly competition, reputation, and of course, whether to have beer or quiche for breakfast before a duel.
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Economics 344, Economics of Education, is a field course in economics of education. Topics include human capital formation, education finance, competition in education markets, effective education and teaching, and equity issues. Students write seminar papers individually and present them to the class.
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Core Courses
Economics 243 is an introductory course in econometrics, that begins with two weeks of basic probability and statistics, then covers linear regression and a few advanced techniques. Students write an individual project in which they define a question and gather and analyze their own data to answer the question.
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Economics 241 is an intermediate course in microeconomic theory, covering the basic ideas of optimization, static equilibrium, and comparative statics, as well as consumer and firm theory and a brief discussion of general equilibrium.
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Economics 101 is a one-term introductory course covering both microeconomics and macroeconomics (which I only teach about once every ten years so I don’t have that much to say about it).
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General Education Required Courses
First-Year Preceptorial is a seminar in critical thinking and writing which is required of all first-year students. My section focuses on the question of inequality among members of society and how to think about it. The first unit covers historical experiences with inequality (slavery and women’s suffrage), the second unit deals with explanations of inequality (scientific, economic, and social), the third unit deals with religious views of inequality (from the Bible, the Qur’an, the Tao Te Ching, and the Bhagavad Gita) and the fourth unit deals with philosophical views of inequality (Plato, Rousseau, Marx, Nietzsche). Students write and revise one five-page paper in each of the four units.
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Sophomore Research Seminar is a course in research methods, in which students produce a term paper of approximately 18-20 pages based on a self-designed reading program on a topic of their choice, related to the themes of the course. My course deals with American slavery, in historical, economic, political, and social terms.
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