EC - Economics


EC 201Principles of MicroeconomicsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall Spring Summer
Scarcity, production possibilities, and opportunity cost. Supply and demand analysis, free markets, the price system, and government policy. Microeconomic analysis of business decisions in competitive and noncompetitive markets. Labor markets, capital, and natural resource markets, and externalities. Market breakdown, income redistribution, and role of government. Free trade, tariffs, and gains from international trade. Credit will not be given for both EC 201 and either ARE 201 or EC 205.


EC 202Principles of MacroeconomicsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall Spring Summer
Prerequisite: EC 201 or ARE 201
Aggregate economic analysis emphasizing current public policy issues. Determinants of level and rate of growth of total output. Causes of unemployment and business cycles, inflation, and exchange rate fluctuations. Effects of monetary policy (money supply) and fiscal policy (government spending, taxes, deficits) on these problems. Trade surpluses/deficits and impact of international events and policies on national economies. Credit will not be given for both EC 202 and EC 205.


EC 205Fundamentals of EconomicsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall Spring Summer
Fundamental ideas in economics: scarcity, substitution, opportunity cost, marginal analysis, gross domestic product, real and nominal magnitudes. Supply and demand analysis. Microeconomic analysis of pricing in competitive and noncompetitive markets. Macroeconomic analysis of production, employment, the price level, and inflation. Monetary and fiscal policy and the stabilization of the economy. Comparative advantage and international trade. Credit will not be given for both EC 205 and either EC 201 or ARE 201. Credit will not be given for both EC 205 and EC 202.


EC (ARE) 301Intermediate MicroeconomicsUNITS: 3
Prerequisite: MA 121 or 131; EC 201 or EC 205 or ARE 201
Functioning of the market economy, role of prices in determining the allocation of resources, the functioning of the firm in the economy, forces governing the production and consumption of economic goods. Credit not allowed in more than one of EC 301, 310, 401.


EC 302Intermediate MacroeconomicsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall Spring Summer
Prerequisite: EC 201 or EC 205 or ARE 201; MA 121 or MA 131
Applied, analytical course in aggregate economics: business cycles, stabilization policy, inflation, costs of disinflation, international trade, and economic growth. Interaction of consumers and businesses with government economic policies; unemployment, interest rates, and output growth. Impacts of government deficits, trade deficits, and monetary policies.


EC 303Markets and GovernmentsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall Spring Summer
Prerequisite: EC 201 or EC 205 or ARE 201
Social benefits of markets and the price system. Market failures and the rationale for government intervention in the economy. Government spending and taxing. Government failures. Applications to policies concerning the environment, labor markets, health care, antitrust, and economic growth.


EC 304Introduction to Financial Markets and InstitutionsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall Spring Summer
Prerequisite: EC 201 or EC 205 or ARE 201
Financial assets, markets and institutions. Stock and bond markets. Measurement and determination of rates of return on financial assets. Banks and other financial intermediaries including their management and regulation. Roles of the Federal Reserve System and monetary policy in determining interest rates, economic activity and foreign exchange rates. Credit will not be given for both EC 304 and EC 404.


EC 305A Closer Look at CapitalismUNITS: 3
Prerequisite: EC 201 or EC 205 or ARE 201
Comparison of market allocation to government allocation. Criteria for evaluating economic systems. How markets create value. Relationship of economic freedom to political freedom and economic growth. Applications to policies such as antitrust policy, education policy, and environmental policy.


EC 310Managerial EconomicsUNITS: 3
Prerequisite: EC 201 or EC 205 or ARE 201
Microeconomic principles applied to decision-making in the firm. Present value analysis. The relationship between accounting and economic concepts of cost. Criteria and procedures for decision-making under uncertainty. Economic allocation by markets and the price system. Sources of market power and competitive advantage. Applications to product pricing and advertising. Credit not allowed in more than one of EC 301, 310, 401.


EC 312Economics of LawUNITS: 3 - Offered in Spring Only
Prerequisite: ARE 201 or EC 201 or EC 205
Economic principles used to analyze the law. How law reflects social pursuit of economic goals. The meaning of efficiency in the law. Uncertainty and insurance. The role of property rights. Property rules versus liability rules. Economics of penalties. Criminal law versus tort law. Economics of tort, contract, property, crime, marriage, and intellectual property.


EC (ARE) 336Introduction to Resource and Environmental EconomicsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall and Spring
Prerequisite: ARE 201 or EC 201 or EC 205
Application of basic economic tools to understand and evaluate environmental/resource policies. Concepts such as property rights, non-market goods, allocation over time, externalities, and public goods. Current policy issues such as global climate change, evaluating natural resource damages from oil spills, reducing the costs of regulations, protecting estuaries, and dealing with non-point source pollution.


EC 348Introduction to International EconomicsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall Spring Summer
Prerequisite: EC 201 or EC 205 or ARE 201
Application of basic economic analysis to international economic events and policies. Gains from trade, impacts of trade restrictions, international systems of payments, global capital markets, and balancing international with domestic macroeconomic policies. Current policy issues such as economic integration (customs unions and free trade areas), a common European currency, and the role of international trade in economic growth and development.


EC (ST) 351Data Analysis for EconomistsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall Only
Prerequisite: BUS/ST 350
Tools for describing and analyzing data as used in economics. Probability, random variables, sampling, point and interval estimation. Hypothesis testing and regression analysis with emphasis on economic applications.


EC 372Evolution of American BusinessUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall and Spring
Prerequisite: EC 201 or EC 205 or ARE 201
Historical development of modern business enterprise from the Colonial Era through World War II. Emphasis on the transformation of business practices in response to technological change, evolution of capital markets, growth of international trade, changes in distribution techniques, entrepreneurship, and the influence of government regulation.


EC 375Comparative Economic SystemsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall and Spring
Prerequisite: EC 201 or EC 205 or ARE 201
Comparative Economic Systems contrasts market-type economies with other types of economic systems, particularly collectivist or planned economies in order to analyze their relative economic efficiency. The collapse of the Soviet economy will be analyzed as well as the attempts to convert the newly established republics into market economies.


EC 377The Political Economy of the Market ProcessUNITS: 3 - Offered in Spring Only
Prerequisite: EC 201 or 205 or ARE 201
The institutional, philosophical and economic foundations of markets. Social and political implications of private property, voluntarism and the forms of social cooperation derived from markets. The effects of public policies intended to alter the economic outcomes of markets. The morality of markets, legal and institutional settings, cooperation and the nature of exchange, the social function of prices.


EC (ARE) 401Economic Analysis for NonmajorsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall and Spring
Prerequisite: EC 201 or EC 205 or ARE 201
Intermediate economic theory of firm, household and market behavior. Demand, production and cost theory, market equilibrium under competitive and non-competitive conditions, and problems of economic efficiency. (EC (ARE) 401 is primarily for graduate students desiring an economics minor at the master's level. Students completing intermediate microeconomics and calculus should elect ECG 501, Price Theory, instead.). Not open to undergraduates majoring in the College of Management or Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics. Credit not allowed in more than one of EC 301, 310, 401.


EC 404Money, Financial Markets, and the EconomyUNITS: 3
Prerequisite: EC 302, BUS/ST 350
Roles of money, credit, and financial institutions in the modern economy. Determination of level and structure of interest rates and exchange rates, determination of security prices. Management and regulation of financial institutions. Federal Reserve System and monetary policy. Statistical analysis of financial and monetary data. Credit will not be given for both EC 304 and EC 404.


EC 410Public FinanceUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall and Spring
Prerequisite: EC(ARE) 301
A micro-economic analysis of the rationale for public expenditure and taxation. Externalities, pollution and public policy, income redistribution and public welfare, public goods, collective choice and political institutions, public budgeting techniques and cost-benefit analysis, taxation and tax policy, state-local finance and fiscal federalism.


EC 413Competition, Monopoly and Public PolicyUNITS: 3 - Offered in Spring Only
Prerequisite: EC(ARE) 301
Current theories of industrial organization with specific reference to such topics as cartels, industrial concentration, vertical integration, franchise contracts, ownership and control of firms, multipart and discriminatory pricing, and tie-in sales. Economic aspects of antitrust law and government regulation of industry.


EC 431Labor EconomicsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall and Spring
Prerequisite: EC(ARE) 301
An economic approach to the labor market and its problems including unemployment and the determination of wages, hours and working conditions under various labor market structures. The economic effects of trade unions. Introduction to human capital theory.


EC 435Urban EconomicsUNITS: 3
Prerequisite: EC(ARE) 301
Application of land use and location theory to urban structure and centralized economic activity. Analysis of trends in urbanization and suburbanization. Urban poverty, housing, transportation, pollution and local public finance.


EC (ARE) 436Environmental EconomicsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Spring Only
Prerequisite: EC(ARE) 301
Usefulness of economics in understanding pollution, congestion, conservation and other environmental problems. Relevant economic tools such as pricing schemes, abatement cost curves, damage functions and benefit-cost analysis. Pollution taxes, regulations, marketable permits and subsidies considered in designing alterations, in the incentive system. Current public policy alternatives in the context of non-market decision-making.


EC 437Health EconomicsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall and Spring
Prerequisite: EC(ARE) 301 or EC(ARE) 401
Application of micro-economic tools to the analysis of public and private policy issues concerning health care financing and delivery in the United States.


EC 442Evolution of Economic IdeasUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall and Spring
Prerequisite: EC(ARE) 301
General development of economic ideas from ancient times through the post-Keynesian period. Emphasis on the classical school and developments thereafter. The evolution of economic ideas in the context of the changes in technology and the increasing complexity of economic activity.


EC 448International TradeUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall and Spring
Prerequisite: EC(ARE) 301
Determinants of commodity composition of trade and analysis of tariffs, quotas, and transport costs. Treatment of international investment including multinational corporations. Analysis of the effects of tariffs and quotas. Relationship between international trade and economic growth.


EC 449International FinanceUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall and Spring
Prerequisite: EC(ARE) 301
Study of international markets and their effects on firms, investors and national economics. Topics include: futures and options in foreign exchange, management of foreign exchange risk, exchange rate determination, and macroeconomic policy in an open economy.


EC 451Introduction to EconometricsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Spring Only
Prerequisite: EC(ARE) 301, EC 302, EC 351
The measurement, specification, estimation and interpretation of functional relationships through single equation least-square techniques. Applications of simple and multiple regression, curvilinear regression and various transformations to demand, cost, production, consumption and investment relationships.


EC 452Forecasting for Business and EconomicsUNITS: 3
Prerequisite: EC 351
The use of statistical tools to develop forecasts for business and economics. Data collection problems and types of data. Time series approach to forecasting. Use of regressions and surveys for forecasting. Forecast evaluation and presentation of forecasts.


EC 470The Japanese EconomyUNITS: 3 - Offered in Spring Only
Prerequisite: EC(ARE) 301
Growth and development of the Japanese economy. Issues arising from Japan's integration with the world economy. Analysis of contemporary Japanese economic institutions and business practices. Economics of Japanese government policies.


EC 471Evolution of the American EconomyUNITS: 3 - Offered in Spring Only
Prerequisite: EC(ARE) 301
Relationship of modern economic development to the history of America. Analysis of contemporary problems and issues with reference to their origins in the historical growth of the economy.


EC 472The Rise of IndustrialismUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall and Spring
Prerequisite: EC(ARE) 301
Historical development of the modern industrial economy from origins in medieval and early modern Europe. The industrial revolution in England and its diffusion throughout the western world and beyond.


EC 474Economics of Financial Institutions and MarketsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Spring Only
Prerequisite: MA 121 and [BUS 320 or EC 302]
Management, development and regulation of U.S. financial markets and institutions. Management of major financial intermediaries and their historical development. Analysis of major financial assets and their markets. The role and history of the Federal Reserve and other financial regulators.


EC 480Introduction to Economic ResearchUNITS: 3 - Offered in Spring Only
Prerequisite: EC 301, ST/BUS 350, Computer Proficiency
Finding economic data. Critically analyzing newspaper and journal articles using economic reasoning. Developing, writing, and presenting economic analysis.


EC 490Research Seminar in EconomicsUNITS: 3 - Offered in Fall and Spring
Prerequisite: EC(ARE) 301, EC 302, ST(BUS) 350
The final course for students completing the undergraduate programs in economics. Students study a selected economic issue, make classroom presentations related to the seminar topic, and write research papers.


EC 491Economics of Business StrategyUNITS: 3
Prerequisite EC 351 and Corequisite: EC 452
Capstone course for students in the business economics concentration. Application of analytical economics to strategic decisions in business. Students will analyze and present case studies of strategic issues.


EC 495Special Topics in EconomicsUNITS: 1-6
Examination of special topics in economics not normally treated in other courses, or offering of new courses on a trial basis.


EC 498Independent Study in EconomicsUNITS: 1-6 - No Course Evaluation, Offered in Fall Spring Summer
Detailed investigation of topics of particular interest to advanced undergraduates under faculty direction on a tutorial basis. Credits and content determined by faculty member in consultation with Associate Department Head.