Course code:
Economics has a popular reputation as a field of study centered around making money and getting rich.
However, for most of its history, economics has been about understanding and changing the way the world works. How do we get our dinner every night? What does it take to transform coffee beans harvested in plantations in Costa Rica to the morning cup of Starbucks across their 38,000 global locations? Why do some individuals amass unfathomable personal wealth while others face daily struggle for material survival? These questions are what economists primarily study.
Whether seemingly straightforward or seemingly unfathomable, at their core these issues are about the process of social provisioning. It can be further broken down into the following questions: (i) As a society, how do we determine what to produce and how much? (ii) As a society, how do we distribute what we produce? And (iii) Who benefits from and who are harmed by our production, distribution and consumption? In this course, we will examine these questions from the perspective of individuals and firms, and we will consider the ways an individual’s preference and decisions are shaped by social institutions and how they, in turn, affect other beings, both human and non-human.
You will be introduced to topics such as: individual’s decision making under constraints, social coordination dilemmas, firm’s wage-setting and labor discipline, supply-demand and price setting, market’s successes and failures, and the limits of economic growth. This course aims to increase your ability to use abstract, quantitative models to approach complex, real-world problems such as worsening economic inequalities and global climate change.
Upon completion of this course, you will have developed practices of thinking critically and politically about public policies and debates. You will also expand your capacity for numerical literacy and quantitative skills such as drawing valid conclusions based on data and communicating your reasoning and results effectively and clearly. The course is especially valuable for students with interests in civic engagement, social justices, political transformation, and sustainable development. Knowledge in calculus, statistics, and linear algebra is not necessary, and familiarity with elementary algebra will be helpful but not required.
Students’ learning will be assessed through problem sets and (take-home) exams.
Prerequisites:
Knowledge in calculus, statistics, and linear algebra is not necessary, and familiarity with elementary algebra will be helpful but not required.
Always visit the Registrar's Office for the official course catalog and schedules.
