Undergraduate Course Descriptions

Similar to ECON 115, but taught as a lecture discussion with limited enrollment.

Similar to ECON 115, but taught as a lecture discussion with limited enrollment.

Similar to ECON 115, but taught as a lecture discussion with limited enrollment.

Similar to ECON 116, but taught as a lecture discussion with limited enrollment.

An introduction to the basic tools of microeconomics to provide a rigorous framework for understanding how individuals, firms, markets, and governments allocate scarce resources. The design and evaluation of public policy.

Introduction to data analysis from the beginning of the econometrics sequence; exposure to modern empirical economics; and development of credible economic analysis. This course emphasizes working directly and early with data, through such economic examples as studies of environmental/natural resource economics, intergenerational mobility, discrimination, and finance. Topics include: probability, statistics, and sampling; selection, causation and causal inference; regression and model specification; and machine learning and big data.

Contemporary theories of employment, finance, money, business fluctuations, and economic growth. Their implications for monetary and fiscal policy. Emphasis on empirical studies, financial and monetary crises, and recent policies and problems.

Similar to ECON 121 but with a more intensive treatment of consumer and producer theory, and covering additional topics including choice under uncertainty, game theory, contracting under hidden actions or hidden information, externalities and public goods, and general equilibrium theory. Recommended for students considering graduate study in economics.

Application of economic principles to the study of the U.S. health care system. Emphasis on basic principles about the structure of the U.S. system, current problems, proposed solutions, and the context of health policy making and politics.

The objective of this course is to give an overview of how economic analysis has developed, and an introduction to the varied ways in which some of the great economists of the past have gone about studying how the economy functions. We discuss the relevance of their theories to public policy and the role of the state, and consider the roles of pre-analytic vision, improvements in analytical technique, and external events (such as the Great Depression or Global Financial Crisis) in the development of economic analysis.

Economic development in China since the late 1970s. Emphasis on factors pushing China toward a transition from its modern export- and investment-led development model to a pro-consumption model. The possibility of a resulting identity crisis, underscored by China’s need to embrace political reform and by the West’s long-standing misperceptions of China.

Comprehensive survey of the causes, events, policy responses, and aftermath of the recent global financial crisis. Study of the dynamics of financial crises in a modern economy. Prerequisite: Successful completion of a course in introductory economics.

Analysis of firms’ incentives to innovate, focusing on the effects of market power on the intensity of innovative activity. Topics include strategic investment in innovation, patent races, the diffusion of knowledge, intellectual property (IP) protection systems, IP licensing, research joint ventures, litigation, venture capital, and conflicts between IP rights and antitrust regulation.

Introduction to the different roles and responsibilities of modern central banks, including the operation of payments systems, monetary policy, supervision and regulation, and financial stability. Discussion of different ways to structure central banks to best manage their responsibilities.

Why do cities exist? Why do firms cluster? Why some U.S. cities have prospered in recent decades while others have declined? What are the structural roots of our housing crises today? This course takes cities as our laboratory and asks important aspects that are reshaping the very fabric of our cities and neighborhoods.

This course has an applied econometrics focus. Topics include voting behavior, betting markets, and various issues in sports. The aim of the course is to help students prepare original empirical research using econometric tools and to read empirical papers in economics and other social sciences. Students write three empirical papers. The first can be an extension of an existing article, where some of the results are duplicated and then extended. The second is similar to the first with no example provided. The third is an original paper within the range of topics covered in the course, where data are collected and analyzed using relevant econometric techniques.

This seminar course is about the economics of gender and has a focus on labor and marriage markets. Students are given an overview of gender differences in these markets, as well as some potential reasons for those differences. The course also discusses policies that can affect the gender gaps.

Economic evolution and prospects of the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. Topics include the period from independence to the 1930s; import substitution and industrialization to the early 1980s; the debt crisis and the “lost decade”; reform and disappointment in the late 1980s and the 1990s; exploration of selected episodes in particular countries; and speculations about the future.

How law and economic theory define and conceptualize economic discrimination; whether economic models adequately describe behaviors of discriminators as documented in court cases and government hearings; the extent to which economic theory and econometric techniques aid our understanding of actual marketplace discrimination.

Focus on systemic risk, banking crises, financial stability and macroprudential policies. Additional emphasis on systemic risk and prudential policies in peripheral European economies and emerging economies.

This course explores topics on dynamic games: we consider situations where agents interact repeatedly. We cover applications related to a range of fields from industrial organization (price wars and oligopoly with imperfect monitoring) to macroeconomic policy (time consistency). Students should have a solid background in multivariate calculus, be comfortable with rigorous proofs and mathematical arguments, and be willing to learn further mathematical tools as needed.

Students deciding to write one-term senior essays by enrolling in ECON 491, or two-term senior essays by enrolling in ECON 491 and 492, must choose their topics and advisers by Monday, September 30, 2019. One-term senior essays are due on Monday, December 2, 2019 by 4:30 pm. Two-term senior essays are due by 4:30 pm on Wednesday, April 1, 2020. Essays should be submitted electronically to the Economics department (qazi.azam@yale.edu) by the due date. Late essays will not be accepted without a dean’s excuse. Advisers are chosen with the assistance of the DUS. The format and character of the departmental senior essay may vary to suit the interest of the student and the demands of the topic, but it is expected that the tools and concepts of economic analysis will be employed and that the essay will contain original research. Paper lengths may vary; the normal expectation is thirty pages. Students may receive up to two credits for the senior essay, though it counts as only one departmental seminar whether one or two terms are taken. Meetings for seniors to discuss the senior essay guidelines and requirements will be held on Tuesday August 27, 2019 at 12:15 pm. and Wednesday, August 28, 2019 at 4:00 pm. in Room 106, 28 Hillhouse Avenue. Seniors planning to write either a one-term or a two-term senior essay should attend one of these meetings. Details regarding calculation of Distinction will be discussed and senior essay guidelines will be distributed.

Senior essay prospectus forms are due Monday, September 30, 2019. Students who do not turn the prospectus in on time will not be permitted to write an essay.