2023-2024 Academic Year

Fall 2023

ECON 314 A Tale of Two Recessions
This course compares the two most recent U.S. recessions: the Great Recession of 2007-09 and the COVID-19 recession of 2020. Special attention is paid to the housing bubble that preceded the Great Recession and how the crisis in the housing sector spread to the rest of the economy. The causes of the COVID-19 recession are then compared to those of the Great Recession. Furthermore, the responses of monetary, fiscal, and regulatory policies are explored in depth for both recessions. The disappointing rate of recovery after the official end of the Great Recession and the persistently high unemployment rate due to the COVID-19 recession are also explored. This course focuses on refining students' quantitative (theoretical and empirical) skills and applying them to recent macroeconomic events. Both recessions are extraordinarily complex. Concepts and methodologies from diverse areas, including macroeconomics, microeconomics, law, finance, political science, and other disciplines, contribute to understanding these phenomena. Students will write a research paper that draws on existing tools-based knowledge from prerequisite courses and examines a topic related to the Great Recession and/or COVID-19 recession that the course does not cover in detail.

ECON 550 Independent Research

Spring 2024

ECON 298 Econometrics
This course is an introduction to econometrics in which the tools of economic theory, mathematics, and statistical inference are applied to the analysis of economic data. Students will develop foundational knowledge of applied statistics and econometrics through exploration of empirical techniques relevant to quantitative economics including probability, estimation, hypothesis testing, correlation, modeling, simple and multiple linear regression analysis, and time series analysis. In addition, this course will cover basic extensions of a multiple linear regression model such as dummy variables and interaction terms. Students will use Stata, or other statistical analysis software widely used in economics, to understand and apply empirical work.Prerequisite: 111, 112, MATH 170, and MATH 121 (or INBM 220 or MATH 225)