Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• CAS EC 411: Economics Practicum 1
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: students required to find internships independently and then locate an Economics advisor to instruct the practicum. Consent of faculty required. - For students who wish to receive credit towards graduation for internships related to economics. Studies the interaction of academic studies and work experience.
• CAS EC 412: Economics Practicum 2
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: students required to find internships independently and then locate an Economics advisor to instruct the practicum. Consent of faculty required. - For students who wish to receive credit towards graduation for internships related to economics. Studies the interaction of academic studies and work experience.
• CAS EC 421: Understanding the Fed 1
  Prerequisites: CASEC 101, EC 102, and EC 203. - First course in a two-course sequence (CASEC 421 and EC 422) designed to support the BU annual Fed Challenge team.
• CAS EC 422: Understanding the Fed 2
  Prerequisites: CASEC 101, EC 102, EC 203, and EC 421. - Second course in a two-course sequence (CASEC 421 and EC 422) to designed to support the BU annual Fed Challenge team.
• CAS EC 436: Economics of Corporate Organization
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASEC201; and CASMA121 or CASMA123 or CASMA127; and CASEC305 or CASMA2 13; and CASMA214, or SMGSM221. - Economic analysis of the architecture of firms and other organizations. Topics include firm boundaries, the allocation of ownership and control, integration and outsourcing, corporate governance, performance evaluation, and compensation. Effective Spring 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Social Inquiry II, Critical Thinking.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Critical Thinking
  • Quantitative Reasoning II
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS EC 444: A Century of Macroeconomics: History, Thought, and Policy
  Undergraduate prerequisites: CASEC 202 or 222 and CASMA 121, 123, or equivalent. - This course combines history, thought, and policy to understand how and why macroeconomics has changed over 100 years. Topics include the Great Depression, Great Inflation, and Great Recession, the evolution of macroeconomic models and thought, and monetary and fiscal policy. Effective Fall 2026, this course fulfills a single requirement in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry 2.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Historical Consciousness
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS EC 445: Economics of Risk and Uncertainty
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC201 & CASEC202 & CASEC203 & CASEC204) and CAS MA 121 or CAS MA 123 (or equivalent). - For advanced undergraduates. Economics of risk, with a focus on financial markets. Topics include expected utility, portfolio choice and the capital asset pricing model, interest rates and monetary policy, the relation between the real economy and the stock market. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning I, Social Inquiry II.
  BU Hub Learn More

  • Quantitative Reasoning I
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS EC 446: The Economics of Auctions: Theory and Empirics
  Undergraduate prerequisites: CASEC 201, EC 203, EC 204, and CASMA 121 or the equivalent, CASWR 120 First-Year Writing Seminar. - Auctions are everywhere and are used to allocate government contracts, Treasury bonds, digital advertising, and many other goods. This course teaches the theory of optimal bidding and auction design and pairs it with hands-on empirical analysis of real bid data, culminating in an individual research paper.
• CAS EC 490: Special Topics in Economics
  May be repeated for credit as topic varies. Further information and topics can be found in each section's notes.
• CAS EC 491: Directed Study in Economics
  DIRECTED STUDY
• CAS EC 492: Directed Study in Economics
  DIRECTED STUDY
• CAS EC 501: Microeconomic Theory
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASEC201 or equivalent, and either CASEC505 or CASMA225, or consent of instructor. - Covers the basic concepts and mathematical methods of microeconomic theory. Topics include consumer demand and its foundation on preferences and budget constraints, economics of uncertainty and imperfect information, production theory, applied competitive equilibrium analysis, elementary game theory, and imperfect competition.
• CAS EC 502: Macroeconomic Theory
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS EC 202 or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - Graduate Prerequisites: EC 202 or equivalent, or consent of instructor. - Brief overview of macroeconomics, leading to mathematical models on long-run economic growth and inflation, and on short-run fluctuations with emphasis on the role of fiscal and monetary policy. Readings from research journals; introduction to analysis of macroeconomic data.
• CAS EC 505: Elementary Mathematical Economics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASMA121) or consent of instructor. - Graduate Prerequisites: (CASMA121) or consent of instructor. - Stresses the formulation of economic problems in mathematical terms. Topics covered include partial derivation, total differentials, constrained maximization, matrix algebra, dynamic analysis, and discounting. Cannot be taken for credit by concentrators in Mathematics or Economics and Mathematics.
• CAS EC 507: Statistics for Economists
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC203 OR CASEC303) or equivalent and elementary calculus. - Graduate Prerequisites: (CASEC203 OR CASEC303) Elementary Calculus. - Covers descriptive statistics, measures of association, dispersion, frequency distribution, probability, sampling distributions, estimation, and hypothesis tests. Introduces multivariate regression analysis, with emphasis on specification, testing, and interpretation of econometric models. Requires working with data and use of statistical software.
• CAS EC 508: Econometrics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC507) and for undergraduate students only, (CASEC204 or CASEC304). - Graduate Prerequisites: (CASEC507) - Standard econometric methods for empirical economic research in academic or business settings. Basic concepts: quantification of uncertainty using confidence intervals, inference of causal relationships in regressions, and prediction based on regression estimates. Working with data and use of statistical software.
• CAS EC 513: Game Theory
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASMA121 OR CASMA122 OR CASMA123 OR CASMA124 OR CASMA127 OR CASM A129) or instructor's permission. - Mathematical models of decision-making and strategic interactions: basic equilibrium notions in normal form games, including signaling games and repeated games. Applications include auctions, foreign policy, takeover bids, entry deterrence, cooperation and conflict, financial markets, and public goods.
• CAS EC 515: Economics of Information
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC201) and one of CAS MA 121, 122, 123, 124, 127 or 129, or consent of instru ctor. Recommended: CAS EC 403. - Introduction to mathematical models of information economics and their applications. Covers a wide range of situations in which players have access to different private information and this private information differently affects their incentives and strategic behavior.
• CAS EC 521: Development Policy
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC201 & CASEC202) - Graduate Prerequisites: (CASEC303 & CASEC304) - Rigorous and quantitative analysis of the problems of economic development, with emphasis on economic growth, macroeconomic stability, income distribution, and structural change. In a case study using historical data, students analyze a current problem and policy measures that might address it.
• CAS EC 522: Development Strategy
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: one year of graduate study. - Case study approach to questions of employment, trade, macro-policy, and development strategy; including relationship between economic growth, economic policy, and income distribution. Reading of current research; use of real-world data and econometric methods.