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 337: Economic Analysis of Legal Issues
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC201) First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - Economic analysis of current important legal issues. Contributions of economics to analysis of contracts, torts property, and crime. Effects of property rights on allocation of resources and distribution of income. Market and nonmarket schemes of regulating the environment. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Ethical Reasoning, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS EC 341: Monetary and Banking Institutions
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC202) - Survey of commercial and central banking institutions. Examination of macro relations between financial organizations and principal objectives of stabilization policy. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Social Inquiry I
• CAS EC 342: Monetary and Banking Theory
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC341) or consent of instructor. - After a brief survey of the development of modern monetary theory, concentration on selected theoretical aspects of monetary economics and financial organization covered in CAS EC 341. Additional emphasis on capital theory and macroeconomic models. Research paper required. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Research and Information Literacy
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS EC 348: Dynamic Macroeconomics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC202) - Studies macroeconomics as a process evolving over time with applications to the dynamics of growth, recessions, fiscal policy, inflation, international trade and banking.
• CAS EC 356: Economics of the Labor Market
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC201) - Application of current theories of labor supply and demand, wages, education and experience, immigration, labor efficiency, discrimination, and unemployment. Appraisal of the effects of government policies on labor markets. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Social Inquiry II.
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  • Quantitative Reasoning II
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS EC 358: Economics of Education
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC201 & CASEC204) or equivalent, or consent of the instructor. - Uses economic models to understand individuals' decision to invest in education, analyzes the effect of education, and examines policies impacting K-12 and higher education in the US. A variety of econometric methods are utilized throughout the course. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Social Inquiry II.
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  • Quantitative Reasoning II
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS EC 363: Race and the Development of the American Economy: A Global Perspective
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC101) or consent of instructor. - (Meets with CAS AA 363.) Surveys the economic history of African Americans within the context of the long run development of the American and global economies. Topics include basic features of American economic growth in the long run; the economics of slavery; the Civil War and the aftermath of slavery; the evolution of racial inequality from the end of the Civil War to the present. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry II.
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  • Historical Consciousness
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS EC 365: Economic Institutions in Historical Perspective
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: CASEC 201 and CASEC 202. - Historical development of state finance since antiquity. Topics include the impact of geography and climate, the interaction of political and economic interests, income distribution, and ideological support for economic policies. Some comparisons will be made between developments in the East and West. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness , Quantitative Reasoning I.
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  • Historical Consciousness
  • Quantitative Reasoning I
• CAS EC 367: Economics of the Public Sector
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC201) - Basic principles of public finance; consideration of classical and modern attitudes toward government revenues and expenditures. Survey of problems related to public debt and budget making. Evaluation of fiscal policy as an instrument of control. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning II, Social Inquiry II.
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  • Quantitative Reasoning II
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS EC 368: Contemporary East Asian Economics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC101 & CASEC102) - Meets with CAS IR 368. An introduction to the economic history and institutions of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China. Topics include structural change, trade, labor markets, corporate organization, financial systems, and macroeconomic and industrial policy. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
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  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Social Inquiry I
• CAS EC 369: Economic Development of Latin America
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC101 & CASEC102) - Contemporary issues of economic and social policy. Macroeconomic issues: inflation, stabilization, and the debt crisis. Foreign trade and economic restructuring. Poverty and income distribution. Role of the state. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Historical Consciousness
• CAS EC 370: The Chinese Economy
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC201 & CASEC202 & CASEC203) - Introduces the working of the Chinese economy. Combines historical-institutional and theoretical- quantitative approaches to study the transformation of China's economy into a market economy with special characteristics.
• CAS EC 371: Environmental Economics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC201) - Role of economics in environmental planning. Economic analysis of the causes of pollution and its control through taxes, the use of property rights, and standards. Application of cost-benefit models as an aid in policy decisions affecting the environment. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Ethical Reasoning, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Teamwork/Collaboration.
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  • Ethical Reasoning
  • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • Teamwork/Collaboration
• CAS EC 377: Government, Business, and Labor
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC201) - Examines economic growth from the perspective of the structure, conduct, and performance of business. Combines economic theories of conduct and strategy with industry case studies and evaluates the effect of government policy toward business and labor on the performance of the economy.
  
• CAS EC 379: Firms, Markets, and Economic Development
  Examines the interlinked roles of business and politics in the process of economic development, with the objective of providing a framework for understanding how the private and public sectors work together to help (or impede) economic growth.
• CAS EC 385: Economics of Sports
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC201 & CASEC203) - Applies the tools of microeconomic theory and empirical methods to study such questions as the optimal design of sports leagues, the impact of new stadiums on a local economy, fan (customer) discrimination, and salary differentials between players. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Critical Thinking.
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  • Critical Thinking
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS EC 387: Introduction to Health Economics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC201) - Concepts of health economics for US and international settings. Topics include models and empirical analyses of moral hazard, adverse selection, health care systems, health insurance, hospital and physician behavior, pharmaceutical markets, consumer demand, alternative payment systems, risk, fairness, imperfect information, and topics in experimental and behavioral economics. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning I, Social Inquiry II.
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  • Quantitative Reasoning I
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS EC 390: Special Topics in Economics
  Topics and pre-requisites vary. May be repeated for credit if topic is different. One topic is offered in Spring 2024. Section A1: Political Economy. Studies models of political competition to understand how societies decide on public policies. Discusses the idea of rational choice for a society when the members of that society differ in how they rank different alternatives. Models are applied to public policy issues such as income redistribution and political corruption.
• CAS EC 391: International Trade
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC201) - Why do countries trade with each other? Who gains and who loses from international trade? What effect does trade have on consumer prices, wages, profits, income inequality, economic growth, and the environment? What are the costs and benefits of tariffs and other trade barriers? How have NAFTA and the European Union affected trade patterns, income distribution, and economic development? What effects do capital flows and migration have on sending and receiving countries? This course will use economic analysis to discuss these and other current international economic polies. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Social Inquiry II.
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  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS EC 392: International Macroeconomics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (CASEC202 & CASEC203) or equivalent. ; Undergraduate Corequisites: (CASEC204)or equivalent. - This course analyzes what determines exchange rates, including interest rates, fiscal and monetary policies, GDP growth, inflation, and other factors. We will examine the causes of exchange rate crises, the functioning of fixed and flexible exchange rate systems, the effect of the worldwide saving imbalance, the crisis in the euro zone, as well as other current topics. We will also study hedging and speculating in foreign exchange markets by using futures and forward contracts and options. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub area: Social Inquiry II.
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  • Social Inquiry II