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The following is a list of courses that I teach or have taught.
Economics 105 - Survey of Economics -- Taught each semester
This course is designed to introduce you to the subject of economics from both a microeconomic and macroeconomic point of view. The micro aspect of the course means that we look at individual components of the economy and the macro aspect has us examine the whole economy. The course will discuss the basic theoretical tools with which an analysis of various micro and macroeconomic economic situations can be undertaken and applied to today's economy.
Economics 265 -- The Economics of Entrepreneurship -- Taught fall semesters each year.
This course will apply insights from economic theory to the practice of starting a new business or expanding a current business. The course will combine elements of strategy, marketing, and entrepreneurial finance courses as typically faced by all businesses. The course begins by examining general issues regarding entrepreneurship, such as product inception and the search for markets that can support entrepreneurial profits. The next section turns to specific strategic decisions that entrepreneurs make: pricing, advertising, product location, deterring entry by competitors, etc. The last section examines practical issues in entrepreneurship, e.g. finding capital, business plans, patent protection, negotiation, and employee compensation. Local entrepreneurs will provide guest lectures on their entrepreneurial experiences and advice. Open to all majors. Will count as an elective in the economics major.
Economics 318 - Intermediate Macroeconomic - Taught fall semester each year.
Generally speaking, there are three major economic objectives of government: (1) achieve an efficient allocation of resources (2) achieve an "equitable" distribution of income and (3) achieve the stabilization goals of full employment, price stability, "adequate" economic growth and balance of payments equilibrium. Government stabilization of the economy is a macroeconomic objective and requires the tools of macroeconomics (developed in Economics 105) to study why this is a goal and how it can be achieved.
Although all of the goals will be discussed during this semester, the primary emphasis of this course will be to concentrate on objective three. Specifically, macroeconomics theory focuses on the stabilization goals for full employment, price stability, economic growth and balance of payments equilibrium.
Economics 331/AG 331 - Agriculture Economics
An application of the principles of economics explored in EC 105 including production principles, production costs, supply and demand, market price determination, profit maximization, competitive versus noncompetitive market models, consumer theory, and price elasticity and its application to revenue. These principles are applied to agriculture policy and the role of agriculture in the United States, world economies, and international trade. Prerequisites: EC 105 or equivalent.
Economics 342 -- Public Finance -- Next scheduled offering will be Spring 2019
In this course we begin our study of government involvement in the marketplace by investigating the concept of economic efficiency. There are many cases where, in fact, government has very little to contribute toward an improvement in market efficiency. In these cases, government involvement in the market harms rather than helps society. In other markets, governments can be very effective in improving the welfare of society though an improvement in resource allocation. Once we have investigated what conditions must be present for governments to justify becoming involved in a market, we begin to look at how governments can best interact in the markets. We will look at the economic basis for why governments spend money and how the economy is affected by the taxes levied by governments to pay for their expenditures. The basic questions we will be investigating are: how is the allocation of resources and the distribution of income affected by the spending and taxing activities of government? What is the economic rationale for governmental activities such as spending on defense, highways, welfare and so on? What is the economic rationale for taxes levied? We will then investigate some methods of analyzing government spending programs which help determine whether a program is efficient from an economic perspective. Investigating these questions requires positive and normative economic analysis using tools of microeconomics.
Economics 344 - Economic Development - Next scheduled offering will be Fall 2020.
This course is an introduction to theories of Economic Development. Why have some parts of the world developed economically while other parts of the world have remained underdeveloped. The purpose of this class is to develop a deeper understanding of the social, political, and economic conditions necessary to promote economic development regardless of the geographic region of the planet.
Economics 485 -- Senior Seminar Offered each Spring semester.
Seminar devoted to special topics of themes, with individual research by participants. This seminar is designed to make connections between overarching themes in the various Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) subject classifications. This is a required Senior experience and is open only to economics majors.
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