Teaching

Course Description from Syllabus: The overarching goal of this course is to develop your ability to consume and produce high-quality economics research. As part of this process, you will learn how to identify, evaluate, and synthesize existing theoretical and empirical economics research. You will also learn how to use economic theory and empirical economic analysis to assess economic claims and address research questions. Using the skills developed in this course, you will produce your own original economics research in the form of a final capstone paper.

This course introduces students to recent empirical literature from public, labor, and urban economics. We will discuss how applied economists examine real-world topics, including crime, housing, and immigration. In doing so, we will focus on highlighting the types of data and statistical techniques that empirical economists use in their applied work. As part of this course, students will use the R statistical programming language. The course will emphasize developing the data cleaning and management skills required to conduct independent research as well as pursue jobs in data analysis and related fields. In addition, the course will cover the use of R for statistical and regression analysis, as well as GIS mapping.

This course covers the principles of individual consumer and producer decision-making in various market structures, the price system, market performance, and government policy. This course will prepare students to take ECON 310 or 315 (Intermediate Microeconomics).

Application of economics to the problems of unemployment and inflation, the distribution of income, competition and monopoly, the role of government in the economy, and other policy issues.