ECON 398 - Topical Research Seminar in Economics

Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall, Winter

Prerequisites: ECON 203, 210, and 211 and major standing. Students work through the original literature in a given field within the discipline of economics. Emphasis is on critical understanding of that literature. Required written work and class discussion focus on summarizing and reviewing articles, gaining insight into the current economic knowledge documented in that literature, and identifying research questions implied by that literature. Based upon this review, students write a detailed proposal of an independent research project after which they carry out the project and write a paper documenting their research. Those students who choose to continue in ECON 399 have the opportunity to develop their proposals into complete research papers.

Fall 2012 topics:

ECON 398-01: Micro Topics in Economics (3). In this section, students work through the original literature in economic history. Potential topics include education and labor force participation of females and African-Americans, urbanization in the post-war period, and inequality. Emphasis is on the 20th century. Shester.

ECON 398-02: Advanced Macroeconomics (3). The objective of the course is to introduce the student to the scope and tools of modern macroeconomic analysis, and to show how these tools can be applied to macroeconomic policy and research. This course is taught as an Oxford course would be, with a mixture of tutorials, seminars, and some lectures. The course contains both theoretical and applied topics. Applied issues are studied in relation to the US, the UK, and other OECD countries, with some focus on the financial crisis. Topics include (but are not limited to): fluctuations - consumption, investment, housing; unemployment and inflation; exchange rates and the open economy; technology and growth theory; monetary and fiscal policy. Davies.

ECON 398-03: Public Economics (3). This seminar examines the empirical literature in several areas of the field including taxation, health care, education, welfare and environmental economics. Besides serving as an introduction to the literature in public economics, the goal of this course is to study the research process employed by applied economists generally. Students finish this course with an original research proposal in some area of economics. This course depends heavily on student participation. Based on their research interests, students assign journal articles for the class to read, lead classroom discussion, and give feedback on each other’s research proposals. Guse. Staff.