Fall 2024
Principles of Economics
Rand Ghayad PhD, Senior Vice President of Policy and Chief Economist, Association of American Railroads
The course deals with basic economic principles that help us understand the process of decision making by individuals and societies. We analyze the fundamental economic activities of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption at both the micro and macro level. Besides developing an understanding of the functioning of a free market system, we also critically examine the controversies that surround the use of public policies for the greater common good. Students may not take both ECON E-10a and ECON E-1000 for degree or certificate credit.
Prerequisites: A working knowledge of elementary algebra and geometry is required. Students registering in this course for graduate credit are also required to have some basic knowledge of calculus, preferably a college-level course in calculus.
Spring 2025
Principles of Economics
Stacey Gelsheimer PhD, Senior Lecturer on Economics, Boston University
This course provides an introduction to current economic issues and to basic economic principles and methods. The economist John Maynard Keynes wrote that, "the ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood." Economics is not primarily a set of answers, but rather a method of reasoning. By the end of the semester, students are able to use the analysis practiced in the course to form their own judgments about many of the major economic problems faced by the United States and other countries. In the first part of the semester, we focus on microeconomics, which is the study of the interaction of people and firms in markets. Since we live in a market economy, this study helps students to understand how American society organizes its economic affairs. We examine how the forces of supply and demand operate in the markets for goods and services. Students learn powerful tools that enable them to understand a great deal about the economy and how it works. Using these tools, we develop a framework to evaluate social policies. Trade always a controversial subject is analyzed, along with measures, such as tariffs, designed to restrict trade. Theories concerning firm behavior are then examined how companies decide how much to produce, and the profits which result. During the second half of the semester, we focus on macroeconomics, the study of the economy as a whole. We study economic growth and development, business cycles, and the impact of both monetary and fiscal policy on inflation, unemployment, interest rates, investment, the exchange rate, and international trade. Students may not take both ECON E-10a and ECON E-1000 for degree or certificate credit.
Prerequisites: A working knowledge of elementary algebra and geometry is required.
Spring 2025
Racial Equity and Economic Development
LaChaun Banks MBA, Professor of the Practice, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
This course addresses the organizational, institutional, and public policy foundations of stratification and racial inequality in the United States, particularly racial equity as a key value, measure, and framework for preparing and implementing local economic development plans and policies. The course examines theory as well as the implementation of local policy initiatives for racial equity in US cities. Investigating a wide range of contemporary theory and practice in the field of urban economic development, students propose new recommendations and executive strategies for cities currently pursuing pro-growth agendas. The course focuses on the Harvard Bloomberg City Leadership Initiative's Guide to Equitable Economic Development as a framework for discussion and the adoption of a city for further examination and recommendations. From redevelopment to entrepreneurship approaches, the course provides students with a working knowledge of local government approaches to more equitable economic development strategies; a critical point of view on the merits and limitations of these strategies; and formal opportunities to present new views to public and political actors in the field.
Spring 2025
Essentials of Economics
Bruce D. Watson MA, Master Lecturer on Economics, Boston University and Lecturer in Extension, Harvard University
This course provides an analytic and applied overview of both microeconomics and macroeconomics. In the microeconomic portion of the course, we examine exactly how prices are determined in competitive markets and what can distort that determination. Market structure is analyzed, including the fundamentals of firm pricing and production decisions. Using examples from various industries, we analyze what happens when market conditions change. Furthermore, we examine how these changes affect overall social welfare. Issues concerning trade are addressed, for example, when should countries, or even individuals, trade? Who gains or loses from trade? Turning to macroeconomics, we investigate the key economic statistics that you read about in the business press and other media, such as gross domestic product (GDP), the consumer price index (CPI), and the unemployment rate. For so many around the world, economic development is literally a matter of life and death. While economic growth is primarily a long-run phenomenon, short-run fluctuations in the economy cycles of expansion and recession are often the focus of short-run planning decisions by consumers, firms, and government. We examine in detail what causes these fluctuations and how government policies monetary and fiscal policy can dampen these cycles. An understanding of the Federal Reserve and monetary policy must be predicated on an understanding of the banking and financial system. Therefore, we delve into that in the course of our study of actions by the monetary authority. Recent events have also thrust fiscal policy to the fore. We talk in detail about how fiscal policy works and its implications for the economy in both the short and long term. Economics is not primarily a set of answers, but rather a method of reasoning. By the end of the course, students are able to use the framework they have learned to form their own judgments about the major economic problems faced by the United States and other countries. Indeed, after completing the course, students often find that they are better able to read and interpret the business press and other media and are better equipped to evaluate the economic policies promulgated by governments and other institutions. More importantly, however, the analytical skills students acquire in the course are instrumental in their continued success in the pursuit of a graduate degree or certificate. Students may not take both ECON E-10a and ECON E-1000 for degree or certificate credit.
Prerequisites: Exposure to graphing and elementary algebra.
Fall 2024
Essentials of Economics
Bruce D. Watson MA, Master Lecturer on Economics, Boston University and Lecturer in Extension, Harvard University
This course provides an analytic and applied overview of both microeconomics and macroeconomics. In the microeconomic portion of the course, we examine exactly how prices are determined in competitive markets and what can distort that determination. Market structure is analyzed, including the fundamentals of firm pricing and production decisions. Using examples from various industries, we analyze what happens when market conditions change. Furthermore, we examine how these changes affect overall social welfare. Issues concerning trade are addressed, for example, when should countries, or even individuals, trade? Who gains or loses from trade? Turning to macroeconomics, we investigate the key economic statistics that you read about in the business press and other media, such as gross domestic product (GDP), the consumer price index (CPI), and the unemployment rate. For so many around the world, economic development is literally a matter of life and death. While economic growth is primarily a long-run phenomenon, short-run fluctuations in the economy cycles of expansion and recession are often the focus of short-run planning decisions by consumers, firms, and government. We examine in detail what causes these fluctuations and how government policies monetary and fiscal policy can dampen these cycles. An understanding of the Federal Reserve and monetary policy must be predicated on an understanding of the banking and financial system. Therefore, we delve into that in the course of our study of actions by the monetary authority. Recent events have also thrust fiscal policy to the fore. We talk in detail about how fiscal policy works and its implications for the economy in both the short and long term. Economics is not primarily a set of answers, but rather a method of reasoning. By the end of the course, students are able to use the framework they have learned to form their own judgments about the major economic problems faced by the United States and other countries. Indeed, after completing the course, students often find that they are better able to read and interpret the business press and other media and are better equipped to evaluate the economic policies promulgated by governments and other institutions. More importantly, however, the analytical skills students acquire in the course are instrumental in their continued success in the pursuit of a graduate degree or certificate. Students may not take both ECON E-10a and ECON E-1000 for degree or certificate credit.
Prerequisites: Exposure to graphing and elementary algebra.
Fall 2024
Foundations of Real-World Economics
John Komlos PhD, Professor of Economics, Emeritus, University of Munich
The course discusses complex economic processes in straightforward terms so that they can be understood without the use of mathematics and without prior knowledge of economics. The focus is on understanding the way the economy works in the real world without relying excessively on assumptions, math, or abstract models of the economy. We use the inductive method, which means that we consider the evidence first and then infer from the data how people actually behave in real markets where asymmetric information, bounded rationality, transaction costs, and uneven distribution of power dominates. We apply the concepts we learn to contemporary controversial topics such as minimum wage legislation, the function of unions, and why the free market overcharges for health care. We explore why Noble Prize-winning economists such as Paul Krugman and Joe Stiglitz are so critical of the current economic situation for its dizzying inequality, its endemic underemployment, the humongous trade and government deficits, stagnating wages, the lack of inclusive growth, and its inability to provide a dignified life for dozens of millions of its citizens. Most economists do not have the answers to the challenges of globalization, inequality, and technological unemployment because they are unable to think creatively about new institutional structures that would enable us to transition to a full-employment economy in which the focus is not on production and consumption as much as on the achievement of a high quality of life in capitalism with a human face. In contrast, this course weaves ideas from history, psychology, sociology, and political science into a common-sense economic perspective in order to explore these issues. We also discuss the achievements of Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economists and the impact of the financial crisis of 2008, the economic roots of the rise of populism, and ends by outlining the main impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fall 2024
Microeconomic Theory
Dorian B. Klein MBA, Managing Partner, Klein Family Office
This course presents the basic analytical tools of microeconomics. We start by looking at the decision making of individual consumers and ask how these decisions can be optimized or improved. Next, we look at the ways firms make and coordinate their decisions under varying market structures, including perfect competition and monopoly. Then we look at strategic behavior in imperfectly competitive markets, making use of concepts from game theory such as Nash equilibrium. Finally, we take up topics including bargaining theory, information economics, environmental externalities, and public goods.
Prerequisites: A satisfactory score on the mandatory test of critical reading and writing skills or a B or higher grade in the alternate expository writing course. ECON E-10a, ECON E-1000, or the equivalent; MATH E-8, or the equivalent understanding of introductory college-level algebra.
Fall 2024
Microeconomic Theory
Zinnia Mukherjee PhD, Associate Professor of Economics, Simmons University
This course covers the fundamental concepts of microeconomics at the intermediate level. Students learn about how individuals make decisions in a world of scarce resources. Students learn about how consumers choose over a range of goods and services given their limited resources, and how firms decide on how much output to produce and supply in the market. Our discussion on market structures focuses on the simplest of markets (perfectly competitive markets), single-seller markets (monopolies), and oligopolistic markets where firms are involved in strategic interactions with each other. We explore situations in which markets fail and the role of public policies in addressing these failures. The same principles that govern market-based decisions also govern non-market-based decisions. We apply the principles of microeconomics to understand how individuals make non-market related decisions.
Prerequisites: A satisfactory score on the mandatory test of critical reading and writing skills or a B or higher grade in the alternate expository writing course. ECON E-10a, ECON E-1000, or the equivalent; MATH E-8, or the equivalent understanding of introductory college-level algebra.
Spring 2025
Microeconomic Theory
Bruce D. Watson MA, Master Lecturer on Economics, Boston University and Lecturer in Extension, Harvard University
This course presents the basic analytical tools of microeconomics. We start by looking at the decision making of individual consumers and ask how these decisions can be optimized or improved. Next, we look at the ways firms make and coordinate their decisions under varying market structures, including perfect competition and monopoly. Then we look at strategic behavior in imperfectly competitive markets, making use of concepts from game theory such as Nash equilibrium. Finally, we study information economics and measures of social welfare.
Prerequisites: A satisfactory score on the mandatory test of critical reading and writing skills or a B or higher grade in the alternate expository writing course. ECON E-10a, ECON E-1000, or the equivalent; MATH E-8, or the equivalent understanding of introductory college-level algebra.
Spring 2025
Microeconomic Theory
Alexis Montecinos Bravo PhD, Assistant Professor, Finance, Suffolk University
This course covers the fundamental concepts of microeconomics at the intermediate level. Students learn about how individuals make decisions in a world of scarce resources. Students learn about how consumers choose over a range of goods and services given their limited resources, and how firms decide on how much output to produce and supply in the market. Our discussion on market structures focuses on the simplest of markets (perfectly competitive markets), single-seller markets (monopolies), and oligopolistic markets where firms are involved in strategic interactions with each other. We explore situations in which markets fail and the role of public policies in addressing these failures. The same principles that govern market-based decisions also govern non-market-based decisions. We apply the principles of microeconomics to understand how individuals make non-market related decisions.
Prerequisites: A satisfactory score on the mandatory test of critical reading and writing skills or a B or higher grade in the alternate expository writing course. ECON E-10a, ECON E-1000, or the equivalent; MATH E-8, or the equivalent understanding of introductory college-level algebra.
Spring 2025
Future of Work
Rand Ghayad PhD, Senior Vice President of Policy and Chief Economist, Association of American Railroads
In this course, students learn about the current state of the labor market in order to understand the challenges and opportunities it presents. Students also learn about some of the technology integration approaches being taken to prepare the workforce for the future. Finally, the course helps students explore how stakeholders can partner to build a new social contract and develop a roadmap for leading the future of work.
Spring 2025
Financing Community and Economic Development
James Carras MPA, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
This course provides an understanding of financing mechanisms, tools, policies, and programs available to community and economic development professionals. The course focuses on access and availability of capital, both public and private, for businesses and real estate development projects that have an impact particularly on low opportunity communities. The course covers how capital markets operate and are structured; challenges for community economic development professionals to access those markets, business, and real estate financing fundamentals; public development finance tools including Opportunity Zone Funds, New Market Tax Credits and Community Development Financial Institutions; and capital access strategies such as Community Reinvestment Act research and advocacy. The course also addresses sustainable development and the role of development finance and impact investing. We explore the relationship between local community economic development, environmental sustainability, cultural vitality, and trends in the regional and national economies. Specifically, we focus on how to make community and economic investments that yield development outcomes that contribute to economic, environmental, and cultural vitality. This approach extends a triple bottom line approach that seeks to benefit profits, people, and the planet.
Fall 2024
Behavioral Economics and Decision Making
David S. McIntosh MBA, Founder, Creative Business Breakthroughs - Rob Duboff JD, Co-Founder, HawkPartners, LLC
In this course we study how people actually make decisions, what rationality lies behind seemingly irrational behavior, and how decision making can be influenced. Building on economic principles useful in understanding business and consumer decision making, we study forces that prevent efficient and rational outcomes from occurring, as well as tools for influencing decisions.
Prerequisites: Introductory economics (ECON E-10a, ECON E-1000, or equivalent) required.
Fall 2024
Strategy, Conflict, and Cooperation
Robert Neugeboren PhD, Lecturer on Economics, Harvard University
This course is an introduction to the strategic way of thinking and a primer on the mathematical theory of games. Students learn about game theory through a combination of analytical techniques and a series of in-class and take-home exercises. Applications are drawn from economics and other social sciences. Topics include the prisoner's dilemma and the arms race, the minimax theorem, Nash equilibrium, bargaining, subgame perfection, and the evolution of cooperation.
Prerequisites: MATH E-8 or the equivalent, or satisfactory placement test score.
Spring 2025
Monetary Policy After the Financial and Pandemic Crises
Dorian B. Klein MBA, Managing Partner, Klein Family Office
This course closely examines the path of public policy, whether fiscal stimulus plans or the Federal Reserve's monetary policy, through the nuts and bolts of the actual operations and from the viewpoint of the capital markets. When the Fed or the European Central Bank announces a monthly $85 billion securities buying program, how exactly does this money flow through the markets? When the government bails out a major bank, how does this action affect the bank, its competitors, the markets, future perceptions, and the economy at large? How can central banks affect the economy in an environment of zero and even negative interest rates? Should regulation influence the behavior of firms or individuals? Using the 2008 financial crisis and policy responses thereto as a backdrop, we explore how (and whether) the new capital markets created over the past thirty years as a result of greatly increased financial innovation, globalization, and communication are distorting the economic effect of traditional government monetary and/or fiscal influence. The role of important constituents (commercial and investment banks, exchanges, regulators, hedge funds, and government interventions) are reviewed and evaluated for both past performance and future relevance. The course addresses important current topics in both economics and public policy, such as too big to fail, moral hazard, globalization of markets, currency unions, liquidity traps, efficiency of markets, the role of credit rating agencies, shadow banking, regulation of derivatives and hedge funds, Glass-Steagall, and the Volcker Rule. Following deliberations and analysis of the financial crisis of 2008-2009, we then examine the monetary and fiscal policy responses to the pandemic crisis of 2020-2022. Were these policy responses even more extreme? Did central banks overshoot? Were lessons learned from the financial crisis? Was it too much, leading to inflation and too much debt?
Prerequisites: ECON E-10a or ECON E-1000, and basic algebra.
Fall 2024
Managerial Economics
Aleksandar Tomic PhD, Associate Dean for Strategy, Innovation, and Technology and Director of Master of Science in Applied Analytics and Applied Economics, Woods College of Advancing Studies, Boston College
This course provides an overview of economic tools and analytic approaches available to the manager for business decision making. It includes such topics as pricing, forecasting, demand analysis, production and cost analysis, and macroeconomic policy as it affects the business environment. The purpose of this course is to develop an economic perspective that is appropriate for students aspiring to manage business units or entire companies in a wide variety of industries. Students may not take both ECON E-1600 and ECON E-1615 for degree or certificate credit.
Prerequisites: A satisfactory score on the mandatory test of critical reading and writing skills or a B or higher grade in the alternate expository writing course. ECON E-10a, ECON E-1000, or the equivalent.
Fall 2024
Urban Development Policy
James Carras MPA, Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
This course reviews development policy making in urban areas, focusing on differing economic, demographic, institutional, and political settings. Course topics include a critical analysis of the continuing viability of cities in the context of current economic and demographic dynamics, fiscal stress, governance, economic development, poverty and race, drugs, homelessness, federal urban policy, and survival strategies for declining cities. The course considers economic development, social equity, and job growth in the context of metropolitan regions, and addresses federal, state, and local government strategies for expanding community economic development and affordable housing opportunities. Of special concern is the continuing spatial and racial isolation and concentration of low-income populations, especially minority populations, residing in urban communities including older, industrial cities. The course examines how market forces and pressures affect the availability of affordable housing, exacerbate the impacts of gentrification, and inhibit the availability of capital for affordable housing and economic development. It also examines how issues around growing housing affordability problems, the changing structure of capital markets, the reduction of low-skilled jobs in central city locations, and racial discrimination combine to limit housing and employment opportunities.
Prerequisites: Courses in sociology, political science, urban planning, architecture, public policy, and economics are helpful but not required.
Fall 2024
Capital Markets and Investments
Bruce D. Watson MA, Master Lecturer on Economics, Boston University and Lecturer in Extension, Harvard University
Students are exposed to the framework of modern portfolio theory and investment analysis with which they can critically evaluate alternatives relating to investing in financial securities and construct portfolios with desired risk/return characteristics. The course examines capital markets and fundamental models used in securities analysis and portfolio management. Topics include financial instruments, the organization of securities markets and trading, modern portfolio theory, asset pricing models, market efficiency, behavioral finance and technical analysis, bond valuation and the management of bond portfolios, valuation of equities, active versus passive investing, the role of derivative securities in investing, and performance evaluation.
Prerequisites: MGMT E-2000 or the equivalent course or experience; a course or courses in quantitative methods such as basic statistics or college algebra.
Spring 2025
Capital Markets and Investments
Aleksandar Tomic PhD, Associate Dean for Strategy, Innovation, and Technology and Director of Master of Science in Applied Analytics and Applied Economics, Woods College of Advancing Studies, Boston College
Students are exposed to the framework of modern portfolio theory and investment analysis with which they can critically evaluate alternatives relating to investing in financial securities and construct portfolios with desired risk/return characteristics. The course examines capital markets and fundamental models used in securities analysis and portfolio management. Topics include financial instruments, the organization of securities markets and trading, modern portfolio theory, asset pricing models, market efficiency, behavioral finance and technical analysis, bond valuation and the management of bond portfolios, valuation of equities, active versus passive investing, the role of derivative securities in investing, and performance evaluation.
Prerequisites: MGMT E-2000 or the equivalent course or experience; a course or courses in quantitative methods such as basic statistics or college algebra.
Fall 2024
Emerging Markets: Investment Theories and Practice
Peter Marber PhD, Chief Investment Officer for Emerging Markets, Aperture Investors, and Adjunct Instructor, Finance, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
Globalization is no longer an academic theory; it is a reality that affects all of our lives. From the foods we eat to the goods we buy, the ubiquity of developing countries from Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and former Soviet Union those frequently referred to as emerging markets intensifies daily. Yet beyond the well-documented commercial and cultural impacts of globalization, there are strong but less visible trends toward greater global financial and investment integration. What makes emerging financial markets different from those in the US, Europe, or Japan? What are the benefits of adding these markets to a traditional investment portfolio? How do policies shape these markets? Why invest in certain countries versus others? Within a country, which asset class should we invest in? How do hedge funds approach these markets vs. traditional investors? How has COVID-19 pandemic altered the trajectories of developing and industrialized countries? From the practical perspective of a US institutional investor, this course is geared to help answer these questions.
Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of finance and a modest competency with Microsoft Excel and/or a financial calculator. Prior course work or work experience in finance would also be useful.
Spring 2025
History of Financial Crises 1637 to Present
John Komlos PhD, Professor of Economics, Emeritus, University of Munich
The goal of this course is to discuss the almost 400 year history of financial crisis from the tulip bubble through the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 and culminating in the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank in 2023. We ascertain recurring historical patterns of financial bubbles without, however, overlooking critical differences. If history repeats itself, why can't we avoid making the same mistakes repeatedly? The meltdown of 2008 happened at a time when most macroeconomists (including the former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke) were writing about how great everything was going since business cycles had vanished for all practical purposes. They were dead wrong. The historical evidence enables us to gain a more thorough understanding of global finance which influences our lives to such a great extent. Our primary aim is not to concentrate on facts, theorems, or numbers but rather to see the big picture in a multi-disciplinary and very-long-run perspective integrating the knowledge gained from the work of such Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economists as Robert Shiller and Daniel Kahneman. We also explore our current economic situation, including the aftermath of the Wall Street bailouts that forgot the people on Main Street and stood by as nine million people were evicted from their homes. We also discuss how the crisis contributed to the rise of populism and ends by outlining the main impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the financial world.