Spring 2017

Behavior of firms and consumers, functions of the price system, competition and monopoly, labor markets, poverty, government regulation, international trade, and the environment.

Unemployment, inflation and output determination and links.Effects of government taxation and spending on growth, investment,saving, consumption, and trade.

Decision making by business firms, consumer preferences and behavior, uncertainty, competition, monopoly, labor and resource markets, efficient resource allocation, externalities, and government policy.

The determinants of aggregate income, employment, and inflation;economic fluctuations; fiscal and monetary policy; financialmarkets; the national debt.

Introduction to statistical methods appropriate for analyzing economic data: probability theory, random variables and probability distributions, sampling, estimation, statistical inference.

Application of statistical methods to economic data: estimating economic relationships using regression analysis, testing hypotheses involving economic behavior, forecasting economic variables. Prerequisite: ECON-317. Duplicates credit in former ECON-414.

Contract law and economic organization, determinants of firm boundaries, transaction cost economics, agency theory, incomplete contracting, business strategy, bureaucracy, institutional environment, politics and property rights.

Causes of economic underdevelopment: historical, institutional, structural, ideological, technological, cultural. Patterns and theories of development. Role of government, international trade, and education in economic growth.

A comprehensive investigation of problems stemming from changing composition of the workforce, urban decline, new technologies, inequalities, ethnic relations, government deficits. Prospects for continued growth.

Development and business applications of: theory of the firm; theory of the consumer; inter-temporaldecisions; decisions under risk; market failures; industrial and enterprise structure. Prerequisites: MATH 118 or MATH 125 or MATH 126 or MATH 226. Not for major credit for: Economics, Economics/Mathematics, Social Sciences (Economics). Duplicates credit in former ECON 251.

Theoretical development and significance to business and markets of economic growth; inflation;unemployment; monetary and fiscal policy; business cycles; savings and investment; exchange rates. Corequisite: ECON 351. Recommended preparation: introductory economics course, high school math, and algebra. Not for major credit for: Economics, Economics/Mathematics, Social Sciences (Economics). Duplicates credit in former ECON 252x.

The money, bond, stock, and other financial markets; portfolio choice; determinants of asset prices and interest rates; inflation; interactions between financial markets and government policies.

Key facts and basic mechanisms concerning financial crises and related topics (bank runs, sovereign default decision, currency collapse).

Selected policy dilemmas, including welfare reform, urban renewal, government budget deficits, regulation and deregulation, environmental problems, immigration, and global development. Lectures by leading authorities and weekly discussion sessions.

Introduction to the methodology used in experimental neuroeconomics and discussion of neural correlates of decision-making. Prerequisite: ECON 303.

Analysis of binary dependent variable models, panel data analysis, program evaluations, IV analysis, basics of time series and forecasting.

Examination of economic theories and patterns of behavior useful in building new theories. Prerequisite ECON-303; Recommended preparation: ECON-317.

What is happiness? How does it vary by socio-economic status and over the life cycle? This course will develop insight into the nature and determinants of subjective well-being. Recommended preparation: ECON 305

Analysis of economic variables; investigation of empirical economics to estimate or test for relationships using various forms of data. Prerequisite: ECON 303, ECON 305, ECON 317 and ECON 318.

Common law and property; rationing of justice; resource allocation between prevention and enforcement; division of decision making between public and private sectors.

Economic approaches and political processes are used to explain observed international trade policy choices. Topics covered include globalization, regionalism, labor standards, the environment and sanctions. Recommended preparation: Micro- and Macroeconomics.

Consequences of trade deficits; theories of capital and currency markets, exchange rate regimes, and international monetary coordination.

General equilibrium analysis of economics with financial markets; decision making under uncertainty; methods of risk reduction; portfolio theory and valuation of securities; efficiency of security markets.

A human capital interpretation of labor demand and supply; wage determination, differentials, and discrimination; job turnover and occupational mobility; unions and collective bargaining.

Health as an investment in human capital; analysis of the demand for and supply of health services and manpower; health insurance; cost-effectiveness analysis; market structures and the pricing of medical services.

Economic consulting and managerial economic methods applied in real world problems. Economic methods to analyze issues of intellectual property, environmental damage, trademark infringement, brand value, and consumer demand. Prerequisite: ECON 303.

Pricing and resource allocation in imperfectly competitive markets; monopoly regulation, collusion, cartels, mergers and antitrust; patents and development incentives; industry case studies.

Introduces economic consulting and applied econometric methods applied to real world problems. Teaches economic methods to analyze issues of intellectual property, environmental damage, trademark infringement, brand value, and consumer demand

Management and extraction of renewable and non-renewable natural resources; environmental externalities and regulation of air, water, and land pollution; market incentives versus direct regulation.

Supervised individual research. Not available for graduate credit. Requires departmental approval.

Individual research supervised by a faculty advisor. Successful completion required for departmental honors degree.

Theories of the household and the firm; product and factor markets; perfect and imperfect competition; welfare criteria.

Theories of aggregate economic activity; design and use of macroeconometric models; stabilization and control of inflation, unemployment, and growth.

Students will cover large ground in applying game theory to economic and financial markets and interactions in a diverse set of examples like reputation, herding, bubbles and crashes, auctions, strategic information revelation and information accumulation in markets. We will witness the wide range of applications that is amenable to game theoretical analysis.

Application of econometric tools using standard econometric software packages for microcomputers; empirical applications to selected economic problems of estimation and inference. Prerequisite: ECON 318.

Information, property rights, bargaining, transaction costs, incentives, free-riding and contracting in organizations; the nature of cooperation; bureaucracies.

Development, underdevelopment and the problems thereof; agriculture, industry, trade, population, human capital, capital formation; structural, technological, environmental and institutional changes; political economy of the state.

Efficiency, market failure, government regulation, some basics for antitrust economics, competition policy analysis and collusion and agreements among competitors.

Research leading to the master's degree. Maximum units which may be applied to the degree to be determined by the department. Graded CR/NC.

Credit on acceptance of Thesis. Graded CR/NC.

Credit on acceptance of Thesis. Graded CR/NC.

Credit on acceptance of Thesis. Graded CR/NC.

Selected topics in economics as developed by the instructor.

General equilibrium theory; existence, uniqueness, and stability; welfare economics; social choice; dynamic models and uncertainty; special topics. Prerequisite: ECON-601.

Strategies and equilibrium concepts; dynamic and repeated games; incomplete information and learning in games. Prerequisite: ECON-601.

Macroeconomic theory based on the concepts of optimal growth and intertemporal equilibrium; overlapping generations models; recent developments in macroeconomic theory. Prerequisites: ECON-601 and ECON-602.

Review of statistical methods of estimation and inference, linear regression with multicollinearity and serial correlation; multivariate regression and simultaneous equations. Prerequisite: ECON 611. Duplicates credit in former ECON 511.

Laboratory methods for testing economic theory; experimental comparison of alternative market and non-market institutions; identification of behavioral responses to alternative regulations. Prerequisite: ECON-500 or ECON-601.

Experimental methods relying on non-choice data. Design methods of experiments that record information in decision-making and physiological data of emotions. Prerequisites: ECON-620a and ECON 601. Recommended preparation: ECON 616. Graded C/NC.

Mathematical tools for the study of social and economic networks.

Theories and methods of government regulation; effects of regulation on various industries; behavior of regulatory agencies. Prerequisites: ECON-500 or ECON-601.

Econometric analysis of industrial organization issues including industry regulation and deregulation, collusions and pricing in differentiated oligopolistic markets, entry and exit, auction mechanisms, contractual relationships. Prerequisites: ECON-601 and ECON-603. Recommended preparation: ECON 600, ECON 603, ECON 612, ECON 615, ECON 680.

Current research in economic theory presented by faculty, students, and outside scholars. Graded CR/NC.

Current research in econometrics presented by faculty, students, and outside scholars. Graded CR/NC.

Current research in international, regional, and urban development economics presented by faculty, students, and outside scholars. Graded CR/NC.

Topics in dynamic economics involving business fluctuations, economic growth and development, microeconomic adjustments and market mechanisms; related quantitative and qualitative methods; empirical research involving economic change. Graded CR/NC.

Presentations on current research in empirical microeconomics by outstanding scholars from leading Economics departments and faculty at USC. Open only to Economics Ph.D. students. Graded CR/NC.

Time-series methods; aggregation; structural models and methods such as factor analysis and multiple indicator models; various special topics.

Credit on acceptance of Dissertation. Graded CR/NC.

Credit on acceptance of Dissertation. Graded CR/NC.

Credit on acceptance of Dissertation. Graded CR/NC.

Credit on acceptance of Dissertation. Graded CR/NC.

Credit on acceptance of Dissertation. Graded CR/NC.