Fall 2020

The philosophical foundations of modern political and economic thought, including economic rationality, neoclassical economics, free-market vs. socialist economies and behavioral economics.

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.

Contemporary economic problems of the Middle East: comparative and historical perspectives on issues of institutions, investment, oil, trade, migration, finance, inequality, labor and capital markets. Recommended preparation: ECON 205 and ECON 303.

Contemporary economic problems of sub-Saharan economies: policies and endowments. Focus on issues of poverty, agriculture, health, macroeconomy and political economy.

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 quantitative methods for analyzing economic equilibria; comparative statics and dynamics. Utility theory, consumer behavior, and profit maximization. Model formulation in micro and macroeconomics.

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

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

Determinants and economic consequences of international trade patterns; effects of trade restrictions and trading blocs; trade negotiations and arrangements.

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.

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.

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

Understanding and implementing models commonly used in time series econometrics. Emphasis is placed on intuition and application. Assists students understanding how to use time series data to test hypotheses and serve as an introduction to the ideas and techniques of forecasting.

Classical economic theory; its precursors, main contributors, extensions and critics; focus upon the writings and ideas of Smith, Say, Malthus, Ricardo, Mill and Marx.

Introduction to the theory and practice of causal econometrics in modern settings of large-scale data. Major algorithms from machine learning focused on methodology and applications.

Economic methods to analyze issues of intellectual property, environmental damage, trademark infringement, brand value and consumer demand, using an applied econometric approach.

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.

Practical principles for the long-term development of effective teaching within college disciplines. Intended for teaching assistants in Dornsife College. Open only to doctoral students in Economics. Graded CR/NC.

Part-time or full-time, practical work experience in the student's field of study. Students must have a specific job/internship offer. Job must be related to students major. The internship must be located at an off-campus facility. Students are individually supervised by faculty. Students must have been in F-1 student status for at least one academic year in a degree-seeking program before they can apply for CPT, with a cumulative 3.0 GPA. Course does not apply to degree credit. Open only to graduate students.

Selected topics in economics as developed by the instructor.

Optimization of the consumer and the firm; duality and imputed value; perfect and imperfect competition in product and factor markets. Prerequisites: ECON 401. Recommended preparation: ECON 500. Duplicates credit in former ECON 503.

Aggregate demand, supply and government policy; theories of economic growth and business cycles; static and dynamic implications of government policies. Prerequisite: ECON 401. Duplicates credit in former ECON 505.

Advanced methodology of neuroeconomics including neural activity, memory, value and reward systems, emotions, and risk. Prerequisite: ECON 503.

Introduction to probability theory and statistical inference to prepare students for graduate courses in econometrics and economic theory; probability, random variables, distributions, estimation, testing, asymptotics. Prerequisite: MATH-226. Duplicates credit in former ECON-514.

Simultaneous equation models, dynamic structural econometric models, vector autoregressions, causality, forecasting, univariate and multivariate nonstationary time series, tests for unit roots, cointegration, autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity models, time series models with changes in regime. Prerequisite: ECON 609.

Use of quantitative models to describe and forecast economic activity; estimation and application of such models to selected policy problems. Prerequisites: ECON 609.

Experimental methods of and design of computer-based experiments. Use of standard software for data collection in individual decision-making experiments and games.

Household production models and intra-household models of behavior and their empirical implementation, focus on poverty, human resource investments and their interaction with public policies. Prerequisites: ECON 501 and ECON 609.

Empirical treatment of advanced topics in international finance including the determination of real and nominal exchange rates; stabilization policies in developing currencies and currency crisis models. Econometric methods in analyzing foreign exchange data and in forecasting. Recommended preparation: ECON 625, ECON 651

Equilibrium model of finance economy; absence of arbitrage; complete and incomplete markets; asset pricing theory: representative agent pricing, Capital Asset Pricing Model, martingale property of security prices. Prerequisite: ECON-601.

Current areas of research in macroeconomics: Structural Change; Inequality and Macroeconomics.

Decision making, economic behavior and organization in firms; types of competition and market structure; property rights, nonprofit decision making. Prerequisite: ECON-500 or ECON-601.

Economic models will be used to understand the main facts observed in cities in the developed and developing world. Special attention will be paid to empirical hypothesis testing and developing an urban economics research agenda. Students will be exposed to new data sets being collected using Smart Phones and other novel technologies that have greatly expanded our ability to test relevant hypotheses.

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.

Examination of various frontier research topics of economics through critical discussions of research papers that study the most recent economic research agendas.

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.