Spring 2025

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.

Analyze varied industries using legal, business, and economic principles. Emphasis is on how these forces shape marketing strategies.

Central topics in the philosophy of economics, including models of economic rationality, the aggregation of preferences and the conditions in which markets yield undesirable outcomes.

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 focus on the Chinese economy, its reform and transition to a market economy, its relation with East Asian countries and integration into the world 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 BUAD 351.

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 BUAD 352.

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).

Main frameworks, theories, practices of applied economics policy in real-world settings; creating competencies for elected officials, central bank personnel, public administrators, regulators, nonprofit executives, implementers and evaluators.

Selected policy dilemmas in economics. Topics vary.

Analysis of strategic economic interactions. Topics include bargaining, insurance, patents, voting, environment depletion, strategic trade, learning, reputation, strikes, corporate takeovers, and the provision of public goods.

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

Examination of the traditional and behavioral theories of decision-making and the state of the art in the field. Prerequisite: ECON 303.

Factors that make values an essential feature of human society; how values develop, change and are abandoned; role of values in economic development.

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.

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.

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.

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. Witnessing 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.

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.

The balance of payments, macroeconomic policy in an open economy, exchange rate determination, exchange rate systems, currency crises, international financial arrangements and monetary history.

How do investors evaluate risks? With what information? How do they form their beliefs? Via empirical evidence and theoretical works, this course addresses these questions.

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.

Introduces the novel business model and important features associated with digital platforms and analyzes firms various competitive behavior and anticompetitive conducts in the digital space.

Broad training in theoretical and empirical finance. Choice under uncertainty; equilibrium asset pricing; static portfolio choice; factor pricing models, asset allocation; the Black-Scholes-Merton Formula.

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

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

The role of designing incentives to reduce negative urban externalities and the interplay between spatial Big Data and testing urban economics hypotheses.

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.

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.

General equilibrium theory; existence, uniqueness, and stability; welfare economics; social choice; dynamic models and uncertainty; special topics. 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.

Examination of behavioral theories used to describe and predict choices made in both an individual decision-making setting and strategic environments.

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.

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 relying on non-choice data. Design methods of experiments that record information in decision-making and physiological data of emotions.

The functions of laws, rules, customs, conventions, and other restrictions on economic and social activity. Theories of institutional evolution. Prerequisites: ECON-500 or ECON-601.

Theory and empirics of the sources of and barriers to economic development and the micro underpinnings of macroeconomic dynamics of growth, inequality, and productivity. Prerequisites: ECON 601 and ECON 609.

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

Think about and design empirical studies in economics using cutting-edge approaches to causal inference -- structural and discrete choice models, micro-macro models and historical data models.

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.

Current research in applied microeconomics, macroeconomics, and public policy 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.