Covers basic elements of microeconomic and marcoeconomic reasoning at an introductory level. Topics include Individual Constraints and Preferences, Production by Firms, Market Transactions, Competition, The Distribution of Income, Technological Progress and Growth, Unemployment and Inflation, the Role of Government in the Economy. Note: Students cannot get credit for ECON BC1003 if they have taken the Columbia introductory course ECON W1105 Principles of Economics.
Covers basic mathematical methods required for intermediate theory courses and upper level electives in economics, with a strong emphasis on applications. Topics include simultaneous equations, functions, partial differentiation, optimization of functions of more than one variable, constrained optimization, and financial mathematics. This course satisfies the Calculus requirement for the Barnard Economics major. NOTE: students who have previously taken Intermediate Micro Theory (ECON BC3035 or the equivalent) are *not* allowed to take Math Methods for Economics.
This course will introduce the fundamental concepts of accounting and finance to economics students. The accounting component of the course will focus on financial accounting, and the finance component of the course will focus on issues relating to corporate financing Whenever possible, the discussion of each concept encountered in the course will include an examination of real-world examples of firms’ financial statements and decisions. Students’ learning objectives are:
the preparation and interpretation of financial statements for external decision makers
understanding the capital structure and dividend policies of firms
the valuation of financial instruments
capital budgeting (strategies and analytical methods for the evaluation of investment projects)
Elementary computational methods in statistics. Basic techniques in regression analysis of econometric models. One-hour weekly recitation sessions to complement lectures.
This course examines big themes in economic and social history-population history and human well-being, inequality and poverty, and gender differences. Using these themes, it adopts a hands-on data-driven approach to introduce tools and concepts of empirical reasoning. Datasets related to each theme create opportunities for learning by doing.
Prerequisites: ECON BC3035 or ECON BC3033, or permission of the instructor. Conceptualization and measurement of inequality and poverty, poverty traps and distributional dynamics, economics and politics of public policies, in both poor and rich countries.
Prerequisites: ECON BC3033 or ECON BC3035, and ECON BC2411 or STAT W1111 or STAT W1211, or permission of the instructor. Specification, estimation and evaluation of economic relationships using economic theory, data, and statistical inference; testable implications of economic theories; econometric analysis of topics such as consumption, investment, wages and unemployment, and financial markets.
Prerequisites: ECON BC3035, or permission of the instructor. Factors affecting the allocation and remuneration of labor; population structure; unionization and monopsony; education and training, mobility and information; sex and race discrimination; unemployment; and public policy.
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201 Institutional nature and economic function of financial markets. Emphasis on both domestic and international markets (debt, stock, foreign exchange, eurobond, eurocurrency, futures, options, and others). Principles of security pricing and portfolio management; the Capital Asset Pricing Model and the Efficient Markets Hypothesis.
Prerequisites: (ECON BC3035 or ECON UN3211) The purpose of the course is to think about public policy issues through an economic lens. We will explore the basic economic foundations of individual decision-making and discuss the ways in which economists hypothesize that individuals respond to the incentives embedded within public policies. We will pay particular attention to the nature and detail of existing public policies, and use economic analysis to predict how these policies might influence behavior. We will also explore some of the relevant empirical literature on a set of policy topics, to see how these predictions hold up.
Prerequisites: An introductory course in economics and a functioning knowledge of high school algebra and analytical geometry or permission of the instructor. Systematic exposition of current macroeconomic theories of unemployment, inflation, and international financial adjustments.
Prerequisites: An introductory course in microeconomics or a combined macro/micro principles course (ECON BC1003 or ECON W1105, or the equivalent) and one semester of calculus or ECON BC1007, or permission of the instructor. Preferences and demand; production, cost, and supply; behavior of markets in partial equilibrium; resource allocation in general equilibrium; pricing of goods and services under alternative market structures; implications of individual decision-making for labor supply; income distribution, welfare, and public policy. Emphasis on problem solving.
Prerequisites: ECON BC1003 or ECON W1105. Prerequisite for Economics majors: ECON BC3035. Link between economic behavior and environmental quality: valuation of non-market benefits of pollution abatement; emissions standards; taxes; and transferable discharge permits. Specific problems of hazardous waste; the distribution of hazardous pollutants across different sub-groups of the U.S. population; the exploitation of commonly owned natural resources; and the links between the environment, income distribution, and economic development.
Prerequisites: An introductory course in economics or permission of the instructor. Intellectual origins of the main schools of thought in political economy. Study of the founding texts in classical political economy, Marxian economics, neoclassicism, and Keynesianism.
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and completion of all courses (except for the senior requirement) required for the economics track, political economy track, or economics and mathematics majors. Exceptions to these prerequisites may be granted by the chair of the department only. Tutorials and conferences on the research for and writing of the senior thesis. This is the 1st semester of a two-semester course sequence.
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and the completion of all courses (except for the senior requirement) required for the economics track, political economy track, or economics and mathematics majors. Exceptions to these prerequisites may be granted by the chair of the department only. Seminar sections are limited to 15 students. A topic in economic theory or policy of the instructors choice. See department for current topics and for senior requirement preference forms.
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and the completion of all courses (except for the senior requirement) required for the economics track, political economy track, or economics and mathematics majors. Exceptions to these prerequisites may be granted by the chair of the department only. Seminar sections are limited to 15 students. A topic in economic theory or policy of the instructors choice. See department for current topics and for senior requirement preference forms.
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and the completion of all courses (except for the senior requirement) required for the economics track, political economy track, or economics and mathematics majors. Exceptions to these prerequisites may be granted by the chair of the department only. Seminar sections are limited to 15 students. A topic in economic theory or policy of the instructors choice. See department for current topics and for senior requirement preference forms.
Must be supervised by a faculty member approved by the program adviser. This is the 1st semester of a two-semester course sequence.
A game in this class, is a formal model to represent and analyze a situation in which individuals or groups interact strategically. In said situations, an individual’s behavior affects other individuals’ behavior which, in turn, affects the individuals’ well-being. We can think of most everyday interactions as games, and game theory offers us a systematic way to think about these interactions. Scholars in various disciplines, including economics, business, psychology, political science, and linguistics have applied game theory to study behavior in different contexts. This course has two parts. The first part will introduce you to the tools needed to analyze strategic interaction formally.
You will learn a methodology to understand simultaneous, sequential, and repeated interaction with complete and incomplete information. Examples and applications will illustrate solution concepts developed for cooperative and non-cooperative games. The second part of the course will discuss applications of game theory to the study of different economic problems. These applications include bargaining, contract and policy design, matching markets, voting, political competition and power, and justice.
Prerequisites: Instructors permission Provides students with the experience of participating in the research process by matching them to a faculty mentor who will put them to work on one of his or her current research projects.
Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 or the equivalent. Introduction to the principles of money and banking. The intermediary institutions of the American economy and their historical developments, current issues in monetary and financial reform.