Special Topics Courses in Economics

Following are graduate-level Special Topics [590] courses in Economics for Fall 2007.

EC 590X Public Finance  

A micro-economic analysis of the rationale for public expenditure and taxation. Externalities, pollution and public policy, income redistribution and public welfare, public goods, collective choice and political institutions, public budgeting techniques and cost-benefit analysis, taxation and tax policy, state-local finance and fiscal federalism.

EC 590Y Competition, Monopoly and Public Policy

Current theories of industrial organization with specific reference to such topics as cartels, industrial concentration, vertical integration, franchise contracts, ownership and control of firms, multipart and discriminatory pricing, and tie-in sales. Economic aspects of antitrust law and government regulation of industry.

ECG 590I Asset Pricing

This course is an introduction to the pricing of assets.  The emphasis is on the mathematical methods used to derive pricing formulas, but there will also be some time devoted to explaining the major types of paper asses (options and other derivatives) that can be prices with those methods. 

ECG 590Z U.S. Agricultural Policy

Government economic policies and programs affecting agricultural inputs and farm products. Analysis of the rationale, objectives, and major types of agricultural programs and their effects on resource allocation and income distribution within agriculture and between agriculture and the rest of the economy.