Economics
ECON 2110 - Personal Financial Planning
3 credit hours
(Same as FIN 2010.) Includes budgeting and saving techniques, tax planning, insurance principles, consumer credit, housing, investment alternatives, and retirement and estate issues.
ECON 2410 - Principles of Economics, Macroeconomics
3 credit hours
As an aid to understanding modern economic society: economic concepts of national income and its fluctuations, inflation, unemployment, role of the banking system, monetary and fiscal policies, and international topics.
ECON 2420 - Principles of Economics, Microeconomics
3 credit hours
As an aid to understanding modern economic society: economic concepts of consumer and firm behavior; the pricing of goods, services, and productive factors; international topics; and an overview of the American economy.
ECON 3099 - Special Topics in Economics
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: ECON 2410 and ECON 2420; or permission of instructor. An in-depth study of a special topic in economics. Interested students should contact the instructor for specifics.
ECON 3210 - The Financial System and the Economy
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: ECON 2410; junior standing. Basic introduction to the functions of financial institutions and markets in the conduct of domestic and international economic transactions. Within financial market context, focus on special role that money plays as an asset and a determinant of the price level, the cause of inflation and inflation's effects on interest rates and borrowing costs, and the influence of Federal Reserve actions (monetary policy) on money and interest rates.
ECON 3430 - Public Finance
3 credit hours
(Same as FIN 3430.) Prerequisites: ECON 2410, ECON 2420; junior standing; admission into the College of Business. Economic foundations of federal tax and expenditure policies. Current issues in federal budget policy. Policy applications illustrating key concepts such as public goods, externalities, income distribution, tax incidence, tax equity, and allocative efficiency. Intergovernmental fiscal relations.
ECON 3510 - Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: ECON 2410; junior standing; admission into the College of Business. Analysis of national income, employment, and price levels. Monetary and fiscal policies; international economic relations. Note: For Economics B.S. and B.B.A. majors only.
ECON 3520 - Intermediate Microeconomic Theory
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: ECON 2410, ECON 2420; junior or senior standing; admission into the College of Business. Second semester of microeconomic theory following ECON 2420. Topics include consumer choice, the labor supply model, the life cycle model, choice under uncertainty, production and supply, the cost of production, perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, game theory, and the human capital model. For Economics B.B.A. and B.S. students only.
ECON 4100 - Law and Economics
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Admission into the College of Business; junior standing preferred. Applies microeconomic theory to the analysis of legal rules and institutions. Examines the economics tools lawyers and experts use in analyzing antitrust issues. Topics include intellectual property rights, measuring compensatory damages in liability cases, current legal issues such as tort reform, the role of economics in bargaining and settlement, and antitrust law topics such as mergers and price-fixing.
ECON 4260 - Financial Markets and Institutions
3 credit hours
(Same as FIN 4260.) Prerequisites: FIN 3010 with a minimum grade of C (2.00); junior standing; and admission into the College of Business. Examines the structure and functioning of our monetary-financial system. Emphasis on the institutional process of financial intermediation in the financial marketplace and the role that specific institutions and instruments play.
ECON 4310 - Problems in Government Finance
3 credit hours
(Same as FIN 4310). Prerequisites: ECON 2410 and ECON 2420; junior standing; and admission into the College of Business. Current issues in taxation, theory of income taxation, consumption taxes, property and wealth taxes. Advanced treatment of tax incidence, tax efficiency, income distribution, fiscal federalism, and state and local budget issues.
ECON 4400 - Economics of Antitrust and Regulation
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: ECON 2420; junior standing; admission into the College of Business. Economic analysis of the antitrust laws and their enforcement: price-fixing, collusion, mergers, monopolization, and vertical arrangements. Economics theories of regulation/deregulation applied to actual regulatory policies: natural monopoly; price and entry regulation; health, safety, and environmental regulation; and intellectual property. Includes historical development as well as current applications.
ECON 4420 - Labor and Human Resource Economics
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: ECON 2410 or ECON 2420; junior standing; and admission into the College of Business. Current issues and theories, returns to training and education (human capital), earnings differences; union impacts and government regulation of labor relations and labor markets; human resource information system modeling, including applied PC or mainframe data analysis and integration of Internet information sources.
ECON 4440 - International Economics
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: ECON 2410, ECON 2420; junior standing; admission into the College of Business. Differences between domestic trade and international trade, foundations of international trade, economic effects of free trade and restricted trade; mechanisms of international payments and structure of balance of payments; history and contemporary issues of trade policies and world monetary systems.
ECON 4470 - Economic Development of the Third World
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: ECON 2410, ECON 2420; junior standing; and admission into the College of Business. Conditions and problems of the less-developed countries; causes, processes, and consequences of economic development; introduction to basic growth models, development theories, and strategies for development. Economic as well as noneconomic factors studied.
ECON 4480 - State and Local Economies
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: Admission into the College of Business and junior standing preferred. Analysis of state and local economies in the United States. Topics include local economic development; data sources for the analysis of local economies; comparing local economies; employment and the labor force; income and earnings; population and housing; identifying driving industries; impact analysis; cluster analysis; underemployment; local workforces; human capital; location, infrastructure, and natural resources; regional development policy; recruiting; tax incentives; technology and green policy; and examining short-term and long-term policy issues.
ECON 4490 - Industrial Relations Legislation
3 credit hours
(Same as BLAW 4490 and MGMT 4490.) Prerequisites: Admission into the College of Business and junior standing. Economic background and effects of government regulation of labor relations; emphasis on a detailed examination of the National Labor Relations Act as amended or expanded by the Labor Management Relations Act, the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosures Act, and Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act.
ECON 4500 - Urban and Regional Economics
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: ECON 2410 and ECON 2420; junior standing; and admission into the College of Business. Economic problems of urban communities, including problems resulting from population shifts to suburbia; urban planning; land utilization; revenue structures; urban renewal; transportation; problems of minority and poverty groups.
ECON 4510 - Unions and Collective Bargaining
3 credit hours
(Same as MGMT 4510.) Prerequisites: Junior standing and admission into the College of Business. The collective bargaining process: its evolution in the public and private sectors and its contemporary legal environment; compensation, institutional and administrative issues; strikes and impasse resolution procedures.
ECON 4570 - Managerial Economics
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: ECON 2420; MATH 1630 or MATH 1810 or MATH 1910; junior standing; and admission into the College of Business. Familiarity with time value of money, spreadsheet, and regression analysis helpful. Microeconomic theories in depth; emphasizes practical applications in economic decisions. Topics cover fundamental economic concepts, theory of demand, theory of production, theory of cost, optimization, forecasting, game strategy in oligopolistic rivalry, long-term investment, and regression analysis.
ECON 4600 - Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: Admission into the College of Business and junior standing preferred. Problems of environmental quality and natural resource scarcity from an economic perspective. Topics include interaction between the environment and the economy, benefits and costs of environmental regulation, use of incentives to achieve least-cost pollution control, international environmental issues such as global warming, the role of natural resources in the U.S. economy, problems associated with natural resource scarcity and depletion, and problems related to consumption of renewable resources.
ECON 4620 - Econometrics and Forecasting
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: ECON 2410, ECON 2420; MATH 1810 or MATH 1910; junior standing, and admission into the College of Business. The application of statistical methods to economic problems; covers statistical inference, regression analysis in economics and finance, and an introduction to econometrics. Emphasis on applications to actual economic data and includes use of econometric software.
ECON 4650 - Comparative Economic Systems
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Admission into the College of Business. Compares economic institutions and performance among nations; presents the historical and cultural context of economic evolution in selected nations; and examines the relationship between institutional arrangements and outcomes such as prosperity, liberty, and equality.
ECON 4660 - History of Economic Thought
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: ECON 2410, ECON 2420; junior standing; and admission into the College of Business. Background of modern economic thought; ancient economic thought; the main current of developing economic analysis through feudalism, mercantilism, and the physiocrats; Adam Smith and the classical economists; rebels and the neoclassical economists; twentieth-century contributions.
ECON 4680 - Health Economics
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: ECON 2420; junior standing preferred. Introduces the application of economic models to health and the health care industry. Topics include individual health behaviors, demand for health care, health insurance and other institutions in health care markets, the role of government in health care, and health care reform. Empirical results and policy applications discussed.
ECON 4700 - Sports Economics
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Admission into the College of Business; junior standing preferred. Economic theories in the areas of public finance, labor markets, game theory, industrial organization, and price theory studied within the context of sports. Examines common misperceptions about sports-related statistical data and relates it to issues in the broader economy. Topics include benefits and costs of financing sports arenas, structure and competitiveness of sports leagues, antitrust exemptions, effects of title IX regulations, labor bargaining and negotiations, wage and price determination. Explores issues in collegiate sports such as potential for crowding out other college programs (the prisoner's dilemma).
ECON 4720 - Economic Issues in the Music Industry
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: ECON 2420; admission into the College of Business; and junior standing. Economic analysis of issues arising in the recorded music industry largely in response to Internet availability of music formats. Topics include structure, conduct, and performance of the industry; optimal copyright policy; the economics of digital piracy; superstars and variety; payola; economics of two-sided markets; policy analysis; and evaluation of effects on social welfare.
ECON 4780 - Behavioral Economics and Finance
3 credit hours
(Same as FIN 4780.) Prerequisites: ECON 2410, ECON 2420 and FIN 3010; junior standing; admission into the College of Business. Concepts in behavioral economics and finance. Focuses on common behavioral tendencies not well integrated into standard neoclassical economic theory. Topics include other regarding preferences, risk aversion, sunk cost fallacies, endowment effects, and common biases and errors in judgment and decision making. Explores applications of these concepts in finance and other areas of business.
ECON 4890 - Internship in Economics
1 to 3 credit hours
Prerequisites: Junior standing; admission into the College of Business; and recommendation of advisor. Supervised work experience in cooperating business firms or governmental agencies together with specialized academic study relating to the work experience. Pass/Fail.
ECON 4950 - Economics Competition and Challenge
1 to 3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Permission of department. Students engage in projects related to local, regional, and/or national competitions in economics.
ECON 4990 - Independent Study in Economics
1 to 3 credit hours
Prerequisites: Junior standing and admission into the College of Business. Problems for intensive study are chosen in joint consultation between student and instructor.
