Economics

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All journalism students must complete at least eight economics credits. Below are the eligible economics courses taken from the 2011-12 UO Catalog. When listed with a >2 or SSC notation, the course will also count toward the university's Social Science group requirement. We usually discourage first-term freshmen from taking EC 201 unless they have a background or interest in the area. Track your progress with your Degree Audit Report on Duck Web.

Special Studies (199/399) or Experimental (410) courses can only be approved for the economics requirement on a case-by-case basis. Verify with your journalism adviser that the course will count toward the requirement BEFORE you register for the course.Note: This is a complete list of economics courses taught at UO. Most journalism students fulfill this requirement by taking two of EC 101, 201 or 202.

Business (BA)

  • 315 Economy, Industry, and Competitive Analysis (4) Free enterprise capitalism and market competition. Economic value added, product cost, and product pricing. Organizational arrangements and the control of economic activity. Prereq: BA 101.

Note: BA 315 is part of the business minor. Journalism students may use this course toward the economics requirement. However, it will not count toward the 94 College of Arts and Sciences credit requirement.

Economics (EC)

  • 101 Contemporary Economic Issues (4) Examines contemporary public policy using economic principles. Topics may include balanced budgets and tax reform, unemployment, health care, poverty and income redistribution, environmental policy, and international trade policy.
  • 201 Introduction to Economic Analysis: Microeconomics (4) Examines how consumers, firms, and governments make decisions when facing scarce resources and how those decisions affect market outcomes, such as prices and output. MATH 111 recommended.
  • 202 Introduction to Economic Analysis: Macroeconomics (4) Examines the aggregate activity of a market economy, the problems that arise, such as inflation and unemployment, and how the government can use macroeconomic policy to address these problems. EC 201 strongly recommended.
  • 311 Intermediate Microeconomic Theory (4) Consumer and firm behavior, market structures. General equilibrium theory, welfare economics, collective choice, rules for evaluating economic policy. Prereq: EC 201, MATH 111. Students cannot receive credit for more than one of EC 311, FIN 311, and FIN 311H.
  • 313 Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory (4) Determination of aggregate income, employment, and unemployment; evaluation of macroeconomic policies. Prereq: EC 202; EC 311 strongly recommended.
  • 320 Introduction to Econometrics I (4) Application of classical statistical techniques of estimation, hypothesis testing, and regression to economic models. Includes laboratory section in Social Science Instructional Laboratory. Prereq: MATH 242, 243.
  • 327 Introduction to Game Theory (4) Introductory course in game theory. Develops game-theoretic methods of rational decision making and equilibriums, using many in-class active games. Prereq: EC 101 or 201.
  • 330 Urban and Regional Economic Problems (4) Topics may include urban and metropolitan growth, land use, race and poverty, education systems, slums and urban renewal, transportation, crime, and pollution and environmental quality. Prereq: EC 201.
  • 333 Resource and Environmental Economic Issues (4) Economic analysis of replenishable and nonreplenishable natural resources; environmental issues and policies. Prereq: EC 201.
  • 340 Issues in Public Economics (4) Principles and problems of government financing. Expenditures, revenues, debt, and financial administration. Production by government versus production by the private sector. Tax measures to control externalities. Prereq: EC 201.
  • 350 Labor Market Issues (4) Topics may include the changing structure of employment, the minimum wage, the dual labor market hypothesis, collective bargaining, discrimination, and health and safety regulation. Prereq: EC 201.
  • 360 Issues in Industrial Organization (4) Topics may include analysis of market power, trends in industrial structure, the role of advertising, pricing policies and inflation, impact of social regulation (e.g., OSHA, EPA), and international comparisons. Prereq: EC 201.
  • 370 Money and Banking (4) Operations of commercial banks, the Federal Reserve System, and the Treasury that affect the United States monetary system. Prereq: EC 202.
  • 380 International Economic Issues (4) Exchange across international boundaries, theory of comparative advantage, balance of payments and adjustments, international financial movements, exchange rates and international financial institutions, trade restrictions and policy. Prereq: EC 201.
  • 390 Problems and Issues in the Developing Economies (4) Topics may include the role of central planning, capital formation, population growth, agriculture, health and education, interaction between economic and cultural change, and the “North-South debate.” Prereq: EC 201.
  • 411/511 Advanced Microeconomic Theory (4) Advanced theory of consumer and firm behavior, market structures. Prereq: MATH 253 or 263.
  • 413/513 Advanced Macroeconomic Theory (4) Advanced theory about the determination of aggregate income, employment, unemployment; evaluation of macroeconomic policies. Prereq: MATH 253 or 263.
  • 418, 419 Economic Analysis of Community Issues I,II (2,4) Hands-on experience applying economic analysis and econometrics to problems that face local community nonprofits and government agencies. Prereq: EC 311, 420.
  • 421/521 Introduction to Econometrics II (4,4) Application of classical statistical techniques of estimation, hypothesis testing, and regression to economic models. Includes two-hour laboratory section in Social Science Instructional Laboratory. Prereq: MATH 242, 243 or equivalent.
  • 422/522 Economic Forecasting (4) Basic techniques of economic forecasting that are typically used in a business environment. Prereq: EC 320; coreq: EC 421.
  • 423/523, 424/524, 425/525 Econometrics (4,4,4) Introductory topics in probability theory and statistical inference; regression problems of autocorrelation, heteroskedasticity, multicollinearity, and lagged dependent variables; special single-equation estimating techniques; the identification problem in a simultaneous equation setting; development of simultaneous equation estimating procedures. Prereq for 423/523: MATH 281, 341; MATH 282 and 461 strongly recommended. Prereq for 424/524: EC 423/523. Prereq for 425/525: EC 424/524.
  • 427/527 Games and Decisions (4) Game-theoretic methods of decision-making. Topics may include extensive-form games, noncredible threats, subgame perfect equilibrium, strategic-form games, undominated strategies, Nash equilibrium, coalitional games, and the core. Prereq: MATH 111 or equivalent.
  • 428/528 Behavioral and Experimental Economics (4) Investigates the “rational choice” model and behavioral alternatives, using laboratory experiments. Topics may include altruism, auctions, bargaining, behavioral finance, hyperbolic discounting, and decision-making under uncertainty. Prereq: EC 311.
  • 430/530 Urban and Regional Economics (4) Location theory; urbanization and metropolitan growth; regional analysis; intraurban rent, location and land use, size distribution of urban areas; welfare economics, political economy, and urban problems. Prereq: EC 311.
  • 432/532 Economy of the Pacific Northwest (4) Locational factors influencing development of the region’s major industries; recent changes in income and population; problems and governmental policies in the areas of taxation, environment, and planning. Prereq: EC 311.
  • 433/533 Resource and Environmental Economics (4) Appropriate time pattern of harvest for a replenishable resource and appropriate rate of exhaustion of a nonreplenishable resource. Issues in natural resource and environmental policies. Prereq: EC 311.
  • 440/540 Public Economics (4) Theory of public goods and their optimal provision. Collective choice versus private choice and implications for resource allocation and efficiency. Prereq: EC 311.
  • 443/543 Health Economics (4) Includes moral hazard and adverse selection; incentives faced by health-care providers through reimbursement, managed care, and malpractice; rationale for government intervention in the health-care sector. Prereq: EC 311.
  • 450/550 Labor Economics (4) Supply and demand for labor, wage determination, minimum wage and worker exploitation, hedonic analysis of risk, human capital investments, labor market signaling and sorting, discrimination, uncertainty, and job matching. Prereq: EC 311.
  • 451/551 Issues in Labor Economics (4) Topics may include the determination of wages, employment, and unemployment; globalization and immigration; income inequality; internal labor markets; the role of unions; human capital, education, and schools. Prereq: EC 311.
  • 460/560 Theories of Industrial Organization (4) Theories, quantitative measures, and institutional descriptions of the structure, conduct, and results that characterize American industry. Emphasis is on the determinants and consequences of market power. Prereq: EC 311.
  • 461/561 Industrial Organization and Public Policy (4) Major policy instruments that have been developed to cope with social problems created by market power. The two principal instruments are antitrust and income policies. Prereq: EC 311.
  • 470/570 Monetary Policy (4) Federal Reserve System strategies and methods of monetary and credit control. Effects of federal policies on prices, output, and employment. Prereq: EC 313.
  • 471/571 Monetary Theory (4) Money creation, deficit finance, and taxation in monetary economies. Topics may include the government budget constraint, causes and consequences of inflation, Richardian equivalence, and seigniorage. Prereq: EC 311, 313.
  • 480/580 International Finance (4) Foreign exchange markets, interaction between spot and forward markets, speculation and interest arbitrage, balance-of-payments accounting, measures of deficits and surpluses, “open-economy” macroeconomic issues. Prereq: EC 311.
  • 481/581 International Trade (4) Theories of international trade, direction of trade flows, determination of prices and volumes in international trade, tariffs, quotas, customs unions, free versus restricted trade. Prereq: EC 311.
  • 484/584 Multinational Corporations (4) Economist’s perspective of multinational corporations. Explores the policies governments use to influence corporate behavior and patterns of investment; taxation as a tool for implementing public policy. Prereq: EC 311.
  • 490/590 Economic Growth and Development (4) Experience of developed countries and theories of development. Analysis of specific development programs, role of agriculture, sources of investment, techniques and strategies of investment planning. Prereq: EC 311, 313.
  • 491/591 Issues in Economic Growth and Development (4) Economic issues in developing countries, including use of central planning or markets, capital formation, agriculture, population growth, health and education systems, and the “North-South debate.” Prereq: EC 311, 313.
  • 493/593 The Evolution of Economic Ideas (4) Economic thought from the ancient world to the 20th century. Major schools of economic thought and their relationship to other social ideas of their times. Prereq: EC 311, 313.