Economics

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 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.

Prerequisites: ECON UN1105 The course surveys issues of interest in the American economy, including economic measurement, well-being and income distribution, business cycles and recession, the labor and housing markets, saving and wealth, fiscal policy, banking and finance, and topics in central banking. We study historical issues, institutions, measurement, current performance and recent research.

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)

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.

(Description for summer and semester course)

This course introduces macroeconomic theory for the analysis of aggregate variables such as income, employment, prices, and the interest rate. The first part of the course is devoted to studying the determination of the aggregate demand in the goods markets and the equilibrium of monetary markets, using an IS-LM model extended with elements of the banking sector and the open-economy framework. Next, the supply-side of the economy is examined with special attention to the labor market, wage setting and price setting behavior. The Phillips Curve (PC) introduces the tradeoffs between inflation and unemployment, and the role of expectations for inflation dynamics. The integrated IS-LM-PC model is then used to evaluate macroeconomic policies that aim at stabilizing the economy with output produced at its potential level
and the inflation rate at the central bank target. The recent episode of high inflation is simulated with a proper numerical calibration of the IS-LM-PC model.

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: 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.

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: ECON BC3033 or ECON BC3035 or permission of the instructor. Topic(s), requirements, workload and point value to be determined in consultation with faculty advisor. Forms available at the Office of the Registrar.

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.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201 An introduction to the economics principles underlying the financial decisions of firms. The topics covered include bond and stock valuations, capital budgeting, dividend policy, market efficiency, risk valuation, and risk management. For information regarding REGISTRATION for this course, go to: http://econ.columbia.edu/registration-information.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and STAT UN1201 An introduction to the economics principles underlying the financial decisions of firms. The topics covered include bond and stock valuations, capital budgeting, dividend policy, market efficiency, risk valuation, and risk management. For information regarding REGISTRATION for this course, go to: http://econ.columbia.edu/registration-information.

The objective of this course is to develop understanding of how political institutions and behavior shape economic outcomes, and vice versa. Starting from the micro level study of political behavior, we will build up to analyze the internal workings of institutions and ultimately macro level economic and political outcomes. During the course we will cover the following topics

• Limits and potential of markets

• Public goods provision

• Voting

• Redistribution

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412  Selected topics in microeconomics. 

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412  Selected topics in microeconomics. 

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412  Selected topics in microeconomics. 

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412  Selected topics in microeconomics. 

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412  Selected topics in microeconomics. 

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412  Selected topics in microeconomics. 

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412  Selected topics in microeconomics. 

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 Registration information is posted on the departments Seminar Sign-up webpage. Selected topics in macroeconomics. Selected topics will be posted on the departments webpage.

Prerequisites: ECON UN3211 and ECON UN3213 and ECON UN3412 Registration information is posted on the departments Seminar Sign-up webpage. Selected topics in macroeconomics. Selected topics will be posted on the departments webpage.

This course provides an opportunity for students in the Economics Master of Arts Program to engage in off-campus internships for academic credit that will count towards their requirements for the degree. The internships will facilitate the application of economic skills that students have developed in the program and prepare them for future work in the field.

This is a required course that facilitates the capstone research paper writing process for second-year students enrolled in the M.A. Program in Economics. The research paper provides an opportunity to write a substantial piece of academic work in which the student is expected to demonstrate mastery of a field, along with the ability to think originally and to convey results clearly in writing.

This course is a PhD-level introduction to political economy. The first part of the course is mostly theoretical and covers the most widely used models in topics such as social choice, direct and indirect democracy, accountability, lobbying, and redistributive politics. The second part of the course is a mix of abstract theory, applied theory and empirical work, and it covers some of the most research-active areas in political economy, such as media, corruption, and institutions.

This is the first course of the second year PhD econometrics sequence with emphasis on both economic applications and computationally intense methods for analysis of large and/or complex models. Students can attend the whole sequence or only one of them. While the details of the econometric techniques will be discussed extensively, the core and focus of the course is on the applications of these techniques to the study of actual data. Students will be practiced in econometric methods through computer-based exercises.

Prerequisites: Students should have a good understanding of graduate econometrics and should have taken ECON G6411 and G6412.

Prerequisites: Completion of 1st year graduate program in Economics, or the instructor's permission. The standard model of economic behavior describes a perfectly rational, self interested utility maximizer with unlimited cognitive resources. In many cases, this provides a good approximation to the types of behavior that economists are interested in. However, over the past 30 years, experimental and behavioral economists have documented ways in which the standard model is not just wrong, but is wrong in ways that are important for economic outcomes. Understanding these behaviors, and their implications, is one of the most exciting areas of current economic inquiry. This course will study three important topics within behavioral economics: Bounded rationality, temptation and self control and reference dependent preferences. It will draw on research from behavioral economics, experimental economics, decision theory, psychology and neuroscience in order to describe the models that have been developed to explain failures of the standard approach, the evidence in support of these models, and their economic implications.

This is an advanced graduate-level course in international macro-finance. The course focuses on empirical research and applied theory. This course is targeted to second year PhD students in business economics, economics, finance and related disciplines, including Columbia Business School MSFE students that have completed their first-year courses.

The course assumes familiarity with basic theoretical modeling techniques such as dynamic optimization and general equilibrium modeling. Similarly, the course assumes familiarity with basic empirical methods and with econometric software of your choice (Stata, Python, Matlab, etc.). Students without all the necessary prerequisites and familiarity with these techniques are welcome to take the course but should expect to have to fill the gaps on their own.

There is no required textbook for the course since we will mainly read and discuss papers on the reading list. The following resources will be used extensively:

-Handbook of International Economics, Volume 5, forthcoming. Link

-Stanford Big-Data Initiative in International Macro-Finance Videos: Link

Prerequisites: G6215, G6216, G6211, G6212, G6411, G6412. Students will make presentations of original research in Microeconomics.

Columbia faculty and guest speakers present research related to Labor and Public Economics.