Economics
We teach undergraduate and graduate students applied economics. Our teaching and research stress the importance of markets and institutions on political and socioeconomic outcomes.
Program Goals
- To stimulate students intellectually through the study of Economics and to lead them to appreciate its applicability to a range of problems and its relevance in a variety of contexts.
- To develop familiarity with the major facts and institutions of the United States economy, other national and regional economies and the world economy.
- To develop a fundamental understanding of modern economic theory, of its scope and limitations, and of its applications in the interpretation of facts and the formulation of policy.
- To equip students with basic but relevant mathematical and statistical skills.
- To develop in students the ability to apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired to the solution of theoretical and applied problems in economics, and an appreciation of the appropriate level of abstraction in the construction of models used as solution tools.
- To develop in students, through the study of economics, a range of transferable skills that will be of value in employment and self-employment.
- To generate in students an appreciation of the economic dimension of wider social and political issues.
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Student Learning Outcomes
The Department provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding, qualities, skills and other attributes in three areas: Knowledge and Understanding; Intellectual Skills; and Key Practical Skills. These outcomes are supported and assessed through the following:
Teaching and learning methods that enable outcomes to be achieved: Lectures, student-led tutorials, student presentations, essay and problem-solving coursework, provocative lectures from visiting scholars, guided self-study, and use of computer-related learning.
Assessment methods that enable outcomes to be demonstrated: Assessment by examination, coursework (essays and problem-solving exercises) and group discussion seeks to determine the following:
- how well students understand what is asked of them;
- how effectively they select their arguments;
- how relevant, clear and coherent are their explanations;
- how successfully they use and interpret evidence;
- the extent to which they show evidence of independently acquired knowledge; and
- their ability to use a variety of information sources, including electronic media.
A. Knowledge and Understanding:
- Core principles of microeconomics, namely: consumer theory, exchange, production, market organization, political economy and market failure.
- Core principles of macroeconomics, namely: income-expenditure and IS-LM models with open economy and government, inflation, wage and price stickiness and alternative contemporary paradigms.
- How to interpret statistics and apply probability methods in situations involving risk.
- Core principles from a set of well-defined specialist areas within economics.
- Analytical methods and model-based argument and the nature of and reasons for different methodological approaches.
- Relationships between verbal, graphical, mathematical and statistical representations of economic ideas and analysis.
- How to apply core economic theory and reasoning to topics of practical interest to governments, firms, households and other institutional and social groups.
- How to discuss and analyze government policy and to assess the performance of the U.S. and other spatially-defined economies.
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B. Intellectual Skills
- Identify and abstract issues that are most relevant to the construction of models used to assess the consequences of events or policies.
- Formulate problems, through appropriate simplifying assumptions and successive complicating adaptations.
- Make appropriate and rigorous deductions from initial assumptions.
- Assemble, evaluate, and synthesize primary and secondary information.
- Make plausible inferences through a process of informed induction.
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C. Key Practical Skills
- The ability to apply concepts such as opportunity costs, marginal changes, strategic thinking and incentives to decision problems in general.
- The ability to apply techniques and modes of reasoning such as numeracy, analysis, synthesis, deduction and induction to problems in general.
- Non-specific problem-solving abilities such as creativity in finding solutions, and lateral-thinking.
- Information technology skills, including word-processing, databases, spreadsheets and communications.
- The ability to locate, retrieve, assess and present information in general.
- Gather, organize and present, visually and mathematically, economic data.
- Analyze and interpret economic data through the use of appropriate statistical methods.
- Effective communication of ideas, concepts, theories and quantitative data, orally, in writing and via other media.
- The ability to interact constructively with others, in terms of understanding and criticizing alternative viewpoints and in working as part of a team.
- A capacity for independent learning and self-assessment.
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Assessment Schedule (doc)
Assessment Reports: fall 2007 (doc) spring 2007 (doc)
this page last updated 2/18/08
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