Courses
ECON 351
ECON 340
Principles of taxation and the role of government: excess burden and optimal taxation; voting and its relevance for public finance; redistribution of income and wealth; inflation and public finance. Welfare economics. Analysis of public sector decision making and privatization. Project evaluation and cost-benefit analysis.
ECON 330
Firm behavior in imperfectly competitive markets. How firms acquire and maintain market power. Welfare consequences of market power. Strategic interactions among firms, and the role of government competition policy. Basic theoretical models of industrial economics: Bertrand and Cournot competition, collusion, advertising, innovation, and international trade.
ECON 320
Theoretical and empirical examination of the labor market: labor supply, demand for labor, and market equilibrium. Links between demographics (gender, race and ethnicity, marital status, age...) and labor market outcomes. Investments in human capital; household production and division of labor, fertility; job mobility and migration. Real and money wage determination; compensation schemes; compensating wage differentials; unions, public versus private sector employment, informal sector, and labor market segmentation; unemployment and poverty; discrimination and segregation. Selected aspects of the labor market in Türkiye.
ECON 311
Methods used for empirical examination of economic phenomena. Linear regression: least squares, goodness of fit, prediction; classical regression model; properties of estimators; links between models and economic theory; functional form; interpretation of regression results. Inference; confidence intervals and hypothesis testing; introduction to econometric packages and applications using data from economics and business; implications of relaxing the assumptions of the classical regression model.
ECON 344
Theoretical and empirical examination of economic problems in urban areas. Formation and development of cities: city size and patterns of urban growth, land rent and land-use patterns within metropolitan areas. Urban problems: housing, transportation, poverty, education, crime; sorting issues. Local government spending and revenue.
ECON 331
Determinants of competitive strategy in a variety of market structures; How the structure of industry affects strategic choices and performance. Topics include the dynamic aspects of pricing, entry and predation in concentrated industries, and product differentiation, product proliferation and innovation as competitive strategies.
ECON 321
Theory of international trade: Ricardian model of comparative advantage, Hecksher-Ohlin model, specific factors model, trade and market structure. Domestic politics of trade; tariffs, quotas and other non-tariff barriers. International politics of trade, history of world trade talks and the WTO. International movement of factors: Immigration and foreign investment; technology transfer and the role of multinational companies.
ECON 313
Econometric methods suitable for cross-section and panel data. Extensions of the least squares framework: generalized least squares; instrumental variables; non-linear regression; models with limited-range dependent variables; models suitable to samples subjected to selection. Maximum Likelihood method. Panel data methods: pooling of cross-section and time series data; fixed effects; random effects. Experiments and quasi-experiments. Supplemented with substantive economic applications and use of econometric software.
ECON 201
Conceptual foundations and modeling tools towards an understanding of economic decisions and interactions; theory of the consumer: preferences and utility maximization, with application to different choice contexts; theory of the firm: profit maximization, cost minimization; market equilibrium with perfect competition, monopoly, and oligopoly; markets for factor of production; introduction to general equilibrium and welfare; public goods and externalities; basic concepts of game theory and strategic interaction; information and market failure.
ECON 350
Topics will be announced when offered.
ECON 333
Analysis of strategic interactions that commonly arise in economic, business, political, and judicial arenas. A systematic introduction to game theory and some of its applications, such as market competition, technological races, auctions, party competition for votes, and bargaining.
ECON 322
Theoretical and empirical examination of international financial markets. Adjustment of balance of payments and exchange rate. Effects of devaluation and macroeconomic policy under fixed and floating exchange rates. Short and long term capital flows; interest arbitrage; the Euro-dollar market. Financial Globalization and Financial Crises.
ECON 314
Econometric methods to model time series variables and tools for forecasting. Background for time series: difference equations; Models with single variables: ARIMA models; specification testing, model selection; Structural components: seasonality, cyclicality and trends; Models with multiple variables: multivariate models; Forecasting: forecasting techniques, forecast comparison and evaluation of forecasting performance. Applications from economics and business using econometric software.
ECON 202
Real and financial sides of the aggregate economy; determinants of long-term economic growth and the Solow growth model; the business cycle and the behavior of aggregate consumption, savings, investment , and unemployment; aggregate price dynamics and inflation; monetary and fiscal policies in the context of IS-LM framework; open economy: real exchange rate and balance of payments. Impact of financial crises and macroeconomic policy response.