ECON - Economics

Freshman seminar course for economics students. The seminar introduces students to the discipline of economics (includes career opportunities) and explores the resources available at GCSU that contribute to student success. This course is intended to be taken during a student's first semester. This course does not count toward the total hours required for graduation.

An analysis of the use of resources in the production, exchange, and distribution of goods and services in our economic system. Emphasis on the development and use of marginal reasoning. Analysis of the determinants of aggregate economic activity. Includes social choice theory and issues concerning international trade among nations from an interdisciplinary perspective.

An inquiry into macroeconomic theory analyzing the factors influencing changes in the level of economic activity and other important economic aggregates in the context of both closed and open economics.

Analysis of the principles involved in the production, exchange and distribution of goods by the American economic system, including the role of the market, prices, and price determination under conditions of competition, monopoly, and imperfect competition. Includes topics in international trade and finance.

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 & 2106, or ECON 2100. An analysis of fundamental economic principles, institutions, and governmental policies which determine the economic relations between nations under conditions of increasing global independence.

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 & 2106, or ECON 2100. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to international finance. Main topics include foreign exchange markets, the purchasing power parity, the interest parity, and basic theories of the balance of payments.

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106, or ECON 2100. A study of the various types of economic systems used by societies to organize economic activity. This course is non-repeatable.

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 & 2106, or ECON 2100. The development of contemporary economic theory from early economic ideas. A study of the development of economic methods of analysis and philosophies and their relation to current theory.

Prerequisite: ECON 2106. A study of the tools of microeconomic theory. Consumer and Producer Theory, general equilibrium theory, and methods of marginal analysis are emphasized.

A study of the interaction between business organizations and government. Emphasis on industry structure and performance. Includes government policies concerning regulation, control, and promotion of business enterprise.

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 & 2106, or ECON 2100. This course covers basic tax theory, with a primary focus on the U.S. federal government. Topics include income distribution, income taxes, and consumption taxes. The course will address the political and economic motivation for various tax policies, and the efficiency and equity ramifications of various taxes.

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 & 2106, or ECON 2100. This course deals primarily with expenditure theory with application to the U.S. federal government. Topics include the budgeting process, redistribution programs, social security, health care, and national defense and other public goods. The course will address the political and economic motivation for various programs, and the efficiency and equity ramifications of various programs. This course is non-repeatable for credit.

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 & 2106, or ECON 2100. This course deals with non-market behavior from an economic perspective. The behavior of voters, politicians, committees, bureaucracies, special interest groups and lobbyists, among others, are analyzed from the standard self-interest model in economics. The course material has an overlap with topics from political science.

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 & 2106, or ECON 2100. This course presents an economic analysis of numerous interesting and controversial current social issues. Topics include the economic effects of legalized gambling, drugs, alcohol prohibition, and prostitution; private markets for human organs; polygamy; and other current issues. A major focus is the unintended consequences of prohibiting mutually-beneficial voluntary transactions.

This course is designed to provide students with an overview of labor economic theory and its practical applications. The course will concentrate on labor supply and labor demand and how economic conditions affect labor markets and individual labor supply and demand decisions. Topics of interest include: investment in human capital, wage policies of workers, minimum wage/living wage legislation, labor market discrimination, public policy, labor unions, and unemployment. Emphasis will be placed on how public policy affects labor markets and how labor markets affect public policy. After completion of the course, a student should be able to evaluate how changing economic conditions and changes in public policy will affect the labor market, individuals and businesses.

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 & 2106, or ECON 2100. A study of how economic forces can lead to environmental degradation and how the same forces can be directed to enhance environmental quality. Topics include resource and environmental valuations, property rights and externalities, market failure, alternative solutions and policies, problems in monitoring and enforcement, economic analysis of the development of legislation and regulation, and applications to current policy issues.

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 & 2106. A study of macroeconomic theory, including types and causes of inflation, fiscal and monetary policy, and the impact of international trade on the economy.

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 & 2106 or ECON 2100. A study of the nature of money and of the development of banking in the United States. Consideration of functions of money, the types of money used in early banking practices, modern financial institutions, the Federal Reserve System, and foreign exchange.

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 and 2106, or ECON 2100. A study of the principal institutions and markets of the financial system and their role in the intermediation process. Topics include: Analysis of money and capital market instruments, innovations and regulations, interest rate determination and relationships, financial policies of financial intermediaries; international aspects of financial markets. This course is non-repeatable.

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 & 2106, or ECON 2100. This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the modern theories of economic growth including alternative endogenous growth models.

Prerequisites: ECON 2105 & 2106, or ECON 2100. This course examines the economic causes and remedies of underdevelopment primarily in the third world.

Prerequisites: ECON 3600 and MATH 1261 ,or equivalent. Mathematical formulations of economic theories and the application of mathematical techniques to economic analysis. This course is non-repeatable.

Prerequisites: ECON 2105, ECON 3600 and MATH 2600. Statistical inference applied to economic theory. Estimation of single and multiple equation models. Topics include: Regression analysis, ordinary least squares (OLS) and other estimation methods, hypothesis testing, specification, multicollinearity, serial correlation, heteroskedasticity, and simultaneous equation models.

This course meets special needs of the students and/or the community. Approval of the department chairperson is required prior to registration.

Individually designed and planned learning experience involving field experience and study in the private or public sector. Approval of the department chairperson is required prior to registration.

Investigation of a topic of special interest, with reports given to the instructor. Approval of the department chairperson is required prior to registration.

Prerequisites: ECON 3600 and 3800. Individual directed reading and research in a selected topic area of economics. Research product required. Designated as research course for majors in Economics.