A study of the central problem of scarcity and of the ways in which the U.S. economic system allocates scarce resources among competing ends and apportions the goods produced among people. Two 80-minute and one 50-minute lecture/discussion per week.
Requisite for all other courses in Economics.
Fall and spring semesters: 25 students per discussion section. The Department.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025(Offered as ECON 111E and ENST 230) A study of the central problem of scarcity and of the ways in which micro and macro economic systems allocate scarce resources among competing ends and apportion goods produced among people. Covers the same material as ECON 111 but with special attention to the relationship between economic activity and environmental problems and to the application of micro and macroeconomic theory tools to analyze environmental issues. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 111 and ECON 111E. Two 80-minute and one 50-minute lecture/discussions per week.
Admission with consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 Amherst College students. Fall and spring semesters. Professor Sims.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2018, Spring 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023This course introduces the field of behavioral economics, which incorporates insights from psychology into economics with the aim of improving human welfare. Behavioral economics studies how individuals actually make decisions, which may deviate from the way "rational actors" are modeled in terms of making decisions in classical economics. Motivated by non-fiction readings and academic articles, we will use behavioral economic frameworks to characterize this actual decision-making and to explore its consequences for markets and for policy. Topics covered include prospect theory, frameworks for intertemporal choice, the importance of framing and defaults, subjective well-being, and "nudges."
Requisite: ECON 111 or ECON 111E. Limited to 25 students. Professor Debnam Guzman. Omitted 2021-22.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2023, Spring 2025This course uses economic models and tools to analyze environmental and natural resource problems such as climate change, air and water pollution, depletion of renewable and non-renewable resources, and land-use change. The frameworks studied include market failure due to externalities or public goods situations, the cost-effective allocation of pollution control, cost-benefit analysis, firm decision-making in response to regulations, and the management of renewable and non-renewable resources. We will also seek to understand and generate environmental policy solutions from an economic standpoint.
Requisite: ECON 111 or 111E. Limited to 30 students. Professor Sims.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2012, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2019, Fall 2021Economics is an ideology whose primary act of meaning-making is its self-presentation as objective social science. Through its graceful yet pernicious definitions of efficiency, value, competition, property, rights, and freedom, economics simultaneously hides and implements its oppressive neoliberal ideology. This class rejects this economics. In its place, guided by anti-racist principles, we work to develop a new economics with new definitions, new methods, and new frameworks. To do this, we must first characterize and understand the fundamental and fundamentally intertwined structural racism, patriarchal oppression, and violent distortion of both mainstream economic practice and American capitalism. We will then endeavor to rebuild, drawing on radical thought within economics (stratification and feminist economics) together with complementary justice-oriented work from related disciplines (sociology, social anthropology, political science, law, and critical race theory). Ultimately, our goal is to work towards an AntiRacist AntiEconomics. This course is numbered 211 to signify that it is a radical reintroduction to economics, a reconstructionist reprise of 111.
Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 22 students. Spring semester. Professor Reyes.
2023-24: Not offeredInequality is arguably one of the primary issues of our time. In this course, we will focus on understanding the particular manifestations of inequality in health and individual well-being that derive from inequality in environmental conditions. We will start with the canonical models of public economics, studying the role of government and paying particular attention to how failures of standard assumptions of rationality, perfect information, and perfect competition will lead to inefficiencies and inequities. We will then apply these modes of analysis to the following topic areas: a) poverty, inequality, meritocracy, and systemic racism; b) environmental inequality and environmental justice; c) health inequality and the cross-generational perpetuation of disadvantage. Lastly, we will consider the potential of public policy to improve societal well-being by targeting these inequities.
Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Professor Reyes.
2023-24: Not offeredHealth care poses many pressing questions: Why do we spend so much on health care? Does this spending actually produce better health? How do health care institutions function? What is the appropriate role of government? How are we to judge the efficiency and equity of health care policy? By applying economic analysis to health, health care, and health care markets, health economics provides insight into these questions. In the first section of this course, we will assess the role of health care in the economy and apply economic models to the production of health and health care. In the second section of the course, we will study the structure of health care markets and the roles of key institutions. In the third section of the course, we will investigate the role of government and use our acquired knowledge to understand and evaluate health care policy and reform. Throughout this analysis, we will pay careful attention to the nature of health care markets, the anatomy of market failures, and the implications for public policy. Empirical results, current issues, and public policies will be discussed throughout the course. In addition to assignments that ask students to engage technical problems and conduct economic analyses, students will be asked to write analytical papers and participate actively in the discussion of current economic research and public policy.
Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Recommended: any one of Microeconomics (ECON 300/301), Econometrics (ECON 360/361), or Statistics (MATH 130). Limited to 30 students. Omitted 2021-22. Professor Reyes.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2017, Spring 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2023The United States is in an unprecedented period of rising inequality. This course begins by examining the history of inequality in the U.S. since the start of the twentieth century. It then uses cutting-edge and detailed national data to document and explore the current state of inequality and intergenerational mobility in the U.S. We consider inequality by various metrics, such as race, gender, and geography, and in various outcomes, such as income, wealth, health, educational attainment, and incarceration. The course then examines determinants of inequality, and finally, investigates policy solutions to inequality. Throughout the course, economic models related to inequality are both presented and critiqued. Finally, special attention is paid throughout the course to causal inference, and to students honing their skills at understanding the intuition behind commonly used research methods to estimate causal effects.
Requisites: ECON 111/ECON 111E. Limited to 30 students. Professor Hyman. Omitted 2021-22.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2022, Fall 2023The state plays a large role in the economy, employing a substantial fraction of the labor force, producing and consuming a wide variety of goods and services, building infrastructure, taxing economic activity, enforcing contracts, redistributing wealth, regulating industries, and so on. Therefore, the allocation of society’s resources - the subject matter of economics - depends crucially on how political decisions are made. This course is an introduction to rational-choice and game-theoretic analysis of collective decision-making in the public sphere: voting systems and democratic governance; legislative bargaining and policymaking; the role of interest groups and collective action; corruption, rent seeking and government failure; constitutional change; and the economic analysis of law.
January-term courses will be offered remotely.
Requisite: ECON 111 or equivalent. Limited to 30 students. January term. Professor Kingston.
2023-24: Not offeredInternational migration is a key labor market alternative for many individuals, especially for those from developing countries. This course focuses on the economic underpinnings of the migration decision that culminates in individuals leaving their home country for work abroad. We will begin the course by examining the question of why people migrate. In the second section, we will focus on the effects of migration on migrant-sending developing countries. In the third section, we will examine the impacts of migration on migrant-receiving countries. Through lectures, discussion, debates, and written policy briefs, we will use economics as a toolbox for analyzing the complex issues of migration policy.
Requisite: ECON 111/111E or equivalent. Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Professor Theoharides.
The modern era has seen an explosive growth in the interconnectedness of individuals and groups. From social networks facilitating the decentralized exchange of enormous amounts of information to the increasingly complex patterns of loans among financial institutions, the ties that connect agents are an important factor to consider for nearly any policy maker. Networks, collections of objects which are connected by links, have become increasingly prevalent in modern economic research due, in part, to their ability to bridge microeconomic behavior and aggregate patterns in a population. A departure from more traditional applications of networks as modeling physical systems to a more abstract framework capturing the relationships between autonomous agents adds a layer of complexity to the analysis that is well-suited for tools from economics, and in particular game theory. Broadly speaking, this course will explore how the structure of connections between individuals affects, and is affected by, the economic incentives of those individuals. We will begin with an introduction to graphs, and then turn to specific applications of networks within economics. We will discuss networked markets featuring intermediaries between buyers and sellers, the structure of information networks and internet economics, applications to sponsored search, centrality measures for influence, and end with models of cascades and innovation in networks and how the structure of a network affects the likelihood of a cascade.
Requisite: ECON 111/111E or equivalent. Limited to 35 students. Fall and Spring semesters. Professor Porter.
2023-24: Not offeredThis course examines the determinants of and linkages between market structure, firm conduct, and industrial performance. Some of the questions that will be addressed include: Why do some markets have many sellers while others have only a few? How and why do different market structures give rise to different prices and outputs? In what ways can firms behave strategically so as to prevent entry or induce the exit of rival firms? Under what circumstances can collusion be successful? Why do firms price discriminate? Why do firms advertise? Does a competitive firm or a monopoly have a greater incentive to innovate? In answering these and other questions, the consequent implications for efficiency and public policy will also be explored.
Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 30 students. Professor Ishii. Omitted 2021-22.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2016, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2023, Spring 2025This course surveys the recent wave of financial globalization and assesses both its merits and potential risks. In particular, we will examine the most important potential benefit of financial globalization, an increased rate of economic growth that can be a powerful tool in alleviating poverty. We will analyze the theoretical arguments for a growth-enhancing effect of globalization and discuss the empirical evidence. We will then turn to the most important potential drawback: the risk of a devastating financial crisis, particularly in emerging market economies that have only recently opened to international capital movements. Throughout the course we will emphasize the conditions and policies under which financial globalization is likely to be successful. The course will conclude with an analysis of the effect of financial globalization, as well as increased trade openness, on inflation and the conduct of monetary policy.
Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 30 students. Not available to students who have taken ECON 435. Fall semester. Professor Honig.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2016, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2023, Fall 2024In this course, we study the role played by money, banking, and financial markets in the modern economy, with a particular emphasis on how financial intermediation facilitates exchange and how financial conditions promote (or inhibit) economic activity. Specific topics include stock and bond markets, financial institutions and banking regulation, central banking and monetary policy, international finance, and financial crises. We will learn the channels through which financial markets can affect employment, output, and inflation, and we will assess the effects of various policies on financial markets and broader economic conditions.
Requisite: ECON 111/111E. Limited to 25 students. Fall and spring semesters. Professor Khan.
2023-24: Not offeredThis course surveys major topics in the study of economic development. We will examine economic issues pertinent to developing countries through a discussion of economic theory and a review of empirical evidence. The topics covered will include economic growth, structural change, education, health, migration, gender, institutions, aid, and industrial policy. Using publicly available data, students will work on an empirical report identifying key development issues in a country of their choice and analyzing policy recommendations. Through lectures, discussions and the empirical project, the course aims to equip students with the tools they need to understand the various aspects of the development process and to evaluate policy options.
Requisite: ECON 111/ECON 111E. Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Professor Gebresilasse.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024Economics is often defined as “the study of the allocation of scarce resources.” But for what reason are we making this allocation? Most often, the goal is thought of as the attainment of well-being, for individuals, groups or societies and even ecosystems as a whole. Economics is essentially the study of the attainment of well‐being. Scarcity is the essential word – without it, a study of allocation would be irrelevant, and, of course, scarcity doesn’t just exist: it is created out of the interaction between limited resources/production and our wanting. This expresses the primary duality of economics: allocating resources to account for the interaction of what is or what is produced (supply) & our desire and wanting (demand). This course focuses on the demand-side – it is about our wanting, our decisions, our well-being, and what economics has to say about these and their interactions. Social scientists have become more interested in happiness and well‐being and have begun to question more intensely its measurement, distribution and causes, building on the foundations of many economists and philosophers over a long history of analysis. In this course, we will examine this literature with careful reading and textual analysis, and our own experiences from contemplative exercises.
Requisite: ECON 111/111E or equivalent. Limited to 30 students. Spring semester. Professor Barbezat.
2023-24: Not offeredThis course develops the tools of modern microeconomic theory and notes their applications to matters of utility and demand; production functions and cost; pricing of output under perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, etc.; pricing of productive services; intertemporal decision-making; the economics of uncertainty; efficiency, equity, general equilibrium; externalities and public goods. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 300 and ECON 301.
Requisite: MATH 111, or equivalent and at least a "B" grade in ECON 111/111E or a "B-" in ECON 200–290, or equivalent.
Fall semester: Limited to 50 students. Professor Baisa
Spring semester: Limited to 50 students. Professor Kingston.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025This course covers similar material to that covered in ECON 300 but is mathematically more rigorous and moves at a more rapid pace. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 300 and ECON 301.
Requisite: At least a "B" grade in ECON 111/111E or a "B-" grade in ECON 200–290, or equivalent, and MATH 211 or equivalent, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Baisa.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2023, Spring 2025This course develops macroeconomic models of the determinants of economic activity, inflation, unemployment, and economic growth. The models are used to analyze recent monetary and fiscal policy issues in the United States, and also to analyze the controversies separating schools of macroeconomic thought such as the New Keynesians, Monetarists and New Classicals. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 330 and ECON 331.
Requisite: Math 111 or equivalent and at least a "B" grade in ECON 111/111E or a "B-" in ECON 200–290, or equivalent.
Fall semester: Limited to 50 students. Professor Barbezat.
Spring semester: Limited to 50 students. Professor Honig.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025This course covers similar material to that covered in ECON 330 but is mathematically more rigorous and moves at a more rapid pace. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 330 and ECON 331.
Requisite: At least a "B" grade in ECON 111/111E or a "B-" grade in ECON 200–290, or equivalent, and MATH 121 or equivalent, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Honig.
2023-24: Not offeredA study of the analysis of quantitative data, with special emphasis on the application of statistical methods to economic problems. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 360 and ECON 361.
Requisite: MATH 111, or equivalent and at least a "B" grade in ECON 111/111E or a "B-" in ECON 200–290, or equivalent. Fall and spring semesters.
Fall semester: Two sections limited to 25 students each. Professor Gebresilasse.
Spring semester: One section limited to 50 students. Professor Theoharides.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025This course studies the specification, estimation, and testing of econometric models based on the maximum likelihood and method of moments principles. It builds from mathematical statistics and utilizes matrix algebra, the rudiments of which will be introduced in the course. The course will also review applications of econometric models to various areas of micro and macroeconomics. A student may not receive credit for both ECON 360 and ECON 361.
Requisite: At least a "B" grade in ECON 111/111E or a "B-" grade in ECON 200–290, or equivalent, and MATH 211 or equivalent, and STAT 111 or STAT 135 or equivalent. Limited to 20 students. Professor Ishii. Omitted 2021-22.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Spring 2014, Fall 2015, Spring 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024Behavioral economics is a young field which attempts to improve upon existing economic models and their attendant welfare implications by expanding the economists' toolkit to include insights from psychologists, sociologists, and other social scientists. This course offers an advanced overview of behavioral economics with special attention to the role of social preferences. At the core of the course is a focus on the theory and research methods underlying cornerstone findings in behavioral economics (e.g. loss aversion, the endowment effect, time inconsistency). Students will read and discuss current topics in behavioral economics research and complete an independent research project.
Requisite: ECON 300/301. Limited to 15 students. Professor Debnam Guzman. Omitted 2021-22.
2023-24: Not offeredThe goal of this course is to explore theoretical and empirical research on the links between economic development and environmental quality, including human health. We will seek to understand key tensions and solutions across topics including climate change, air and water quality, land use change, and natural resource management. We will read and discuss primary economic research, drawing on current papers in the fields of environmental economics and development economics. Course participants will develop an original paper that expands our understanding of the relationship between the economy and the environment in a low-income or socially-disadvantaged economic context.
Requisite: This course requires econometrics and either micro or macroeconomic theory (Econ 360/361 + Econ 300/301 or 330/331). It is a seminar, limited to 15 students, so that students can engage in extended discussions of the material and pursue their own related research topic. Spring semester. Professor Sims.
2023-24: Not offeredMuch of urban economics focuses on the origin and development of cities. But, more generally, urban economics is the study of the role of location/space in the decision-making of households and firms. Among the topics that may be addressed in the course are (1) modern trends in urban development, such as suburbanization and gentrification; (2) agglomeration of economic activities, such as advertising in Manhattan and hi-tech in Silicon Valley; (3) provision of local public goods, such as K-12 education and mass transit; and (4) housing policy and land use regulation, such as low income housing and zoning. The course combines relevant economic theories and models with discussion of current policy issues.
Requisite: ECON 300 or 301. Limited to 15 students. Professor Ishii. Omitted 2021-22.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2022, Spring 2025(Offered as ECON 416, BLST 416 and SWAG 416) Economics is fundamentally about both efficiency and equity. It is about allocation, welfare, and well-being. How, then, can we use this disciplinary perspective to understand hierarchy, power, inequity, discrimination, and injustice? What does economics have to offer? Applied microeconomics is a fundamentally outward-looking and interdisciplinary field that endeavors to answer this question by being both firmly grounded in economics and also deeply connected to sociology, psychology, political science, and law. In this class, we will employ this augmented economic perspective to try to understand the hierarchies and operation of race and gender in society. We will read theoretical and empirical work that engages with questions of personal well-being, economic achievement, and social interaction. Students will have opportunities throughout the semester to do empirical and policy-relevant work. Each student will build a solid foundation for the completion of an independent term paper project that engages with a specific economic question about racial or gender inequity.
Requisite: ECON 300/301 (Microeconomics) and ECON 360/361 (Econometrics) or Consent of Instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall semester. Professor Reyes.
2023-24: Not offeredEducation is one of the most promising ways to fight inequality, yet inequality in educational attainment is rising in the United States. This course focuses on understanding inequality in education in the U.S., and whether and how education reform can reduce it. The course begins with a brief overview of the historical and current relationship between educational attainment and inequality in the U.S. We then study the empirical economics literature examining whether prominent education policies and reforms reduce inequality in educational attainment. We examine topics in: 1) early childhood education, such as Head Start and universal preschool; 2) K-12 education, such as school finance reform, desegregation, and student-teacher race match; and 3) postsecondary education, such as affirmative action in college admissions, simplifying the college and financial aid application process, and financial aid during college. Throughout the semester, students learn commonly used empirical microeconometric research methods to identify causal impacts, and then employ these tools in their own empirical research paper.
Requisites: ECON 360/361. Limited to 15 students. Professor Hyman. Omitted 2021-22.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2023Game theory analyzes situations in which multiple individuals (or firms, political parties, countries) interact in a strategic manner. It has proved useful for explaining cooperation and conflict in a wide variety of strategic situations in economics, political science, and elsewhere. Such situations can include, for example, firms interacting in imperfectly competitive markets, auctions, arms races, political competition for votes, and chess. This course will provide an introduction to the tools and insights of game theory. Though mathematically rigorous, emphasis will be on applications rather than on formal theory.
Requisite: ECON 300 or 301 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Professor Kingston.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022In this course, we will explore the determinants of educational acquisition in developing countries. We will begin by discussing human capital theory. We will then explore a number of key determinants of educational outcomes in developing countries, such as educational infrastructure, teacher quality, conditional cash transfers, anti-child labor programs, and peer effects. The course will also include a module comparing the key questions in the economics of education facing developed versus developing countries. The purposes of this course are to deepen understanding of the determinants of educational investments and to build experience with using empirical research to expand knowledge in this area. To that end, much of the course will focus on careful reading of empirical journal articles, discussion of the various econometric techniques used, and causal identification. The course is built around student development of an original paper that expands our empirical understanding of the determinants of educational investments in a low-income economy context.
Requisites: ECON 300/301 and ECON 360/361. Limited to 15 students. Fall and spring semesters. Professor Theoharides.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2023A seminar in international macroeconomics, with an emphasis on emerging market economies. We will read and discuss empirical research papers. Topics covered will include financial globalization, banking and currency crises, exchange rate regimes, dollarization, and institutions and governance.
Requisite: ECON 330/331, or ECON 235/237 with consent of the instructor. Limited to 30 students. Fall semester. Professor Honig.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025This course explores the economic importance of entrepreneurship, with a focus on recent empirical findings. We will study the roles entrepreneurs play in innovation, economic growth, and rising living standards, as well as determinants of entrepreneurial success such as finance, geography, and entrepreneur characteristics. The course will also cover implications for policy and explore recent patterns in entrepreneurial activity in the United States. Students will become familiar with key research findings on entrepreneurship, conduct research utilizing publicly available data on firms and workers, and identify real-world examples of course concepts.
Requisite: ECON 360/361. Limited to 15 students. Professor Blackwood. Omitted 2021-22.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2022, Fall 2024Mechanism design uses game theory to design systems, institutions, and mechanisms to achieve desired outcomes. We will study the theory of mechanism design and how it is used to design auctions, tax schemes, and matching mechanisms. The course will approach these issues from a theoretical perspective and also examine real-world applications. Examples will include how Google sells advertising space, how medical students are matched to residencies, and how governments sell bonds. Students will read and discuss current research on these topics and also complete an independent research project related to the course material.
Requisite: ECON 301 or 420, MATH 211. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Baisa.
2023-24: Not offeredRobert Lucas famously claimed: “the consequences for human welfare involved in questions … [of long-run economic growth] … are simply staggering: Once one starts to think about them, it is hard to think about anything else.” This is a seminar in which we will start thinking about the why, how, and where long-run economic global growth occurred, or tragically did not occur. Through this inquiry students will learn why Lucas made this dramatic claim.
For most of human history, median per capita incomes all over the planet were relatively similar and stable. This began changing radically, only for some, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
In this seminar, we will describe and begin to explain this long-run economic process that brought us to the contemporary global economy. We will first examine the long swing of the stable Malthusian equilibrium briefly described above by delving into hunter/gatherer societies, ancient agrarian societies and the agriculturally based economies that developed though the fifteenth century. We then will turn to the long process of breaking this Malthusian equilibrium and examine the economic growth that really first occurred in Northern Europe and England. Finally, we will analyze the modern period of increased economic growth in certain parts of the world and the lack of that growth in others, resulting in the incredible global inequality during and after the nineteenth century.
Requisite: ECON 300/301 and ECON 330/331. Limited to 15 students. Professor Barbezat. Omitted 2021-22.
2023-24: Not offeredFor most of human history, all over the planet, people were sitting within a rather stable, Malthusian equilibrium, with very similar imputed levels of per capita income. This radically changed, for some, at the end of the eighteenth century. The goal of this course is to provide an introduction to the economic development of the contemporary world and an opportunity to support research on a specific topic within economic history. We will first examine the long swing of the Malthusian equilibrium in pre-industrial economies, focusing on hunter gatherer and agrarian economies. Next, we will turn to examine the breakdown of the Malthusian equilibrium (occuring only in some parts of the world), and the long transition to rapid growth after the sixteenth century. Because we know that only certain regions of the world participated in this unprecedented growth, we will then examine the consequences of this great uneven shift, often referred to as the “Great Divergence.”
The course requires both Macroeconomic and Microeconomic theory, as we will be examining the behavior and the consequences at both the individual, as well as the economy-wide, level. It is a seminar, limited to 15 students, so that students can engage in extended discussions of the material and pursue their own related research topic.
Requisite: ECON 300 or 301 and 330 or 331. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Barbezat.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2023, Spring 2025All economic activity is embedded in a framework of institutions including both formal laws and contracts, and informal norms and conventions. Institutions constrain individual behavior and thereby affect resource allocation, income distribution, learning, and economic growth. This course introduces recent approaches to the study of institutions in economics and political science. Particular emphasis will be placed on recent applications to economic history and development, and to theories of institutional stability and change.
Requisite: ECON 420 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Professor Kingston. Omitted 2021-22.
2023-24: Not offeredIndependent reading course. Half course.
Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall and spring semesters.The Department.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025The senior departmental honors seminar is a workshop that supports the first half of senior thesis work in economics. Students learn research methods and engage with economic research via close reading, structured writing, empirical analysis, theoretical reasoning, and active participation in discussion. Students develop and refine their own research proposals, so that by the end of the semester each student’s proposal clearly states a research question, places that question into context, and outlines a feasible approach. By the end of the semester, students will be deeply into the research, analysis, and writing process for a well-designed honors project.
Requisites: An average grade of B+ or higher in Economics 300/301, 330/331, and 360/361; successful completion of one 400-level economics class. Fall semester. Professor Reyes.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024Independent work under the guidance of an advisor assigned by the Department.
Requisite: ECON 498. Spring semester. The Department.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2025Independent reading course. Full course.
Fall and spring semesters. The Department.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025In this data-driven, digital age, being able to reason through the numbers we see on a daily basis via the media, advertising, and other sources is critical. This discussion-based course is designed to help build statistical and data literacy. Examples will be focused on the use of data and statistics as related to the public health field, including smoking, diet, and mass incarceration. Many topics from introductory statistics will be covered including probability, study design, sampling, and confidence intervals. This course will be conducted inside a correctional facility and enroll an equal number of Amherst students and residents of the facility. Permission to enroll in the course will be granted on the basis of a questionnaire and interview with the instructor. If space is available, first-year students will be admitted during the add/drop period. This course is not intended for students who want to major in statistics. One class meeting per week.
Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2021-22. Professor Correia.
2023-24: Not offeredIntroduction to Statistics provides a basic foundation in descriptive and inferential statistics, including constructing models from data. Students will learn to think critically about data, produce meaningful graphical and numerical summaries of data, apply basic probability models, and utilize statistical inference procedures using computational tools. Topics include basic descriptive and inferential statistics, visualization, study design, and multiple regression. Students who have taken a semester of calculus (MATH 111 or higher, or equivalent placement) or who are planning to major in statistics should take STAT 135/MATH 135 instead of this course. (Students who have taken STAT/MATH 135, PSYC 122, or ECON 360/361 may not also receive credit for STAT 111, and STAT 111 does not count towards the major in Mathematics.)
Limited to 24 students per section. Permission with consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Professor Matheson.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024(Offered as STAT 135 and MATH 135) This course is an introductory statistics course that uses modeling as a unifying framework. The course provides a basic foundation in statistics with a major emphasis on constructing models from data. Students learn important concepts of statistics by mastering powerful and relatively advanced statistical techniques using computational tools. Topics include descriptive and inferential statistics, visualization, probability, study design, and multiple regression. Students who have taken a semester of calculus (MATH 111 or higher, or equivalent placement) or who are majoring or planning to major in mathematics and/or statistics should take this course instead of STAT 111. (Students who have taken STAT 111 or PSYC 122 may not also receive credit for STAT/MATH 135. Students who have taken ECON 360/361 will be admitted only with consent of the instructor.) No prior experience with statistical software is expected.
Requisite: MATH 111 or equivalent. Limited to 24 students per section. Fall and spring semesters. The Department.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025This course is an introduction to nonparametric and distribution-free statistical procedures and techniques. These methods rely heavily on counting and ranking techniques and will be explored through both theoretical and applied perspectives. One- and two-sample procedures will provide students with alternatives to traditional parametric procedures, such as the t-test. We will also investigate correlation and regression in a nonparametric setting. A variety of other topics may be explored in the nonparametric setting including resampling techniques (for example, bootstrapping), categorical data and contingency tables, density estimation, and the one-way and two-way layouts for analysis of variance. The course will emphasize data analysis (with appropriate use of statistical software) and the intuitive nature of nonparametric statistics.
Requisite: STAT 111 or STAT 135. Limited to 24 students. Professor McShane.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2023This course is an intermediate applied statistics course that builds on the statistical data analysis methods introduced in STAT 111 or STAT 135. Students will learn how to pose a statistical question, perform appropriate statistical analysis of the data, and properly interpret and communicate their results. Emphasis will be placed on the use of statistical software, data wrangling, model fitting, and assessment. Topics covered will include ethics, experimental design, resampling approaches, analysis of variance models, multiple regression, model selection, and logistic regression. No prior experience with statistical software is expected
Requisite: STAT 111 or 135. Limited to 24 students. Four spots reserved for incoming first-year students in each Fall section. Fall and Spring semester. Fall Professor Liao, Spring Professor Liao, Professor Matheson
Other years: Offered in Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025Computational data analysis is an essential part of modern statistics and data science. This course provides a practical foundation for students to think with data by participating in the entire data analysis cycle. Students will generate statistical questions and then address them through data acquisition, cleaning, transforming, modeling, and interpretation. This course will introduce students to tools for data management, wrangling, and databases that are common in data science and will apply those tools to real-world applications. Students will undertake practical analyses of large, complex, and messy data sets leveraging modern computing tools
Requisite: STAT 111 or STAT 135 and COSC 111 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 24 students. Fall and Spring semesters. The Department.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025Making sense of a complex, high-dimensional data set is not an easy task. The analysis chosen is ultimately based on the research question(s) being asked. This course will explore how to visualize and extract meaning from large data sets through a variety of analytical methods. Methods covered include principal components analysis and selected statistical and machine learning techniques, both supervised (e.g. classification trees and random forests) and unsupervised (e.g. clustering). Additional methods covered may include factor analysis, dimension reduction methods, or network analysis at instructor discretion. This course will feature hands-on data analysis with statistical software, emphasizing application over theory.
The course is expected to include small group work, interactive labs, peer interactions such as peer review and short presentations, and a personal project, to foster student engagement in the course and with each other.
Requisite: STAT 111 or 135. Limited to 24 students. Fall semester. Omitted 2021-22. Professor Wagaman.
2023-24: Not offeredStatistical Communication is an important component of the capacity to "think with data." This course will integrate theoretical and practical aspects of statistics with a focus on communicating results and their implications. Students will gain experience clearly synthesizing and explaining complex data using diverse predictive and explanatory models. Learning objectives include: understanding the role of a statistician, developing communications skills, working collaboratively on group projects, designing studies to collect information, acquiring existing data resources, utilizing publications in statistics, creating reproducible research and developing oral arguments, relevant project reports, and dynamic graphical displays. Emphasis will be placed on the use of statistical software, data management, visual presentation, and oral and written communication skills that are necessary for communicating technical content.
Requisite: STAT 230 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 24 students. Fall semester. Omitted 2021-22. Professor Matheson.
2023-24: Not offeredTime series (TS) data are everywhere in our daily lives but often carry complicated information from which it is difficult to distill useful insights. Some familiar examples include daily stock prices, monthly unemployment rates, global warming trends, and the number of deaths of COVID-19 during the pandemic. In this course, students will gain fundamental understanding of the features and processes used to analyze TS data, learn how to model the patterns in historical values using various TS models, and further utilize the refined information from modeling to make educated predictions or forecasts. Topics covered will include time series regression, smoothing, unit root and differencing, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models, spectral analysis, and generalized autoregressive conditionally heteroscedastic (GARCH) models. If time permits, state-space models may also be introduced.
Requisite: STAT 230 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2021-22. Assistant Professor Liao.
2023-24: Not offeredEpidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of disease and health in human populations. It typically involves the analysis of multivariate observational data that pose challenges when trying to make causal conclusions. The course will focus on reasoning about cause and effect, study design, bias and missing data, models and analysis of risk, detection and classification, and modern approaches to confounding and causal inference. Topics include: Measures of disease (incidence and prevalence); Measures of association (relative risk, odds ratio, relative hazard, excess risk, attributable risk); Study designs (exposure and disease base sampling); Assessing significance in a 2x2 table; Assessing significance in a 2x2x2 table; Missing data; Introduction to confounding; Matching; Propensity score adjustment; Unmeasured confounding; Introduction to causal inference and counterfactuals; Causal graphs; and D-separation.
Requisite: STAT-230 (or PSYC 122 and PSYC 200 and consent of the instructor). Omitted 2021-22.. Professor Horton.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as STAT 360 and MATH 360) This course explores the nature of probability and its use in modeling real world phenomena. There are two explicit complementary goals: to explore probability theory and its use in applied settings, and to learn parallel analytic and empirical problem-solving skills. The course begins with the development of an intuitive feel for probabilistic thinking, based on the simple yet subtle idea of counting. It then evolves toward the rigorous study of discrete and continuous probability spaces, independence, conditional probability, expectation, and variance. Distributions covered include the binomial, hypergeometric, Poisson, normal, Gamma, Beta, multinomial, and bivariate normal. Other topics include generating functions, order statistics, and limit theorems.
Requisite: MATH 121 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 24 students. Fall semester. Professor Donges.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024(Offered as STAT 370 and MATH 370) This course examines the theory underlying common statistical procedures including visualization, exploratory analysis, estimation, hypothesis testing, modeling, and Bayesian inference. Topics include maximum likelihood estimators, sufficient statistics, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing and test selection, non-parametric procedures, and linear models.
Requisite: STAT 111 or STAT 135 and STAT 360, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Professor Donges.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2023, Spring 2025Competitions, which can include individual and team sports, eSports, tabletop gaming, preference formation, and elections, produce data dependent on interrelated competitors and the decision, league, or tournament format. In this course, students will learn to think about the ways a wide variety of statistical methodologies can be applied to the complex and unique data that emerge through competition, including paired comparisons, decision analysis, rank-based and kernel methods, and spatio-temporal methods. The course will focus on the statistical theory relevant to analyzing data from contests and place an emphasis on simulation and data visualization techniques. Students will develop data collection, wrangling,combination, exploration, analysis, and interpretation skills individually and in groups. Applications may include rating players and teams, assessing shot quality, animating player tracking data, roster construction, comparing alternative voting systems, developing optimal strategies for games, and predicting outcomes. Prior experience with probability such as STAT 360 may be helpful, but is not required.
Requisite: STAT 230 and STAT 231. Limited to 24 students. Fall semester. Professor McShane.
2023-24: Not offeredLinear regression and logistic regression are powerful tools for statistical analysis, but they are only a subset of a broader class of generalized linear models. This course will explore the theory behind and practical application of generalized linear models for responses that do not have a normal distribution, including counts, categories, and proportions. We will also delve into extensions of these models for dependent responses such as repeated measures over time.
Requisite: STAT 230 and STAT 360. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Bailey.
2023-24: Not offeredFall and spring semesters. The Department.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024Our world is awash in data. To allow decisions to be made based on evidence, there is a need for statisticians to be able to make sense of the data around us and communicate their findings. In this course, students will be exposed to advanced statistical methods and will undertake the analysis and interpretation of complex and real-world datasets that go beyond textbook problems. Course topics will vary from year to year depending on the instructor and selected case studies but will include static and dynamic visualization techniques to summarize and display high dimensional data, advanced topics in design and linear regression, ethics, and selected topics in data mining. Other topics may vary but might include nonparametric analysis, spatial data, and analysis of network data. Through a series of case studies, students will develop the capacity to think and compute with data, undertake and assess analyses, and effectively communicate their results using written and oral presentation.
Requisite: STAT 230, STAT 231, STAT 370, and the computing requirement; or consent of the instructor. Recommended requisite: STAT 231. Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Wagaman.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024Spring semester. The Department.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2023, Spring 2025