Course Student Learning Outcomes (ECON)

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Apply economic reasoning to the analysis of selected contemporary economic problems.
• Recognize and identify situations leading to market failures.
• Discuss the efficiency and equity implications of government interference in markets.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Describe important economic and political events in US history and the connections among them.
• Explain how the unique backgrounds and social experiences of groups within the US population shape different views toward economic policy.
• Identify key economic legislation, from the US Constitution to recent laws, and the historical context that motivated them.
• Analyze the various processes by which economic policy is made in practice and whom these processes tend to empower.
• Discuss the confluences and trade-offs between individual economic liberties and social objectives.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Explain how the California constitution empowers citizens to influence legislation, in the context of economic policy initiatives from state history.
• Distinguish between federal, state, and local government powers and funding.
• Analyze the relationship between public policy and economic and social outcomes in California.
• Discuss the role played by transformative economic events, such as the Gold Rush and the advent of IT technology, in California’s development.
• Compare the economic conditions and trends in different geographic regions of California.
• Understand the entrepreneurial ecosystem in today’s California economy.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:• Apply basic concepts in microeconomics to explain the economic organization of the creative industries.

• Understand the production, consumption, and pricing of cultural goods.
• Describe and evaluate various government programs to support the performing arts.
• Describe the economic rationale and consequences for creativity of intellectual property rights.
• Identify economic challenges facing specific industries including music, film, performing arts, book publishing, and broadcasting.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Link formal and informal incentives to individual actions and their effects on the behavior of an organization.• Discuss the choices made by, and alternatives available to, individuals in dysfunctional corporate environments.
• Identify the fundamental problems relating to the separation of ownership and control in corporations.
• Explain the context of, and reasons behind, some of the famous corporate failures.
• Outline the history of major stock market and financial crises in the United States.
• Understand the motivations behind, and main provisions of, key regulatory legislation that pertains to corporate governance and financial reporting in the United States.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Summarize the history of residential segregation in the United States. Identify key policies that sustain racial and class segregation and policies that counteract it.
• Identify policies and economic conditions that led to widespread suburbanization both in the United States and globally.
• Describe current geographic patterns of employment, income, residential sorting, and housing prices within and between metropolitan areas.
• Assess the effects of various urban and land-use policies on housing prices.
• Assess the effects of various urban and land-use policies on environmental sustainability.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Understand how households (demand) and businesses (supply) interact in various market structures to determine price and quantity of a good produced.
• Identify how different changes in the determinants of supply and demand affect price and quantity in a model of perfect competition.
• Apply the model of perfect competition to predict the price, output, and welfare implications of several public policy interventions, including taxation, minimum wages, and rent control.
• Interpret the meaning of marginal revenue and marginal cost and their relevance for firm profitability.
• Understand the major characteristics of different market structures and the implications for the behavior of producers.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Define key macroeconomic indicators, including GDP, the rate of inflation, the rate of unemployment, the government budget deficit, the trade deficit, and the exchange rate.
• Correctly identify real and nominal quantities.
• Discuss the historic long-run and short-run behavior of US macroeconomic indicators.
• Compare the US to other economies on macroeconomic indicators.
• Explain how and why the Fed manages US interest rates.
• Contrast classical and Keynesian arguments about the effect of government spending on the economy.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Graph various functional forms with an emphasis on demand and cost functions.
• Calculate the maximum and minimum of algebraic functions with applications to utility, cost, and profit functions.
• Understand basic concepts in probability including random variables and probability distributions.
• Calculate and use various sample statistics to estimate population parameters.
• Estimate and interpret the results of linear regressions with one regressor using a modern software package.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Learn basic programming languages that are useful for econometric analysis.
• Understand how an algorithm works.
• Understand how to manage data.
• Learn how to graph and display the results of programming.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Use supply and demand to determine changes in market equilibrium (price and output), changes in welfare, and analyze the impact of government policies.
• Model consumer choice and solve for utility-maximizing consumption bundles.
• Derive demand curves from utility functions and identify income and substitution effects.
• Calculate cost functions from firm production functions.
• Determine the profit maximizing price and output for a firm operating in a competitive environment.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Determine profit maximizing price and output for a monopoly firm.
• Evaluate various policies for regulating monopolies.
• Be able to determine profit maximizing price and output for a firm in a quasi-competitive market (oligopoly or monopolistic competition).
• Be able to apply the concepts of supply and demand to markets with external costs and benefits.
• Understand the nature and consequences of general equilibrium (Pareto optimality).

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Relate aggregate patterns to individual optimization in consumption choices, investment behavior, international trade, and labor demand and supply.
• Predict the effect of changes in macroeconomic variables on aggregate demand and aggregate supply.
• Apply the Solow model to determine how changes in resources, behavior, and technology affect a country’s growth path.
• Calculate total factor productivity, and decompose GDP into trend and cyclical components.
• Distinguish financial crises, such as the Great Depression and the Great Recession, from regular downturns in the business cycle.
• Explain the connection between budget and trade deficits, and discuss the implications and sustainability of the national debt.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Understand the importance of the financial sector in promoting savings and directing their use.
• Distinguish between money and other forms of wealth, and their sources.
• Explain the determinants of the level and term structure of interest rates.
• Explain the likely path of interest rates, following a change in monetary policy.
• Understand the various money and capital market instruments.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Compute multivariate regression coefficients and standard errors for economic data sets on a computer.
• Interpret what multivariate regression estimates imply about the relationship between variables.
• Identify the assumptions upon which regression model variations are based.
• Interpret how confidence intervals and standard errors describe estimation precision.
• Identity estimation issues such as biased selection, non-linearity, heteroskedasticity and mulitcollinearity and explain their implications for regression analysis.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Understand and estimate the relationship between innovation, education, and economic growth
• Understand the costs and benefits of the U.S. patent system as a mechanism to stimulate invention
• Understand theories describing the relationship between competition and innovation
• Understand the implication of network effects and technological standards for technological diffusion
• Analyze the implications of the U.S. copyright system for creativity

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Identify instances of moral hazard and adverse selection and propose ways to address these problems.
• Solve for optimal contracts under symmetric and asymmetric information in some specific settings and interpret them as incentive schemes.
• Find pooling and separating equilibria in simple games with uncertainty and relate them to the economic value and cost of information.
• Describe incentive problems inherent in the separation of ownership and control in public corporations, and the role of internal governance mechanisms and markets for corporate debt and equity in mitigating them.
• Recognize examples of signaling and screening in labor and financial markets.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Use microeconomic theory to explain the location and structure of cities.
• Assess the impact of city ordinances (such as zoning or growth controls) on urban economic development.
• Explain how land prices and the quantity and price of housing are determined in an urban area.
• Explain the economic underpinnings of selected urban issues (such as poverty, transportation, education, employment).

No Learning Outcomes Listed.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Apply theoretical models and theories of trade to investigate the various reasons why countries engage in international trade, including the direction and volume of trade between nations
• Analyze and discern causes and effects of trade restrictions and policies, like tariffs, quotas, subsidies, export taxes, and others
• Illustrate the effects of labor migration, capital and other factors’ mobility across nations
• Understand international transactions’ accounting methods, such as the balance of payments, and explain why some countries run deficits and others run surpluses
• Analyze the exchange rate determination through various exchange rate regimes, such as gold standards and floating exchange rate mechanisms

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Apply basic principles of economics to environmental issues.
• Explain how something can be both “environmentally destructive” and “economically optimal”; and how something can be environmentally beneficial and economically suboptimal.
• Know basic economic models pertaining to the use of depletable resources; depletable vs. renewable resources.
• Understand the economics of water conservation; the impact of alternative property rights structures.
• Understand basic approaches to “optimal” pollution and optimal pollution control.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Understand various concepts of money and money substitutes
• Understand the sources of money and money substitutes
• Explain and anticipate the consequences of changes in the quantity of money on such economic variables as interest rates, inflation, the exchange rate, and unemployment

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Describe the unique economics of the health care system in the United States.
• Describe the differences between public and private insurance systems.
• Describe the role of health policy in shaping incentives for consumers and providers.
• Evaluate hypothetical and existing health policies using economic analysis.
• Devise feasible policies to solve health care system problems using economic analysis.
• Evaluate the strength and weakness of analyses in health care economics.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Apply economic principles to management decisions.
• Distinguish relevant from irrelevant costs for economic decision-making.
• Understand the basic forces governing the operation of competitive markets.
• Explain what input use and production decisions maximize profits.
• Articulate the conditions that give rise to pricing power.
• Determine how a firm with pricing power can maximize profits.
• Determine if and how a firm can engage in price discrimination.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Identify strategic situations in different contexts that are suitable for game-theoretic analysis.
• Formulate the basic ingredients of a game-theoretic model, including players, strategies, payoffs, and information.
• Compute equilibria in pure and mixed strategies.
• Analyze interactive decision-making and behavior, using game theory, in applications from various disciplines.

Upon successful completion of this course, a student will be able to:

• Understand the effect of international trade on living standards.
  • Explain classic and modern trade theories and their implications for the global location of industries.
  • Analyze the factors that determine currency exchange rates and the impact of changes in exchange rates on exports and imports.
  • Discuss the political economy of tariffs and trade policies.
  • Access international macroeconomic data.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Learn how to think critically about public policy issues
• Understand how microeconomic concepts can be applied to the analysis of a variety of public policy issues
• Understand how empirical research methods can be applied to a variety of public policy issues
• Understand the forces that shape the way in which public policy decisions are actually made

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Explain the fundamentals of game theory starting with basic terms such as strategies, payoffs, and information.
• Compute equilibria for normal form games and mixed strategy extensions of normal form games.
• Compute equilibria for sequential games.
• Explain how various equilibrium concepts and refinements differ and when to apply each.
• Identify and analyze strategic interactions in business and policy situations.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Critically assess the efficacy of current industrial policy using microeconomic theory.
• Explain the costs and benefits of regulation and antitrust policy.
• Effectively communicate the structure, conduct, performance paradigm and its shortcomings and extensions.
• Apply critical thinking to analyze strategic behavior in industry.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Critically assess the efficacy of current industrial policy using microeconomic theory.
• Explain the costs and benefits of regulation and antitrust policy.
• Effectively communicate the structure, conduct, performance paradigm and its shortcomings and extensions.
• Apply critical thinking to analyze strategic behavior in industry.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Apply labor supply theory to analyze public policy questions.
• Apply labor demand theory to analyze public policy questions.
• Integrate labor supply and demand theory to understand how equilibrium wages are determined.
• Use search theory to understand the role of equilibrium unemployment and labor market policies that affect it.
• Use and interpret economic data to explore labor market questions.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Understand the various concepts of money and money substitutes.
• Understand the sources of money and money substitutes.
• Explain and anticipate the consequences of changes in the quantity of money on such nominal variables as interest rates, the price level, inflation, and the exchange rate.
• Explain and anticipate the consequences of changes in the quantity of money on such economic variables as the gross domestic product and unemployment.
• Understand the sources of competing theories of monetary policy.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Understand the various concepts of money and money substitutes.
• Understand the sources of money and money substitutes.
• Explain and anticipate the consequences of changes in the quantity of money on such nominal variables as interest rates, the price level, inflation, and the exchange rate.
• Explain and anticipate the consequences of changes in the quantity of money on such economic variables as the gross domestic product and unemployment.
• Understand the sources of competing theories of monetary policy.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Learn how to think critically about public policy issues
• Understand how microeconomic concepts can be applied to the analysis of a variety of public policy issues
• Understand how empirical research methods can be applied to a variety of public policy issues
• Understand the forces that shape the way in which public policy decisions are actually made

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Apply a programming language or statistical software to econometric problems.
• Apply econometric techniques to address econometric problems, such as omitted variables, endogeneity, and measurement error.
• Apply microeconomic theory in an empirical project.
• Apply macroeconomic theory in an empirical project.

Upon completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Define interactive economic situations in precise game-theoretic language.
• Model imperfect and incomplete information.
• Formulate mathematically the appropriate notion of Nash equilibrium depending on the information structures and types of strategies.
• Derive pure-strategy and mixed-strategy Nash equilibria in games with different information structures.

Upon completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Model choices underlying macroeconomic phenomena.
• Solve micro-based models of macroeconomic phenomena.
• Explain issues that are particular to dynamic choices.
• Apply dynamic optimization techniques.

Upon completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Describe statistical approaches that are available for analyzing economic data.
• Select econometric techniques appropriate to specific empirical problems.
• State the assumptions underlying econometric techniques and explain consequences of violating those assumptions.
• Apply econometric techniques using appropriate software.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Understand the theory and practice of project evaluation.
• Explain the conceptual basis of cost-benefit analysis.
• Understand the trade offs between economic efficiency and equity.
• Use cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis to assess a public or private project.
• Use risk, uncertainty, and sensitivity analysis to enhance a typical project evaluation.

Upon completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Identify the key assumptions underlying mathematical optimization of utility and profit functions, and explain their economic content.
• Describe and apply constrained optimization methods.
• Model choice under uncertainty and employ different notions and measures of risk preference.
• Derive partial and general equilibria and discuss their efficiency properties.

Upon completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Understand the design of organized markets, focusing on efficient organization and the incentives created by market rules.
• Understand e-commerce and online auction markets.
• Understand government auctions of natural resources, procurement auctions.
• Understand matching markets (students to classes or schools, medical residents to hospitals, kidneys to recipients).

Upon completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Explain the location and structure of cities with economic theories.
• Assess the impact of city ordinances (such as zoning or growth controls) on urban economic development.
• Explain how land prices and the quantity and price of housing are determined in an urban area.
• Explain the economic underpinnings of selected urban issues (such as poverty, transportation, education, employment).

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Apply labor supply theory to analyze public policy questions.
• Apply labor demand theory to analyze public policy questions.
• Integrate labor supply and demand theory to understand how equilibrium wages are determined.
• Use search theory to understand the role of equilibrium unemployment and labor market policies that affect it.
• Use and interpret economic data to explore labor market questions.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Understand the importance of the financial sector in promoting savings and directing their use.
• Distinguish between money and other forms of wealth, and their sources.
• Explain the determinants of the level and term structure of interest rates.
• Explain the likely path of interest rates, following a change in monetary policy.
• Understand the various money and capital market instruments.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Critically assess the current motivations for and the efficacy of government interventions in the economy.
• Effectively communicate the essence of taxation theory, including tax incidence, tax efficiency, and tax equity.
• Apply knowledge of the seminal literature in the areas of public goods, externalities, public choice, and taxation.
• Critically analyze alternative taxation schemes.

Upon successful completion of this course, a student will be able to:

• Use their understanding of international trade and finance models to better identify the impact on the global operations of firms from changes in macroeconomic, international trade and investment policies.
• Understand how interest rates, inflation rates, asset prices and exchange rates are determined and affect each other so as to use this knowledge in practical decision making.
• Understand the workings and roles of various international economic institutions, (such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization), and how they may impact the global operation and decision making of firms.
• Use their knowledge about financial instruments, macroeconomic policy and the mechanics of finance to develop optimal hedging, speculation, risk management, and portfolio allocation strategies.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Critically assess the efficacy of current industrial policy using microeconomic theory.
• Explain the costs and benefits of regulation and antitrust policy.
• Effectively communicate the structure, conduct, performance paradigm and its shortcomings and extensions.
• Apply critical thinking to analyze strategic behavior in industry.

Upon successful completion of the course, a student will be able to:

• Solve for equilibrium in game-theoretic models of pricing and price discrimination.
• Identify how models of product differentiation, advertising, and pricing explain the observed action of firms.
• Compute estimates of demand functions using instrumental variables to correct simultaneity bias.
• Compute estimates of demand functions in a discrete choice framework.

Upon completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Apply incentive theory to understanding governance systems and executive behavior
• Understand the effect of funding sources and organization structure on firm performance
• Understand collective decision making and bargaining
• Analyze issues specific to new ventures.

Upon successful completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Formulate well-defined research questions.
• Identify and evaluate the relevant primary economic literature on a research topic.
• Analyze the structure of arguments in primary economic literature.
• Discuss the validity and limitations of research findings.

Upon completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Identify key practical applications of econometric analysis and tools appropriate to those applications.
• Describe problems imposed by endogeneity and simultaneity bias and find remedies.
• Use programming to merge and manage data and estimate econometric models.
• Interpret the estimates of econometrics models.

Students will be able to:

• SLO 1 - Engage in discussion with advisor to approve a topic.
• SLO 2 - Create a work plan to complete study in the selected topic.
• SLO 3 - Execute the work plan under the advisor's supervision.

Upon completion of the course a student will be able to:

• Identify key practical applications of econometric analysis and tools appropriate to those applications.
• Describe problems imposed by endogeneity and simultaneity bias and find remedies.
• Use programming to merge and manage data and estimate econometric models.
• Interpret the estimates of econometrics models.

• Learn how to think critically about public policy issues
• Understand how microeconomic concepts can be applied to the analysis of a variety of public policy issues
• Understand how empirical research methods can be applied to a variety of public policy issues
• Understand the forces that shape the way in which public policy decisions are actually made