Undergraduate
ARE 100A: Intermediate Microeconomics
This course provides a technical introduction to microeconomics using calculus. Topics cover consumer theory, producer theory, and competitive market equilibrium. We analyze market outcomes, aggregate surplus, and heterogeneous impacts on different subgroups. We discuss policies to increase economic welfare as well as practical barriers to implementation, with examples drawn from agriculture, environment, labor, immigration, management, urban planning, and a number of other areas. The focus of this course is to develop and learn to apply a set of tools that can be used to analyze a broad variety of scenarios.
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ARE/ECN 115A: Intermediate Microeconomics
This course features an overview of economic development, policy, and impact evaluation.
Measurement issues loom large in development economics, so we spend time at the outset
exploring measures of income, poverty, and human development. The main part of the
course explores the impact of various policies that enable economic development including investments in health and education, technological development, risk mitigation and
social safety nets, access to credit and microfinance, transportation infrastructure, and information and communication technology. Finally, we conclude by exploring development through the lens of institutions—the norms and rules of the game that govern how
societies function, their historical determinants, and policies to improve governance in the
modern world. In discussing economic policies, we introduce the basic concepts of impact
evaluation, which are essential to understanding what works to improve living conditions
and enable individuals, households, and communities to thrive. Throughout the course,
we develop quantitative tools for testing hypotheses and evaluating the causal impacts of
development policies.
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Graduate
ARE/ECN 215B: Macroeconomics of Development
This course addresses large-scale questions in development economics with a focus on non-experimental methods. We explore determinants of national wealth including geography, institutions, human capital, and misallocation. Course topics cover current research in economic geography, capital markets, land use, migration, urbanization, structural transformation, trade, and general equilibrium risk sharing. The content develops skills in general equilibrium modeling and non-experimental empirical methods including both reduced form and structural estimation.
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