Intermediate & Advanced Courses

The intermediate (200 level) courses offer material on many different economic topics. These courses require Economics 105 as a prerequisite and are designed to be useful to non-majors as well as minors and majors. Finally, the advanced (300 level) courses involve a much more technically sophisticated approach to analyzing many of the same economic topics. These normally require some combination of Economics 203, 300, 302 and 304 as prerequisites and are designed primarily for economics minors and majors and those who expect to make use of economics in their professional careers. In most of the advanced courses, a substantial paper is an important part of the requirements.
Junior Research Seminars, Senior Thesis

Junior Research Seminars are semester-long research seminars which junior majors take to develop their research skills. They are developed around a topic, for example labor market discrimination. In these small seminar courses professors will guide their students as they examine current research in the area, learn the relevant research techniques, and conduct original projects. These electives, depending on the topic, will require Economics 203, Economics 300 and/or Economics 302, and possibly Economics 304. These courses should be taken in the second semester of junior year, or possibly in the first semester of senior year. The culminating experience in the economics major is the senior thesis, written as part of a year-long senior research seminar. The first semester is a group seminar in which students learn salient research skills, listen to and critique work of guest economics speakers, and develop their own research question. During the second semester students conduct original and independent economics research under the guidance of one of the economics faculty members.