Teaching

 

Principles of Macroeconomics

Geared towards students of any major, this course introduces students to the basics of supply and demand. It then moves on to the measurement and determinants of such macroeconomic variables as total output, unemployment, the price level, and interest rates. Typical class size is 30 students, mostly first and second year students intending to major in business or economics.

International Trade and Finance

Mathematical and graphical models related to patterns of economic interactions across international borders form the primary topic of this class, with the political economy of trade barriers forming a secondary theme. The course begins with the Ricardian, Specific-Factors, and Heckscher-Ohlin models of trade, followed by exploration of the effects of trade barriers like tariffs, quotas, and subsidies, and finally covers macroeconomic topics like exchange rate regimes and the balance of payments. This is a course primarily for economics majors in their junior or senior year.

Quantitative Methods

This is an introduction to statistics for economics majors. Topics include measures of centrality and variation, probability, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, and OLS regression. By the end of the course students have worked extensively with Excel and Stata and are prepared to take a course in econometrics. The average class size is approximately 18.

Development Economics

This is a course in the political economy of development for students who have finished principles of economics. I teach technical tools like the Solow growth model and measuring poverty before turning to the barriers to growth and development. After discussing institutional dysfunction and models of the state, the rest of the semester examines the economics and political economy of various potential solutions to underdevelopment, including foreign aid, military intervention, and migration. The average class size is approximately 17.

Principles of Economics

This is a one semester principles course emphasizing microeconomics but dealing with macroeconomic topics as well. It is similar to Economics for the Citizen, described below, but with more emphasis on mathematics, cost curves, and other tools to prepare students for intermediate courses. The average class size is 18.

International Economic Policy

This is a survey of issues in international economics for non-economics majors. Through the first half of the course I build up an understanding of international trade and economic growth. The political economy of these issues is then the central focus throughout the second half. In spring 2021 I taught this course in a fully online, asynchronous format. The average class size is approximately 50.

Austrian Economics

In this upper level class, I take students through a tour of the unique perspective of economists in the Austrian tradition, including Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, and F. A. Hayek. We begin with the Austrians’ methodological orientation, pursue several avenues of consequent theoretical distinctness, and then use these concepts to render new insights in familiar areas of economics and political economy. The average class size is approximately 15.

Economics for the Citizen

This course is referred to as “Economics for Non-Majors” at many institutions. It is a one semester survey of economics for those with no prior exposure to the subject. I spend the first half of the class building up an understanding of supply and demand’s social coordinating function, followed by applying that framework to a variety of settings, from free rider problems to development. The average class size is approximately 40.