In economics, the term 'labor' refers to workers. As a factor of production, labor earns wages for the services that it renders. As such, students of labor economics have traditionally set out to understand wage formation, the level of employment, and all elements that go into the making of a wage relationship. Over the years, the social and economic contexts in which labor markets operate have become increasingly complex; nowadays, labor economics is no longer limited to the study of wages. Modern labor economics instead seeks to understand the complex workings of the labor market by studying the dynamics between employers, employees, and their wage-, price-, and profit-making incentives. In other words, modern labor economics explores the outcomes of the labor market under the assumption that workers strive to maximize their wellbeing and firms strive to maximize profits. It also analyzes the behavior of employers and employees and studies their responses to changes in government policies and/or in the demographic composition of the labor force. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: Demonstrate an understanding of basic labor economics theory, including labor market structures and wage determination; Apply their understanding of theoretical models to analyze trends in data pertaining to topics in labor economics; Apply their understanding of theoretical models to case studies presented in the course; Construct, defend, and analyze important labor policy issues; Comprehend, assess, and criticize existing empirical work in labor economics. (Economics 303)

The development and evolution of labor market structures and institutions. Particular focus on competing explanations of recent developments in the distribution of wage and salary income and in key institutions and organizational structures. Special attention to theories of worker motivation and behavior, the determination of wages, technology, and social stratification.

This course studies the interaction between law, courts, and social movements in shaping domestic and global public policy. Examines how groups mobilize to use law to affect change and why they succeed and fail. The class uses case studies to explore the interplay between law, social movements, and public policy in current areas such as gender, race, labor, trade, environment, and human rights. Finally, it introduces the theories of public policy, social movements, law and society, and transnational studies.

Macroeconomics provides an introduction to economic principles and market forces including supply and demand, unemployment, inflation, international trade and capital flows, monetary policy and banking, fiscal policy and globalization.

This course is a comprehensive introduction to the structure of the American economy as compared to other economic structures. Supply and demand, GDP, inflation, monetary policy, money and banking, taxation, economic growth, international exchange and comparisons of classical, Keynesian and monetarist economic philosophies are presented. It is required for business majors planning to transfer to 4-year business programs in the state of Washington.Login: guest_oclPassword: ocl

This textbook, Macroeconomics: Theory Through Applications, centers around student needs and expectations through two premises: … Students are motivated to study economics if they see that it relates to their own lives. … Students learn best from an inductive approach, in which they are first confronted with a problem, and then led through the process of solving that problem.

Many books claim to present economics in a way that is digestible for students; Russell and Andrew have truly created one from scratch. This textbook will assist you in increasing students’ economic literacy both by developing their aptitude for economic thinking and by presenting key insights about economics that every educated individual should know.

How? Russell and Andrew have done three things in this text to accomplish that goal:

1. Applications Ahead of Theory: They present all the theory that is standard in Principles books. But by beginning with applications, students get to learn why this theory is needed.

2. Learning through Repetition: Important tools appear over and over again, allowing students to learn from repetition and to see how one framework can be useful in many different contexts.

3. A Student’s Table of Contents vs. An Instructor’s Table of Contents: There is no further proof that Russell and Andrew have created a book aimed specifically at educating students about economics than their two tables of contents.

A math based economics course designed to provide the skills needed to solve fundamental problems in both macroeconomics and microeconomics, by covering concepts in precalculus and calculus.

Seminar designed to provide close case study examinations of specific media or media configurations and the larger social, cultural, economic, political, or technological contexts within which they operate. Subject organized around recurring themes in media history, specific genres or movements, specific media, or specific historical moments. Instruction and practice in written and oral communication. Topic: Comics, Cartoons, and Graphic Storytelling. Meets with CMS.871, but assignments differ.

This half-semester course provides an introduction to microeconomic theory designed to meet the needs of students in an economics Ph.D. program. Some parts of the course are designed to teach material that all graduate students should know. Others are used to introduce methodologies. Students should be comfortable with multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and basic real analysis.

This course offers an introduction to noncooperative game theory. The course is intended both for graduate students who wish to develop a solid background in game theory in order to pursue research in the applied fields of economics and related disciplines, and for students wishing to specialize is economic theory. While the course is designed for graduate students in economics, it is open to all students who have taken and passed 14.121. The recommended primary text for the course is Drew Fudenberg and Jean Tirole's text, Game Theory. The text covers all the material in the course and much more, but has less in the way of intuition and examples than some students would like. For this reason, students might alternately wish to use Robert Gibbons' Game Theory for Applied Economists as their primary reference. Gibbons' book contains more readable discussions of the material and a lot of nice examples, but omits a few of the topics we'll cover. The course will be graded on the basis of five problem sets and a three hour final exam. In order to learn the material it is absolutely essential to do the problem sets. The problem sets will count for approximately one-fourth of the course grade.

This is a half-semester course which covers the topics in Microeconomic Theory that everybody with a Ph.D. from MIT Economics Department should know but that have not yet been covered in the Micro sequence. Hence, it covers several unrelated topics. The topics come from three general areas: Decision Theory, Game Theory, and Behaviorla Economics.  I will try my best to put them in a coherent narrative, but there will be inherent jumps from topic to topic.

Microeconomics provides an introduction to economic principles and market forces including supply and demand, labor and financial markets, elasticity, consumer choices, cost and industry structure, competition, monopoly, negative and positive externalities, economic inequality, financial markets, international trade, globalization and protectionism.

This course is a comprehensive introduction to the functions of the market system including allocation of scarce resources, production of goods and services, determination of prices, output and profit maximization in competitive and monopolistic markets. It is required for business majors planning to transfer to 4-year business programs in the state of Washington.Login: guest_oclPassword: ocl

Microeconomics: Markets, Methods, and Models by D. Curtis and I. Irvine provides concise yet complete coverage of introductory microeconomic theory, application and policy. The text begins with an explanation and development of the standard tools of analysis in the discipline and carries on to investigate the meaning of ‘well-being’ in the context of an efficient use of the economy’s resources.

An understanding of individual optimizing behaviour is developed, and this behaviour is in turn used to link household decisions on savings with firms’ decisions on production, expansion and investment. The text then explores behaviour in a variety of different market structures. The role of the government is examined, and the key elements in the modern theory of international trade are developed.

Opportunity cost, a global economy and behavioural responses to incentives are the dominant themes. Examples are domestic and international in their subject matter and are of the modern era.

This text is intended for a one-semester course, and can be used in a two-semester sequence with the companion text, Macroeconomics: Theory, Markets, and Policy. The three introductory chapters and the International Trade chapter (Chapter 15) are common to both books.

Reviews available here: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/microeconomics-markets-methods-and-models

Russell Cooper and Andrew John have written an economics text aimed directly at students from its very inception. You’re thinking, “Yeah, sure. I’ve heard that before.”This textbook, Microeconomics: Theory Through Applications, centers around student needs and expectations through two premises:• Students are motivated to study economics if they see that it relates to their own lives.• Students learn best from an inductive approach, in which they are first confronted with a problem, and then led through the process of solving that problem.Many books claim to present economics in a way that is digestible for students; Russell and Andrew have truly created one from scratch. This textbook will assist you in increasing students’ economic literacy both by developing their aptitude for economic thinking and by presenting key insights about economics that every educated individual should know.How? Russell and Andrew have done three things in this text to accomplish that goal:1. Applications Ahead of Theory: They present all the theory that is standard in Principles books. But by beginning with applications, students get to learn why this theory is needed.The authors take the kind of material that other authors put in “applications boxes” and place it at the heart of their book. Each chapter is built around a particular business or policy application, such as minimum wages, the stock exchange, and auctions.Why take this approach? Traditional courses focus too much on abstract theory relative to the interests and capabilities of the average undergraduate. Students are rarely engaged and the formal theory is never integrated into the way students think about economic issues. And traditional books are organized around theoretical constructs that mean nothing to students. The authors’ applications-first approach ensures that students will not see chapters with titles like “Cost Functions” or “Short-Run Fluctuations”. They introduce tools and ideas as and when they are needed. Each chapter is designed with two goals. First, the application upon which the chapter is built provides a “hook” that gets students’ attention. Second, the application is a suitable vehicle a vehicle for teaching the principles of economics.2. Learning through Repetition: Important tools appear over and over again, allowing students to learn from repetition and to see how one framework can be useful in many different contexts.Each piece of economic theory in this text is first introduced and explained in the context of a specific application. Most are re-used in other chapters, so students see them in action on multiple occasions. As students progress through the book, they accumulate a set of techniques and ideas. These are collected separately in a “toolkit” that provides students with an easy reference and also gives them a condensed summary of economic principles for examination preparation.3. A Student’s Table of Contents vs. An Instructor’s Table of Contents: There is no further proof that Russell and Andrew have created a book aimed specifically at educating students about economics than their two tables of contents.The Student’s Table of Contents speaks to students, piquing their interest to involve them in the economics, and a Instructor’s Table of Contents with the economics to better help you organize your teaching—and frankly, you don’t need to get excited by economics, you already are.

This course will highlight common principles that permeate the functioning of networks and how the same issues related to robustness, fragility and interlinkages arise in several different types of networks. It will both introduce conceptual tools from dynamical systems, random graph models, optimization and game theory, and cover a wide variety of applications.

Examines theory and research on the relationship of organizations to each other and to their economic, political, and social environments. Classic and contemporary approaches to complex social systems, the dynamics of inertia and change, the role of legitimacy, and the production of change as an intended or unintended consequence. Considers the relative roles of voluntarism and determinism in the pursuit of organizational agendas and in the shaping of organizational environments, for example, with respect to changing employment relationships and environmentalism. Primarily for doctoral students. The goal of this doctoral course is to familiarize students with major conceptual frameworks, debates, and developments in contemporary organization theory. This is an inter-disciplinary domain of inquiry drawing primarily from sociology, and secondarily from economics, psychology, anthropology, and political science. The course focuses on inter-organizational processes, and also addresses the economic, institutional and cultural contexts that organizations must face. This is an introduction to a vast and multifaceted domain of inquiry. Due to time limitations, this course will touch lightly on many important topics, and neglect others entirely; its design resembles more a map than an encyclopedia. Also, given the focus on theoretical matters, methodological issues will move to the background. Empirical material will be used to illustrate how knowledge is produced from a particular standpoint and trying to answer particular questions, leaving the bulk of the discussion on quantitative and qualitative procedures to seminars such as 15.347, 15.348, and the like.

This is a comprehensive Personal Finance text which includes a wide range of pedagogical aids to keep students engaged and instructors on track. This book is arranged by learning objectives. The headings, summaries, reviews, and problems all link together via the learning objectives. This helps instructors to teach what they want, and to assign the problems that correspond to the learning objectives covered in class.Personal Finance includes personal finance planning problems with links to solutions, and personal application exercises, with links to their associated worksheet(s) or spreadsheet(s). In addition, the text boasts a large number of links to videos, podcasts, experts’ tips or blogs, and magazine articles to illustrate the practical applications for concepts covered in the text.

Planning Economics will apply microeconomic theory to issues that markets don't always handle well and so are not usually covered in a standard microeconomics course. Issues for this year include global warming, how you value a national park, the economics and politics of New York City development, how cities form and why people are willing to pay more to live in, say, the Boston Metro area, than they would pay to live in rural North Dakota, and how to evaluate costs and benefits that occur at different points in time.

Intensive coverage of precision engineering theory, heuristics, and applications pertaining to the design of systems ranging from consumer products to machine tools. Topics covered include: economics, project management, and design philosophy; principles of accuracy, repeatability, and resolution; error budgeting; sensors; sensor mounting; systems design; bearings; actuators and transmissions; system integration driven by functional requirements and operating physics. Emphasis on developing creative designs which are optimized by analytical techniques applied via spreadsheets. Many real-world examples are given, and classwork and tests are based on mini-design problems. From the course home page: This is a projects course with lectures consisting of design teams presenting their work and the class helping to develop solutions; thereby everyone learning from everyone's projects.