Boston University EC377 Government, Business and Labor Summer II 2009 ∼ Syllabus Instructor: Martino Tasso Lectures: MTW 6pm-8.30pm Office: Room B20, Economics Department June 29, 2009 to August 5, 2009 270 Bay State Road, 02215 Boston MA Classroom: CAS 208 Email: [email protected] Course webpage: blackboard.bu.edu Webpage: people.bu.edu/mtasso Final Exam: August 5, 6pm-8.30pm Office Hour: Thu, 2-4pm Midterm Exam: July 15, 6pm-8.30pm 1 Content and organization of the course The topic of this course is the interaction of firms, workers, and policymakers. This is an undergraduate course designed to provide students with the tools to understand and interpret public interventions in the economy, their motivations, and consequences. The lectures provide theoretical background and specific examples of public interventions in several industries. Some knowledge of intermediate microeconomics is required. Some courses in labor economics, public finance, and industrial organization could be good complements to this course. The lectures are organized into four parts. The first part introduces the motivations for government interventions. It also deals with the specific issues of antitrust and regulation poli- cies, with a particular focus on the United States. The second part is entirely devoted to the regulation of consumer product markets. The third part focuses instead on “social regulation” along with environmental policies. Finally, the last part is dedicated to analysing the goals and the effects of some labor market policies, such as the minimum wage. 2 Textbook and other material The required textbook for this course is the following: W. Kip Viscusi, Joseph E. Harrington and John M. Vernon “Economics of Regulation and Antitrust” 4th edition, 2005, The MIT Press The lectures occasionally refer to articles in professional journals and newspapers. In those cases a link is provided on the course webpage. 3 Course prerequisite EC201, EC211 or EC303 4 Grading The final grade is a weighted average of the scores on the cumulative final exam (50%), the midterm exam (30%), 4 short problem sets (10%) and an assessment of class participation (10%). There is no makeup exam; a zero grade is assigned for any missed exam. 5 Academic conduct code Incidents of suspected cheating will be reported to the Dean’s office. Students caught cheating will receive a grade of zero for that exam. It is the student’s responsability to know and understand the provisions of the CAS Academic Conduct Code. Copies are available in CAS 105.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 15:51:41 +0000
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