Topics include the theory and measurement of demand, production functions, cost output relationships, pricing practices in competitive and oligopolistic markets, the roles of prices and profit in resource allocation, and the functioning of a decentralized economic system. This course begins with the rudiments of model building, and after working through the Keynesian model, goes into monetary and fiscal issues. Coverage extends into consumption and investment theories. This course focuses on the mathematical foundations of macro and micro theory. Beginning with linear systems the course proceeds to the techniques of differential and integral calculus and concludes with a study of economic systems.
Poverty is a problem confronting most of the world's societies.
This course examines poverty from an economic, political, social, cultural, and psychological point of view. Special attention is given to poverty and programs to combat it in northwestern Pennsylvania. A study of labor demand, wage theory, labor supply, and human capital analysis. Under labor demand, marginal productivity theory is discussed and then applied to minimum wages, teenage unemployment, and professional sports. The introduction to labor supply begins with the theory of consumer demand and proceeds with the analyses of labor force participation rates, and the economics of education.