Highlighted Electives for Spring 2012
ECON 4600 Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. Three credits. Prerequisite: junior standing preferred. Problems of environmental quality and natural resource scarcity from an economic perspective. Topics include the interaction between the environment and the economy, the benefits and costs of environmental regulation, the use of incentives to achieve least-cost pollution control, international environmental issues such as global warming, the role of natural resources in the U.S. economy, the problems associated with natural resource scarcity and depletion, and problems related to consumption of renewable resources.
ECON 4800 Experimental and Behavioral Economics. Three credits. Prerequisites: ECON 2410 and ECON 2420; junior standing preferred. An introduction to concepts in behavioral economics and current research methods in experimental economics. The course will focus on common behavioral tendencies which are not well integrated into standard neoclassical economic theory. Topics include other regarding preferences, risk aversion, sunk cost fallacies, endowment effects, and common biases and errors in judgment and decision making. The course explores current experimental research methods for identifying and quantifying such effects.
FIN 4900/5900 TVA Investment Challenge. Three credits. Prerequisites: FIN 3810. Theories and concepts related to investing, security analysis and portfolio management will be put to the test in the management of a real portfolio of stocks. Topics include: TVA investment guidelines; portfolio management strategies; stock selection; investment gurus; individual investment styles; data sources and internet sites; stock screening techniques; and portfolio rebalancing.