Northwood University

NORTHWOOD UNIVERSITY

SEMESTER TRANSITION

ECONOMICS COURSE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

ECN 2210 Principles of Microeconomics 3 credits

An examination of general microeconomic theory with an emphasis on supply and demand, opportunity cost, consumer choice, the firm, the market structure(s) and regulation, allocation of resources, capital, interest, profit, labor unions, income analysis, energy, national resource economics, and public policy.

By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

Understand the concept of opportunity cost and explain how it can be used to improve decision making in a wide variety of economic applications, including consumption, investment, employment and production decisions.
Demonstrate how specialization based on comparative advantage leads to higher productivity and living standards, and evaluate protectionist arguments to the contrary.
Distinguish between capitalist and socialist systems of economic organization and evaluate their performance using a variety of economic criteria.
Use supply and demand analysis to predict how businesses and consumers will respond to changing market conditions and public policies.
Explain the concept of price elasticity of demand and describe its major determinants. Show how differences in elasticity in different market segments can be exploited by businesses using multiple pricing strategies.
Explain the role played by prices in providing the incentives and information needed to produce a rational economic order.
Identify potential causes of inefficiency in both the political and market processes, and explain their implications for public policy.
Given relevant data on a producer’s output and production costs, derive measures of fixed cost, variable cost, and marginal cost, and explain how these concepts influence the pricing and employment decisions in both the short run and the long run.
Describe the nature and sources of economic profit (as distinct from accounting profit) and identify conditions under which the search for profit contributes to the general welfare.
Distinguish between various market structures such as monopoly, pure competition, monopolistic competition, and oligopoly, and explain how these structures affect business strategy.
Use present value analysis to evaluate investment decisions..
Explain how worker preferences, market structure, labor regulations, taxation, and collective bargaining influence wages and employment.

ECN 2220 Principles of Macroeconomics 3 credits

An examination of general macroeconomics theory with an emphasis on government spending and taxation, national income accounting, economic fluctuations, macroeconomics theory, fiscal policy, monetary policy, the banking system, economic stabilization, international trade, economic growth, and comparative economic systems.

By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

Be able to recognize and define specialized terminology as it is generally used in macroeconomic analysis.
Be able to distinguish between classical, Keynesian, and monetarist theories, and explain how they relate to the federal government's use of macroeconomic policy.
Be able to explain fiscal and monetary policy tools of government, the rationale for their use, and their principal effects.
Be able to identify leading economic indicators, and explain how they may be used in making business and government policy decisions.
Be able to explain macroeconomic measures of aggregate output, income, savings, demand, price levels, employment, money supply, interest, investment, exports and imports, inflation, and the business cycle.
Understand the principal features of the nation's monetary system.
Be able to explain significant relationships between international trade and monetary exchange systems.
Be able to identify the effects of currency appreciation and depreciation upon import and export industries, international travel, international investment, and recent trends in the world trade system.
Be able to explain the relative advantages of free market (vs. socialistic) economic systems.

ECN 2700Economics of Sustainability3 credits

This course will help students understand the relationships between economics and our natural environments and social institutions. Students will study market and non-market values for environmental and enterprise services, approaches to measure sustainability, roles of business, government and non-profit sectors fostering sustainability, and the emerging role of environmental economics in strategic business planning. Fundamentals of environmental economics will be applied to real-world environmental and business problems.

Prerequisites: ECN 2210 and ECN 2220

ECN 3000 International Trade 3 credits

Examines the bases of trading among nations with emphasis on resources, foreign exchange, balance of payments, investments, tariffs, import quotas, export controls, nationalism, free trade, protectionism, and the institutions aiding in world trade.
Prerequisites: ECN 2210, 2220

By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

Describe the economic benefits of trade based on comparative advantage, and identify potential sources of comparative advantage.
Identify and evaluate common arguments in favor of free trade.
Identify and critically evaluate common arguments for trade barriers.
Compare the economic effects of tariffs, quotas, and voluntary export restraints on the consumers, producers, and governments.
Identify key accounts of the Balance of Payments, and provide an economic interpretation of balances in each.
Explain how customs unions, free trade areas, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and other international organizations function and how they affect the international flow of goods, services, and financial assets
Identify the basic determinants of foreign exchange rates.
Explain how and why central banks manipulate exchange rates.
Identify conditions under which a fixed exchange rate might be preferred to a floating rate.
Explain how international arbitrage leads to interest rate and purchasing power parity.
Describe and critically evaluate the role played by speculators in foreign exchange markets, and explain how forward contracts and currency option trading can be used

ECN 3010 Intermediate Microeconomics 3 credits

A study of resource allocation, scarcity, income distribution, consumer choice; theory of the firm, market structures, factor markets, welfare economics, and general equilibrium.
Prerequisite: ECN 2210, 2220 and MTH 3100

By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

Understand the methodology of economic science and the study of the market process.
Understand the theory of consumer behavior and will be able to apply ordinal and cardinal utility analyses to practical situations.
Understand the theory of production and long-run and short-run cost analyses.
Understand market structures and will be able to analyze profit maximizing behavior of a firm in perfectly competitive markets, imperfectly competitive markets, oligopoly markets, and monopoly markets.
Be able to evaluate the effects of government regulations on the markets and appreciate the antitrust laws.
Be able to analyze resource markets and determine wage rates, interest rates, rent of land, and profits under conditions of perfectly and imperfectly competitive markets.
Be familiar with the general equilibrium analysis and welfare economics.
Understand the concepts of externalities, public goods and market failure.

ECN 3020 Intermediate Macroeconomics 3 credits

A study of income theory, employment, interest rates, and price level determination.The role of government and its influence on these variables via monetary and fiscal policies.
Prerequisite: ECN 2210, 2220

By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

Understand the macroeconomic goals of a society and will be able to appreciate the national income accounts and the macroeconomic measurements.
Understand the functions and interactions of the major macroeconomic markets.
Understand and appreciate the theories of business cycles (Austrian, Keynesian, Monetarist, Neoclassical and Real Business).
Be able to analyze output (employment) and price level with the aid of the aggregate supply and aggregate demand model.
Be able to evaluate the Phillips Curve in the short-run and in the long-run.
Be able to evaluate supply-side and demand-side macroeconomic stabilization policies and their long-run and short-run effects on the economy.
Understand the most recent developments in the classical macroeconomics (i.e., the theory of rational expectations).
Be able to appreciate the interrelatedness of macroeconomic goals such as price stability, full-employment, economic growth and foreign sector stability.
Understand the relationship between the national budget deficits and the balance of payments deficits.
Understand the theories of demand for money, supply of money, and the rates of interests in the short-run and in the long-run.
Understand macroeconomics of an open economy and the significance of the foreign sector.
Understand the theories of consumption and their relevance in macroeconomic analysis.
Understand the theories of investment.

ECN 3110 Economic History 3 credits

A study of significant periods and development in the evolution of economic activity in the U.S. with special emphasis on the place of the American business community and its relationship to the world economy from 1067 to date.
Prerequisites: ECN 2210, 2220

By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

Possess a contextual framework of U.S. history into which they will be able to place specific points of economic history.
Possess an overview of the colonial economy, especially to compare and contrast mercantilism and free market economics.
Understand significant factors and events in our economy after independence such as the First and Second Banks of the United States, immigration, the westward migration, transportation, industrial and commercial growth, agriculture, and the business cycle.
Understand monetary matters and the developing conflict between governmental controls and free markets.
Possess a contextual framework for the Civil War and the economics of that event.
Understand the general impact of war on the U.S. economy from 1776 to 1945.
Understand the nature and causes of the Great Depression.
Possess the tools for analyzing government policy with regard to business cycle activity.

ECN 3310 Money and Banking 3 credits

Examines the role of money and financial institutions in the U.S. economy.Includes an analysis of the role of the Federal Reserve and the impact of monetary policy on interest rates, exchange rates and inflation, and a comparison of different institutional arrangements in financial markets.

Prerequisites: ECN 2210, ECN 2220

By the end of this course, Northwood wants student to:

Describethe forms, functions, and evolution of money and the emergence of electronic cash.
Collectand interpret data onmonetary aggregates, short term and long term interest rates and spreads.
Describe the origins and structure and function of the Federal Reserve System.
List the tools and procedures used by the Federal Reserve System to influence interest rates, monetary aggregates, and exchange rates.
Compare activist and non-activist monetary policy regimes, and provide examples of each.
Describe the different types of financial intermediaries and explain how their activities coordinate the activities of borrowers and lenders in a competitive credit market.
Use the theory of money supply and demand to explain how monetary shocks affect inflation, employment and output in the short run and the long run.
Compare existing monetary institutions withalternatives such as the classical gold standard and competing private currencies.
Understand the efficient market hypothesis and its relationship to the flow of funds in and out of the economy.

ECN 3410 Comparative Economic Systems 3 credits

An analysis of the various systems of economic organization; comparison of socialist methods of economic management with the operations of the market economy; overview of the current economics of several nations.
Prerequisite: ECN 2210, 2220

By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

Be capable of reviewing economic organization and the makeup of an economy, as well as to compare and contrast economic systems.
Understand the range of economic systems, from collectivist to market based and explore benefits and drawbacks of each.
Address and explore the recent worldwide shift in economic priority toward enterprise based systems.
Be capable of outlining the economic organization of different countries.
Be aware of the trend of increased worker self management in productive economic systems.
Understand the ways economic systems affect economic growth, stability, efficiency, equality, and freedom.
Be capable of comparing the institutional structures of various economic systems.

ECN 3510 Development of Economic Thought 3 credits

An analysis of the theories advanced from the Greeks to the contemporary schools of economic thought and their effects on present-day economic policies designed to give students an appreciation for the intellectual foundation of the discipline.

Prerequisite: ECN 2210, 2220

By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

Explain the origins of formal economic thought.
Identify and explain Mercantilist and Physiocratic thought and their regular recurrences in the modern economic context.
Understand and critique the major contributors to the classical economic ideas from Adam Smith to John Stuart Mill.
Explain and critique the economics of Karl Marx and appreciate its influence on social thought.
Trace the development of the theory of value and its evolution from the time of Adam Smith to the present.
Trace the development of the theories of distribution, capital and interest, wealth, and welfare.
Explain and critique the evolution of the Neoclassical microeconomics.
Explain and critique the contributions of J.M. Keynes and his followers to the evolution of modern macroeconomics.

ECN 3710 Environmental Economics 3 credits

Applies tools of economic analysis to issues of environmental pollution and resource depletion. Students will learn techniques for evaluating current resource use, and compare various regulatory and incentive-based public policy alternatives for improvement. Applications include solid waste management, air and water pollution, energy, wildlife habitat, population, and trans-boundary pollution.
Prerequisite: ECN 2210

By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

Be able to model environmental problems using economic theory.
Understand the various criteria by which resource use can be evaluated.
Be familiar with the techniques of cost benefit analysis and risk analysis and their application to environmental problems.
Understand the political economy of public choice as it relates to environmental regulation and risk assessment.
Appreciate the potential of private alternatives for protecting the environment and promoting social welfare.
Be familiar with the scientific and economic issues regarding air quality, water quality, land use, population growth, toxic substances, and climate change.
Be able to research environmental issues and support recommendations for appropriate private and public responses to them.

ECN 3850 Special Topics 1-3 credits

Various topics in economics. These may be one-time or occasional course offerings.

Prerequisite: Dependent on specific course content

ECN 3990 Advanced Topics - Political Economy 3 credits

Course includes an analytical and critical paper written after attendance at the annual summer “Freedom Seminar” or through arranged directed study.
Prerequisites: ECN 2210, 2220

By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

Demonstrate an ability to engage in secondary research on both theoretical and practical levels.
Show a competent understanding of the theoretical bases upon which an economic problem may be analyzed.
Demonstrate the ability to apply theoretical propositions to real-life problems.
Demonstrate the ability to write about economic issues in a thoughtful and engaging manner.

ECN 4010 Economics of Public Policies 3 credits

A study of both the short-term and long-term economic consequences of public policies as they relate to individuals and organizations. Policies examined include public pensions, health insurance, health and safety regulation, environmental protection, energy, industrial policy, and taxation.

Prerequisites: ECN 2210 and 60 credit hours completed.

Upon completion of this course, Northwood wants students to:

Use economic theory to trace the effects of a wide range of public policies that affect business including, but not limited to: public pensions, health insurance, health and safety regulation, environmental protection, energy, industrial policy, and taxation.
Evaluate those effects (from #1) using a wide variety of criteria, including economic efficiency, equality, growth, and individual freedom.
Compare the ability of individuals and interest groups to influence the outcome of market and political processes, and describe the nature of competition in each.
Evaluate arguments commonly used to justify government intervention in the market, including those based on externalities, natural monopoly, and asymmetric information.
Apply economic theory to understand and predict how private preferences are aggregated using the democratic process.
Identify and compare free market alternatives to political responses to economic problems.
Be able to provide an independent analysis of policy initiatives, considering the likely intended and unintended consequences.

ECN 4250 Cases and Problems in Global Entrepreneurship 3 credits

The case study method is used to analyze the global environment confronting the entrepreneur engaged in cross border enterprise. Important course components include public policy, markets, labor, and financial forces.
Prerequisite: ECN 3000

By the end of this course, Northwood wants students to:

Be knowledgeable in how to start a new international venture through and understanding of international market assessment, international sources of funds, and location analysis.
Know how to develop a complete new venture business plan.
Understand the complexities of market entry, e.g. exporting and importing, licensing, and investment controls.
Develop appreciation for problems and opportunities underlying cross-border alliances.
Understand management of international business expansion.
Understand the cultural, legal, and ethical issues pertaining to international business operations.
Develop an appreciation for human resource issues in cross –border business activities.

ECN 4400 Austrian Economic Theory 3 credits

Provides a general overview of how a generalized understanding of human action under subjective preferences can be used to deduce a wide range of economic phenomena.