Brock University Undergraduate Calendar

Economics Courses
ECON 0N01 Work Placement I First co-op work placement (4 months) with an approved employer. Restriction: open to BBE and ECON Co-op students. ECON 0N02 Work Placement II Second co-op work placement (4 months) with an approved employer. Restriction: open to BBE and ECON Co-op students. ECON 0N03 Work Placement III Third co-op work placement (4 months) with an approved employer. Restriction: open to BBE and ECON Co-op students. ECON 0N90 Co-op Training and Development Framework for the development of learning objectives by students for individual work terms. Includes orientation to the co-op experience, goal setting, career planning, resume preparation, and interview skills preparation. Lectures, presentations, site visits, 2 hours per week. Restriction: open to BBE and ECON Co-op students. ECON 1P91 Principles of Microeconomics Introduction to microeconomics. Topics include nature of economics, price system, demand, production and cost, markets and pricing, factor pricing and distribution of income. Lectures, tutorial, 4 hours per week. Note: may be taken concurrently with, before or after ECON 1P92. ECON 1P92 Principles of Macroeconomics Introduction to macroeconomics. Topics include nature of economics, determination and control of national income, money, banking and monetary policy, macroeconomic policy and balance of payments. Lectures, tutorial, 4 hours per week. Note: may be taken concurrently with, before or after ECON 1P91. ECON 2P09 Canadian Economic History Growth and change in Canadian economy, from earliest European contact to the 20th century. Theories of growth, and of technical, institutional and demographic change. Topics include early fish, fur and timber trades, agriculture, the development of the West and the National Policy. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 1P91 and 1P92. ECON 2P10 United States Economic History United States economic development from the colonial era to the late 20th century. Topics include the effect of British mercantilist policy on the colonial economy, westward expansion, financial development under central and free banking, comparison of Northern and Southern agriculture, slavery and emancipation, industrialization and industrial organization, transportation, impact of wars, the changing role of women and the interaction of government and market. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 1P91 and 1P92. ECON 2P11 European Economic History The commercial expansion of Europe in the 16th century, the 17th-century depression and the Industrial and Agricultural revolutions of the late 18th and the 19th centuries. Technical progress, capital accumulation, growth of demand and new forms of economic organization as sources of economic change. The spread of industrialization between countries, the role of Europe in the world economy and the changing economic role of the state. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 1P91 and 1P92. ECON 2P15 The Economics of Unions (also offered as LABR 2P15) Labour unions in the marketplace. How unions affect, and are affected by, the labour and product markets. Topics include the effects of unions on wages, fringe benefits, turnover, inequality, productivity and the profitability of firms; union behaviour; who belongs to unions and why; collective bargaining; strikes; interest arbitration; public-sector unionism. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 1P91 and 1P92. ECON 2P17 Economic Development The economic factors affecting the growth of developing countries. Topics include growth models, inequality and poverty, education, urbanization, agriculture, international trade and the historical emergence of today's underdeveloped nations. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 1P91 and 1P92. ECON 2P21 Intermediate Microeconomics I Topics include the theory of the consumer and producer, willingness to pay, index numbers, the structure of a perfectly competitive industry and an introduction to imperfectly competitive markets. Applications are emphasized. Lectures, tutorial, 4 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 1P91. Note: MATH 1P97 is strongly recommended. Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in ECON 2P23. ECON 2P22 Intermediate Macroeconomics I Main determinants of aggregate output and national income in an open economy. Topics include money and interest, effects of fiscal and monetary policies, and trade and capital flows under different exchange rate regimes. Lectures, tutorial, 4 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 1P92. ECON 2P23 Managerial Economics Application of microeconomic concepts to business decision making. Topics include sales taxes and subsidies, consumer theory, production theory and various market structures such as discriminating monopoly, oligopoly and dominant firms. Lectures, tutorial, 4 hours per week. Restriction: not open to ECON (single or combined) majors. Prerequisite: ECON 1P91. Note: this course is primarily designed for students in the Business Administration program. MATH 1P97 is strongly recommended. Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in ECON 2P21. ECON 2P28 Economics of the Environment (also offered as ENVI 2P28) Environmental problems and natural resource management. Real world applications and case studies including sustainable development, pollution, taxes, the crisis in Canada's commercial fisheries and valuing improvements to environmental quality. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Restriction: open to students with a minimum of 4.0 overall credits. ECON 2P41 Economics of Tourism and Leisure Activities (also offered as RECL 2P41 and TOUR 2P41) Introduction to the economic analysis of the tourism industry. Determinants of the demand and supply for tourism and recreation; impact of tourism, recreation and leisure on regional and national economies. Topics may include ecotourism and the impact of government policies on tourism and recreation. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Restriction: open to students with a minimum of 4.0 credits. Not open to ECON (single or combined) majors, BBE or ENEC students. ECON 2P42 Economics of Professional Sport Economics of professional sport industries. Topics include the cost and market structures of professional sport, the economics of stadiums and arenas, and the economic impact of professional sport teams on a local economy. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 1P91. ECON 2P86 Women in the Economy (also offered as CANA 2P86, LABR 2P86, SOCI 2P86 and WISE 2P86) Women in the Canadian labour market. Topics include allocation of time between the household and labour market, gender segregation in the work place, how earnings are determined, causes of occupational and earnings difference by gender, role of investment in education and discrimination, recent developments in the labour market and their impact on women and men, and selected policy issues. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Restriction: students must have a minimum of 4.0 overall credits. ECON 2P90 Introduction to Econometrics Probability, random variables and density functions; correlation analysis; estimation and hypothesis testing in the classical linear regression model. Practical applications to different areas of economics and business. Lectures, lab, 4.5 hours per week. Restriction: not open to MATH (single or combined) majors. Prerequisites: ECON 1P91 and 1P92; MATH 1F92 or 1P98. ECON 2P91 Decision Analysis Linear programming, decision trees using Bayes theoreom, expected value under uncertainty. Multiple regression analysis with applications to forecasting and business decisions. Dynamic programming simulation. Lectures, lab, 4.5 hours per week. Restriction: not open to ECON (single or combined), BBE, ENEC and INPE majors. Prerequisites: ECON 1P91, 1P92, MATH 1P97 and 1P98. Note: combined Economics and Business majors may register. Contact the Department. ECON 2P92 Research Methods in Economics Locating economic data and published research, planning the project and defining a hypothesis, reasoning and argument in economics, uses and abuses of theory and quantitative methods, selection of appropriate methods, presentation of the findings. Lectures, seminar, lab, 4 hours per week. Restriction: open to ECON (single or combined), BBE and ENEC majors. Prerequisites: ECON 2P21, 2P22 and 2P90. ECON 2P94 Canadian Economic Issues (also offered as LABR 2P94) Canadian economic and business problems and policies. Topics may include stabilization, competition, taxation, foreign trade and exchange rate policies. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 1P91 and 1P92. ECON 2V60-2V69 Topics in Canadian Economic Policy Study of a particular area or theme in Canadian economic policy. ECON 3P01 History of Economic Thought I Development of economic analysis to 1870, including mercantilism, the classical school of political economy and Marx. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 2P21 or 2P23. ECON 3P02 History of Economic Thought II The development of economic analysis since 1870, including marginalism, Keynes and the founders of modern economies. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 1P92; ECON 2P21 or 2P23. Note: ECON 3P01 is recommended. ECON 3P03 Money and Banking I Financial markets, understanding interest rates, portfolio choice, the capital asset pricing model, the behaviour of interest rates, the risk and term structure of interest rates, the foreign exchange market. Economic analysis of banking structure, the banking firm and the management of financial institutions. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 2P21 or 2P23; ECON 2P22. ECON 3P04 Money and Banking II Financial derivatives and risk management. Central banking and the conduct of monetary policy, the demand for money, the transmission mechanisms of monetary policy, money and inflation, theory of rational expectations and efficient capital markets. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 2P21 or 2P23; ECON 2P22. Note: ECON 3P03 is recommended. ECON 3P06 Industrial Organization I Markets and the economic environment affecting strategic pricing and non-pricing behaviour of firms. Topics include the determinants of market structure, oligopoly pricing including game theory, predatory pricing, resale price maintenance, limit pricing, price fixing, advertising and research and development. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 2P21 or 2P23.
ECON 3P07 Comparative Economic Systems I Alternative economic systems, including centrally directed economies. Emphasis on planning as a substitute for markets. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 2P21 or 2P23. ECON 3P08 Comparative Economic Systems II Changing economic systems: globalization and economic integration (NAFTA, the European Union); the transition from plan to market in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and China; the Japanese economy. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 2P21 or 2P23. Note: ECON 3P07 is recommended. ECON 3P13 Enterprise Economic theory of and public policy towards the multinational enterprise. Topics include theories of foreign direct investment, macroeconomic and microeconomic effects of direct investment in host countries, home country issues, industry studies, public policy towards multinationals. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 2P21 or 2P23. ECON 3P14 Public Sector Economics: Expenditure The role and nature of the government sector; economics of public expenditure with reference to equity and efficiency considerations; techniques of public expenditure analysis; intergovernmental fiscal relations and economics of public debt. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 2P21 or 2P23. ECON 3P15 Public Sector Economics: Taxation An introduction to the theory of taxation; economic consequences of federal and provincial taxes; theory of optimum taxation; analysis of Canadian tax system. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 2P21 or 2P23. ECON 3P16 Industrial Organization II The evolution of competition policy in Canada and the application of the present Competition Act to affect market structure, market conduct and market performance. Other policy approaches such as public regulation and public ownership. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 3P06. ECON 3P18 Urban Economics Theories of location, city formation and urban spatial structure. Topics include housing, transportation, poverty, financing of municipal governments and the economics of city size. Social welfare implications of problems and policies. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 2P21 or 2P23. ECON 3P19 Regional Economics Theories of regional income determination; classical and other theories of regional growth; regional business cycles. Canadian regional disparities and nature of "Canadian Economic Union." Regional development policies in Canada, the UK and France. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 2P22. ECON 3P21 Intermediate Microeconomics II Topics may include models of market structure such as monopoly, duopoly, oligopoly and monopolistic competition; demand and supply of factors of production under perfect and imperfect markets. Introduction to the general equilibrium model and welfare theory emphasizing applications. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 2P21 or 2P23. Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in ECON 2P31. ECON 3P22 Intermediate Macroeconomics II Extension of the macroeconomic model to include the price level. Study of aggregate demand and aggregate supply. Topics include money demand and supply, inflation, unemployment, and the effectiveness of monetary and fiscal policy in an open economy. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 2P22. Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in ECON 2P32. ECON 3P24 Labour Economics (also offered as LABR 3P24) The economics of the labour market. Topics include the demand for labour, the supply of labour and investment in human capital. Policy applications. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 2P21 or 2P23. ECON 3P25 Topics in Labour Economics (also offered as LABR 3P25) Topics vary from year to year and may include unemployment, and the impact of unemployment insurance in the labour market, discrimination in the labour market, labour migration and the economic impact of immigration, economics of the family, the distribution of income and wealth in Canada, the economic impact of unions on wages and non-wage outcomes, issues in retirement and pensions. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 2P21 or 2P23. ECON 3P27 Economics of Natural Resources Economic analysis of the extraction of non-renewable resources (such as oil or minerals) and the harvest of renewable resources (such as water, fish or forests). Development of socially optimal extraction or harvesting rules. Examination of recent government resource policies. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 2P21 or 2P23. ECON 3P28 Environmental Economics Economic analysis of environmental degradation. The theory of externalities applied to environmental policy design for air, water, soil and toxic pollutants. International and distributional impacts. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 2P21 or 2P23. ECON 3P73 Game Theory (also offered as MATH 3P73) Applications of modelling; review of elementary decision theory and subjective probability theory; game theory (Nash equilibrium; two player NZS games; Nash cooperative solution); Shapley value; voting power, selected cases from economics and other applications. Lectures, 3 hours per week; lab/tutorial, 1 hour per week. Prerequisite: one of ECON 3P91, MATH 2P60, 2P72 or permission of the instructor. Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in ECON (MATH) 4P59. ECON 3P90 Econometrics The regression model in applied economics. The classical model and its extensions such as auto correlation and heteroscedasticity. Model specification and introduction to dynamic models. Theory and application of the regression model including a variety of practical examples. Lectures, lab, 4 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 2P21 or 2P23; ECON 2P22; ECON 2P90 or MATH 2P81 and 2P82; MATH 1P01 or 1P97 or permission of the instructor. ECON 3P91 Mathematical Economics I Application of quantitative techniques to economic theory and business problems. Quantitative techniques include matrix algebra, differential calculus, multivariate optimization without constraints and constrained optimization. Applications include the Leontief input-output model, the matrix representation of the classical least squares model in econometrics, profit and utility maximization, cost minimization, derivation of fiscal and monetary multipliers of nonlinear macroeconomic models, comparative statistics and efficiency wages. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Restriction: not open to MATH (single or combined) majors or general studies students. Prerequisites: ECON 2P21 or 2P23; ECON 2P22; MATH 1P01or 1P97. ECON 3P92 Forecasting in Economics Forecasting methods in business and economics such as time series extrapolative methods, Box-Jenkins and econometric model-based approaches. Combined forecasting methods and evaluation of forecasts. Practical applications in business and economics. Lectures, lab, 4 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 2P90 and MATH 2P81. ECON 3P93 International Trade The pure theory of international trade and commercial policy. Topics include the gains from trade, specialization, determinants of trade flows and impacts of tariffs and quotas. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 3P21 (2P31). ECON 3P94 International Payments Adjustment in the balance of payments and the role of international monetary institutions. International capital flows, interest rate arbitrage and exchange rates. International asset portfolio diversification. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 2P21 or 2P23; ECON 3P22 ( 2P32). ECON 3P95 Topics in Applied Econometrics Topics may include time series econometrics, simultaneous equation model, unit root problem, trend modelling in economic time series, co-integration, Granger causality testing, vector auto regressions and dummy dependent variable models. Lectures, lab, 4 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 3P90 and 3P91. ECON 3P96 Economic Growth and Business Cycles Characteristics of business cycles. Theories attempting to explain the cyclical fluctuation of total output, employment and inflation. Criteria for judging the validity of business cycle theories in explaining actual fluctuations. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 2P22 and 2P90. ECON 3P97 Cost-Benefit Analysis Analysis of welfare economics and its application to project evaluation. Emphasis on measurement of non-market activities such as benefits from environmental improvements and valuation of unemployed resources. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 3P21 (2P31). ECON 3P99 Mathematical Economics II The application of quantitative techniques to economic theory and business problems. Quantitative techniques include optimization with inequality constraints, the envelope theorem, game theory, difference and differential equations. Applications include labour-leisure choice, duality, sequential bargaining models, macroeconomic rational expectations models and economic growth models. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisite: ECON 3P91. ECON 3V60-3V69 Field Courses in Economics Application of economic analysis to special topics. ECON 4F90 Honours Essay Program of reading and research under the supervision of a Faculty member. Restriction: open to ECON (single or combined) majors with approval to year 4 (honours). Note: for more information students should consult the ECON 4F90 co-ordinator. ECON 4P13 Advanced Macroeconomics Advanced macro theory supplemented with readings and discussions of recent literature. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 3P22 (2P32) and 3P91 or permission of the instructor. ECON 4P14 Advanced Microeconomics Advanced micro theory. Topics may include theory of consumer behaviour, theory of the firm, imperfect competition, general equilibrium and welfare economics, behaviour under uncertainty, risk and asymmetric information. Lectures, 3 hours per week. Prerequisites: ECON 3P21 (2P31) and 3P91 or permission of the instructor.