Principles of Economics and Public Policy 2

This course is the second of a two-part sequence, preceded by Principles of Microeconomics and Public Policy I (PPHA 32300). We will build on the content of the first class, which focused on perfect competition, by studying the many ways markets fail to act perfectly competitive. Each section will combine the underlying theory with discussions of practical applications, culminating in a final project that uses published economic research on the topics studied. Over the quarter, students will learn:

• Market structure alternatives to perfect competition, e.g. monopoly, oligopoly
• Sources of and solutions to market failure, e.g. externalities, information asymmetry
• The basics of applying game theory to the economy
• Market simulations and modeling

This course is intended for students in the MSCAPP program, and will therefore introduce elements of programming to the curriculum. As such, a solid understanding of the Python programming language is required.