ARE 201: Welfare Economics and Trade Policy.
Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.
Prerequisite: Economics 201A-B or equivalent or consent of instructor.
Basic
concepts of micro and welfare economics: partial and general equilibrium.
Introduction to international trade theory and policy in partial and general
equilibrium and in second best settings.
ARE 202: Production, Industrial Organization, and Regulation in Agriculture.
Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.
Prerequisite: ECON 201A or equivalent or consent of instructor.
Economics, institutions, and policies relating to agricultural and
resource markets. The course makes extensive use of microeconomic modeling
techniques including equilibrium concepts, comparative statics, and welfare
economics using partial and general equilibrium models. The course concentrates
on industrial organization: dominant firm and competitive fringe, oligopoly,
monopolistic competition, vertical integration, price discrimination, and
economics of information with applications to agriculture, food retailing,
cooperatives, fishing, and energy.
ARE 210: Probability and Statistics.
Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor.
This is an introduction to probability theory and statistical inference.
It is primarily intended to prepare students for the graduate
econometrics courses 212 and 213. The emphasis of the course is on the
principles of statistical reasoning. Probability theory will be
discussed mainly as a background for statistical theory and specific
models will, for the most part, be considered only to illustrate the
general statistical theory as it is developed.
ARE 211: Mathematical Methods for Agricultural and Resource Economists.
Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor.
The goal of this course is to provide entering graduate students with the basic
skills required to perform effectively in the graduate program and as
professional economists. The lectures place heavy emphasis on intuition,
graphical representations and conceptual understanding.
Weekly problem sets provide the
opportunity to master mechanical skills and computational techniques. Topics
covered include: real analysis, linear algebra, multivariable calculus, theory
of static constrained optimization, and comparative statics.
ARE 212: Introduction to Econometrics; Estimation and Inference.
Four hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.
Prerequisite: ARE 211 or consent of instructor.
Introduction to the estimation and testing of economic models. Includes
analysis of the general linear model, asymptotic theory, instrumental
variables, the generalized method of moments, time series analysis and
limited dependent variables.
ARE 213: Applied Econometrics.
Three hours of lecture and three hours of computer laboratory per week.
Prerequisites: 211 and 212 or equivalent or consent of instructor.
Standard and advanced econometric techniques are applied to topics in
agriculture and resource economics, and include generalized method of
moments, limited dependent variables, time series analysis, and
nonparametric analysis. Students are introduced to software packages and
use computers to conduct statistical analyses.
ARE 214: New Econometrics.
Three hours of lecture per week.
Topics vary from year to year. Topics in past years have included
Bayesian Analysis, causal inference and program evaluation.
ARE 219A/B: Econometric Project Workshop.
Two hours of seminar per week.
Techniques for preparing econometric studies, including finding data sources, the reporting of results, and standards for placing research questions with existent literature. With faculty guidance, students prepare approved econometric projects, present projects to the class, provide comments on other student projects, and revise projects in response to faculty and student comments.
ARE 231: International Markets and Trade.
Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: ARE 212 and Economics 201B, or consent of instructor.
Review of theories of comparative advantage. Theory and
practice of international commercial policy. Customs unions trade under
uncertainty. Empirical models of trade. Market structure considerations in
international trade
ARE 241: Economics of Production, Technology, Risk Agriculture and the Enviroment.
Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: ARE 201 and 202, or Economics 201A-B, or consent of instructor.
Agricultural policy problems in developed and less developed economies.
Cutting-edge theory, implementation and econometric implications of dynamic
stochastic modeling of markets for agricultural and other commodities. Effects
of shocks on dynamic behavior of markets. Welfare evaluation methodology and
applications to policy interventions (research, price supports, market
stabilization, environmental regulations, cartelization), and implications for
efficiency and distribution.
ARE 242: Quantitative Public Policy.
Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: ARE 211 or consent of instructor.
Public policy
analytical frameworks typically focus on only one
of four dimensions:
incidence,
mechanism design,
political economy and
governance structures. The four
analytical dimensions can be distinguished in accordance with their
imposed maintained hypotheses,
or assumptions, and the type
of
failures that arise. The roles of public versus special
interests are modeled to determine the degree and extent of
organizational failures in collective group behavior. Each of the four
analytical dimensions must be integrated in the design of public
policies that are sustainable and robust to an evolving economy and
society.
ARE C251: Microeconomics of Development.
Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.
This course focuses on
understanding the behavior of households, and the wealth of contracts,
arrangements, and institutions they form in response to an environment of
imperfect markets and high risk. Emphasis is placed on formal economic analysis
and empirical strategy.
ARE 252: Economic Development and Planning.
Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.
This course examines theoretical
and empirical issues in economic development, focusing on macroeconomic growth,
inequality, political economy, and human resources.
ARE C253: International Economic Development Policy.
Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisite: Minimum of one semester graduate-level microeconomics and
statistics, or consent of instructor.
This course emphasizes the development and application of policy
solutions to developing-world problems related to poverty, macroeconomic
policy, and environmental sustainability. Methods of statistical,
economic and policy analysis are applied to a series of case studies.
The course is designed to develop practical skills for application in
the international arena.
ARE 261: Environmental and Resource Economics.
Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisite: Ph.D. level economic theory or consent of instructor.
Theory of renewable and nonrenewable natural resource use with applications to
forests, fisheries, energy and climate change. Resources, growth and
sustainability. Economic theory of environmental policy. Externality; the
Coasian critique; tax incidence and anomalies; indirect taxes; the double
dividend; environmental standards; environmental regulation; impact of
uncertainty on taxes and standards; mechanism design; monitoring, penalties,
and regulatory strategy; emissions markets.
ARE 262: Nonmarket Valuation.
Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisite: Ph.D. level economic theory or consent of instructor.
The economic concept of value; historical evolution of market and nonmarket
valuation; revealed preference methods: single site demand, multisite demand,
corner solution models, and valuation of quality changes; averting behavior;
the hedonic method; contingent valuation; other stated preference methods:
ranking, choice, conjoint analysis; the value of life and safety; sampling and
questionnaire design for valuation surveys.
ARE 263: Dynamic Methods in Environmental and Resource Economics.
Two hours of lecture and two hours of discussion per week.
Prerequisite: Ph.D. level economic theory or consent of instructor.
The course studies methods of
analysis and optimal control of dynamic systems, emphasizing applications in
environmental and natural resource economics. Continuous time deterministic
models are studied using phase plane analysis, the calculus of variations, the
Maximum Principle, and dynamic programming. Numerical methods are applied to
discrete time stochastic and deterministic dynamic models.
ARE 298: Empirical Project.
In their second year,
students are required to conduct an empirical project in consulation with a
faculty advisor. This project draws on material learned in ARE 212 and ARE 213
to address a question of substantial economic interest. Particular emphasis is
placed on the development of an interesting research question; formulation of a
consistent economic model; and on building strong connections between the
predictions generated by theory and tested using the tools of econometrics.
Resulting papers are presented in one or more seminars, and are evaluated, in
part, by the student's peers.
Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Seminar.
This seminar series and student workshop meets Wednesdays at lunchtime
throughout the school year. Graduate students are invited to present research
at any stage of completion. Students have used the seminar as an opportunity to
present formal presentations such as practice job and conference talks, mock
orals, and less formal discussions of new research ideas. The seminar also
hosts speakers from outside the Department several times each year.
International Development Workshop.
For students working on their dissertations with a development faculty
in ARE, weekly workshops are held where students rotate in presenting
their work in progress. This allows faculty to collectively advise
students, and students to cooperate in helping each others in their
research.
Thesis Workshop.
All ARE graduate students are welcomed. Weekly workshops are held in
which graduate students present their work in progress. Students can
present early and preliminary work, as well as more advanced paper. The
purpose of this seminar is to help students that prepare for their oral
examination formulate their problem and research agenda, and to give
constructive criticisms to students further advanced in their research.
Members of the workshop are required to attend all meetings and read all
papers.
