Course Offerings for 2023/24
To view course materials, refer to MyLearningSpace, or see your faculty member or the course outline for further information on how to access your course material.
Examinations for Online (OC) courses
All online (OC) courses in the Department of Economics include on-campus mid-term and/or final exams. This information will be noted on your syllabus. If you live within 100 kilometres of either Laurier’s Waterloo or Brantford campuses, you must write your exam on that campus. Your instructor will confirm your exam date, time and location at the start of the term. If you live more than 100 kilometres from either campus, you may arrange to write your exam off campus using an approved external proctor.
100-Level Courses
This course analyzes the decision making of individual households and firms in a market economy, with an emphasis on the use of the price mechanism to allocate resources. The course will include applications to relevant economic policy.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
- Also offered online
This course examines the working of the national economy with an emphasis on the determination of national income. There will be an examination of important issues such as unemployment, price stability, and balance of payments and of possible government policies to deal with these issues.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
- Also offered online
200-Level Courses
A study of growth in developing countries considering the relationship of economic development to the structure of the economy; problems in modernizing the economic structure; problems of growth within the modernized sector of the economy.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
- Also offered online
This course is designed to introduce the student to the economic characteristics, function and performance of Canada's financial system. Such institutions as the Canadian payment system, the money market, the banks and near banks, and the foreign exchange market will be examined in detail.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
- Also offered online
An examination of broad topics related to China’s economic structure, its transition from a command economy to a socialist market economy, urban versus rural market reforms, population policies and dynamics, political institutions, patterns of economic growth and development, international trade, and foreign investment.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
- Offered online only
This course is an introduction to Canadian public sector institutions and the theoretical foundations necessary for evaluating the government’s role in the allocation of resources. Areas covered may include public goods, externalities, the public provision of private goods and the redistribution of income. Canadian federal-provincial relations, health care and education and voting procedures may also be examined.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024
Economic theory is applied to the problems of environmental disruption and pollution. The factors that inhibit environmental improvement are examined. Economic policies that can be used to prevent environmental decay are studied.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
- Also offered online
An introductory course in international trade theory and policy. Partial and general equilibrium analysis is used to discuss the direction of and gains from trade, and the effects of distortions like tariffs and quotas. The second part of the course includes a discussion of trade policy issues such as the formation of free trade areas and customs unions, and the operation of the world trading system under the World Trade Organization (formerly GATT).
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
- Also offered online
This course traces the history of international economic relations from the period of industrialization to the present. Topics covered will include the gold standard, international trade, foreign investment and migration.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024
An examination of the market for health care. Special emphasis will be given to health as an economic good, the relation between health status and economic well-being, market responses to the demand for health care, for the provision of health care workers, and the problems of health care costs and financing in a Canadian context.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
- Offered online only
This course is an introduction to issues in international finance. Topics may include international financial institutions, the balance of payments, exchange rates, international borrowing and lending and their relationship to international trade and the domestic economy.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
- Also offered online
Macroeconomic analysis is used to gain understanding of the determinants of current business conditions, to make macroeconomic forecasts, and to evaluate the effects on the economic and business environment of various types of macroeconomic policies.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
- Also offered online
This course develops and applies those principles of economics, which offer a foundation for managerial decision making. Microeconomic tools are applied to analyze the economic choices faced by the firm, and to establish decision rules which can assist the manager of business enterprise in achieving the goals of the firm.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
- Also offered online
An examination of conventional microeconomic theories which attempt to explain the nature of markets and the behaviour of individuals and firms. Topics will include consumer choice, the technology and costs of production, firm behaviour, competition and market structure.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
The course focuses on techniques and strategies for clear and effective written and oral communication of economic ideas. Topics may include technical writing techniques and style, expositional writing, literature searching and retrieval, and short oral presentations. Students gain practical experience through exercises which provide opportunities for instructor and peer assessment.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
An introduction to the foundations of statistical reasoning including probability theory, the law of large numbers, limit theorems, theories of point and interval estimation and statistical inference. This course will prepare students for further work in econometrics.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024
A study of the determination of levels of aggregate output, employment, interest rates, and prices in both closed and open economies with emphasis on static analysis. Stabilization policy is also examined.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024
An introduction to the foundations of large sample econometric theory and practice. Emphasis is placed on modelling data-generating procedures based on economic and statistical theory and analysis of resulting properties of least-squares and maximum-likelihood estimators.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
300-Level Courses
An examination of the theoretical foundations of benefit-cost analysis, cost-utility analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis along with the introduction of a number of case studies. Applications are to a number of areas within the public sector.
- Term offered: Winter 2024
An introductory survey of modern theories of economic growth and of the empirical applications of such theories. Topics include the neoclassical growth model, new growth theory and the role of economic institutions and government policy in facilitating growth.
- Term offered: Spring 2024
An in-depth examination of one applied and/or theoretical topic in economics, to be chosen by the faculty.
- Winter 2024
- Economics, Technology and Innovation
- Market Design
- Development and Political Economy
- Monetary Economics
- Spring 2024
- Macroeconomic Forecasting
This course examines gender differentials in economics outcomes and behaviour. Topics may include societal preferences for sons, education and skill investments in children and young adults, family formation decisions, wages and employment, and well-being among the elderly.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024
Economic theory is applied to the problems of extraction of non‐renewable resources (minerals, fossil fuels) and the management and harvesting of renewable resources (fisheries, forests, water). Topics include externalities (esp. common property resources), analysis of public good provision (applied to wilderness preservation), and water allocation and pricing. Optional topics include issues of natural resource scarcity and sustainability.
- Term(s) offered: Spring 2024
Many important economic problems can be represented by mathematical game models because each agent's welfare depends on other agent's choices as well as on his own. Examples include the firm's price and output decisions in oligopolistic markets and the "free rider" problem. This course introduces the student to game theoretic methods for analyzing both static and dynamic versions of such problems.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024
Applies economic theory and empirical techniques to the analysis of educational decisions and policies. Issues covered will vary from year to year, but may include the factors underlying individuals' educational decisions, estimates of the private and social returns to education, how education policies affect students' grades and/or future incomes, or the effectiveness of early childhood education programs.
- Term offered: Winter 2024
This course examines the operational and strategic decisions of firms using the tools of microeconomics. The emphasis is on developing analytical models to evaluate both intra-firm organization and inter-firm rivalry. Topics covered include horizontal and vertical boundaries of the firm, markets and competitive analysis, strategic positions and competitive advantage and incentive contracts and agency issues.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024
An examination of decision making, equilibrium and efficiency in different economic environments. Topics may include strategic behaviour, information, risk, intertemporal choice, product differentiation, general equilibrium, externalities and public goods.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
A study of extensions and refinements of the static model of national income determination with particular emphasis upon the theories of aggregate consumption, investment, and the demand and supply of money. Dynamic analysis is used to study the determinants of the rates of inflation and of economic growth and to evaluate macroeconomic policies designed to influence these variables.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
The course is designed to give a deeper understanding of modern econometrics tools and their application to answering economic questions. A primary focus of the course is on providing practical application in estimating econometric models using real world data sources.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
400-Level Courses
An in-depth survey of the economic principles that allow for the study of the politics of policymaking in any political environment.
- Term offered: Winter 2024
This course surveys topics in empirical economic history, with a strong focus on the tools used by economic historians to study the long-run determinants of economic outcomes and to inform the understanding of historical events and trends.
- Term offered: Spring 2024
- Winter 2024
-
- Environmental Economics
The institutions and rules of international economic relations, the international economic environment and the economic case for trade liberalization.
- Term offered: Winter 2024
An advanced survey of models of aggregate income, employment, and price level determination and recent developments in macroeconomics.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024
An in-depth study of microeconomic theory and its applications as represented by published articles in academic journals and other contemporary literature. Topics may include moral hazard, adverse selection, principal-agent interactions, problems relating to insurance markets, co-operation through self-interest and endogenous market structure.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024
Honours Economics students with the permission of the department may undertake a research paper in economics. The paper will be directed by a member of the faculty who agrees to the proposal.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024
The course focuses on the integration of knowledge into the application of economic theory and econometrics to a specific economic problem. Students will complete a written project and presentation.
- Term(s) offered: Winter 2024, Spring 2024
A research paper will be written under the direction of a faculty member.
- Term offered: Spring 2024
The course presents advanced treatment of econometrics principles commonly used in cross sectional, and panel data methods. In addition to the analysis of linear models, the course will also cover non-linear models such as limited dependent variables and generalized methods of moments.
- Term offered: Winter 2024