Apr 28, 2024  
2019-2020 Graduate Catalog 
    
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2019-2020 Graduate Catalog [NOTE!!!! THIS IS AN ARCHIVED CATALOG. FOR THE CURRENT CATALOG, GO TO CATALOG.NIU.EDU]

Graduate Courses

A list of graduate courses in alphabetical order.
 
  

  • ECON 503 - Economics of Human Resources

    Analysis of factors affecting demand for and supply of labor. Human capital analysis, discrimination, labor market operations, and public policy. Not open to students with credit in ECON 700 or ECON 701.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 515 - Sports Economics

    The application of microeconomic analysis to the understanding of the market for professional and amateur sports. Topics include the industrial organization of sports markets, competitive balance in sports, public finance of sports facilities, labor markets and discrimination in sports, and amateur and college sports. Not open to students who are economics majors or students who have taken ECON 315 or its equivalent.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 260 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 520 - Antitrust Economics

    Detailed analysis of monopoly, near monopoly, and various business practices. Examination of legal and economic foundations of current and past public policies toward monopoly.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 523 - Public Utilities

    General economic characteristics of and governmental policy toward public utilities. Problems such as pricing, finance, and private, cooperative, and public ownership.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 525 - Economic Education

    Exploration of selected economic concepts, topics, and classroom materials/applications to assist elementary or secondary teachers in developing K-12 economics curricula and instructional activities that meet the State of Illinois Standards. Not open for credit toward the M.A. or Ph.D. in economics. May be repeated to a maximum of 3 semester hours when topic varies.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 1-3
  

  • ECON 543 - Economic Development

    Analysis of major problems and issues of a theoretical and a policy nature concerning developing economies.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360 or ECON 361, or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 550 - Public Economics

    Analysis of the structure and effects of the national, state, and local revenue and outlay systems. Not open to students with credit in ECON 750 or ECON 751.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 552 - Fiscal Policy

    Examination of the role of the federal budget in fiscal policy. Public expenditures, taxes, and debt management are evaluated as tools of economic stabilization since World War II.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 361 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 554 - State and Local Finance

    Analysis of the expenditure-revenue process in state and local governments. The effect of intergovernmental grants and the future of fiscal federalism.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 566 - Business Cycles

    History of business fluctuations; theories and techniques of analysis; countercyclical monetary and fiscal policies; and survey of selected forecasting techniques.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 361 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 570 - History of Economic Thought

    Development of economic thought to the mid-19th century. Emphasis on Adam Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, Mill, and Marx.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 260 and ECON 261, or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 574 - Economic History of the United States

    Evolution and development of American economic institutions and processes from colonial times to the 20th century. Modern economic approach developed and applied to various topics.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 260 and ECON 261, or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 584 - Financial Derivatives

    Review of financial derivatives including futures, European and American options, and exotic options. Greeks, trading and hedging strategies. Pricing derivative securities with appropriate boundary conditions, including Black-Scholes formula, binomial trees, lattice models and finite difference methods. Simulation and variance reduction techniques. Interest rate models. Covers the learning outcomes regarding financial models in the exam MFE of the Society of Actuaries (SOA), which is also the Exam 3F of the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS).

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 585 - Urban Economic Problems and Policies

    Economic analysis of urban growth and land use and selected urban problems such as urban transportation, public finance, housing, poverty, and environmental quality.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360 and ECON 385; or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 589 - Seminar in Economic Analysis

    Economic analysis of a topic beyond the level usually reached in undergraduate courses. Examples of topics include aspects of economic growth and development, industrial organization, international economics, labor economics, health economics, monetary economics, public finance, agricultural economics, quantitative economics, financial economics, and economic theory.  May be repeated once in a subsequent semester when topics change.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ:  ECON 360, ECON 361, and MATH 211 or MATH 229 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 590 - Economic Statistics and Econometrics

    Topics include descriptive statistics, probability, estimation, hypothesis testing, correlation, and regression analysis, as applied to economic models.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: MATH 230 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 591 - Mathematical Methods for Economics

    Mathematical methods used in economics with applications.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360, ECON 361, and MATH 229, or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 592 - Research Methods in Economics

    Analysis of societal issues in an economic framework; use of library, Internet, and computer resources to conduct research; and organizing and writing an effective research paper. Students write a substantial research paper on a topic of their choice and present their findings to the class.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Admission to accelerated BS-MA program in Economics and consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 595 - Seminar in Current Problems

    Issues and policies in government, politics, and economics. Course may be repeated without limit in subsequent semesters for each new topic, but each topic may be repeated only once in a subsequent semester.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 596X - History and Social Science Instruction for Secondary and Middle Grades Educators

    Crosslisted as ANTH 596X, GEOG 596X, HIST 596, POLS 596X, PSYC 596X, and SOCI 596X. Organization and presentation of materials for history and social science courses at the middle grades and secondary levels.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Admission to the history or social science secondary or middle grades educator licensure program and permission of the Department of History’s office of secondary educator licensure.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 597 - Independent Study in Economics

    Individually arranged study within the various fields of economics. Not open to economics graduate students.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360 and ECON 361, or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 612 - Monetary Theory

    Theoretical and empirical analysis of supply of and demand for money; interrelationships between money and interest, prices, and output, with particular attention to monetary aspects of macroeconomic theory.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 613 - Monetary Policy

    Objectives and instruments of monetary policy and the supply of money, alternative monetary models, and the effectiveness and incidence of monetary policy.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 621 - Structure of Industry

    Analysis of the determinants of the number of sellers in an industry, and whether industries with few sellers are less competitive, more profitable, or more innovative than those with a large number of sellers.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 590 and ECON 660, or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 622 - Industrial Organization

    Analysis of contracts between traders, including vertical integration, price discrimination, tying contracts, requirements contracts, resale price maintenance, market division, and exclusive dealing. Additional topics include antitrust policy, patents, and other issues in law and economics.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 590 and ECON 660, or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 625 - Topics in Economic Education

    Designed to assist elementary or secondary teachers with the integration of economics into the K-12 classroom curricula, focusing on the economic concepts in the State of Illinois Learning Standards. Not open for credit toward the M.A. or Ph.D. in economics. May be repeated to a maximum of 12 semester hours in subsequent semesters when topic varies.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 525 or consent of department.

    Credits: 1-3
  

  • ECON 630 - International Trade Theory

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 660 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 632 - International Monetary Economics

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 661 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 640 - Theories of Economic Development

    Analytical approach to problems and obstacles to economic development in emerging societies: population problems, capital formation, investment criteria, structural and technical change, sectoral analysis, foreign trade, and others.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 660 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 642 - Financial Engineering

    Advanced analysis of markets for contingent claims, the derivative markets. Introduction to elements of stochastic calculus, dynamic portfolio choice, the Black-Scholes Model and extensions, the term structure of interest rates, American and European option pricing, and, if time permits, the Heath-Jarrow-Morton Model and exotic options. Advanced mathematical and computational techniques applied to the study of derivative markets.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 660, ECON 690, and FINA 555, or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 647 - Optimal Portfolio Choice

    A survey in discrete and continuous time using analytical and numerical techniques. Topics include dynamic programming, martingale methods, robustness, and the Malliavin calculus.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: CSCI 501 and ECON 591; or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 648 - Introduction to Game Theory

    An introduction to the tools and application of game theory. Topics include concepts of equilibrium, information, dynamic games, evolutionary games, reputation and repeated games, the folk theorem, perfect Bayesian equilibria, common knowledge, moral hazard, adverse selection, signaling in education, and bargaining games.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ:  ECON 660 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 649 - Algorithmic Trading

    High-performance computational methods for high frequency and algorithmic trading. Topics include a review of available high-performance optimization hardware and software, machine learning, high-frequency market microstructure and models of financial markets, real time dynamic optimization, robotic trading algorithms, agent-based models, arbitrage strategies, and automated textual analysis.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 647 and CSCI 501; or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 660 - Microeconomic Analysis I

    Domestic and international price systems with regard to resource allocation, welfare, and income distribution. Brief introduction to concepts involved in input-output analysis and linear programming.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360 and ECON 591, or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 661 - Macroeconomic Analysis I

    Factors determining levels of aggregate income, employment, and prices.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360, ECON 361, and ECON 591, or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 664 - Survey of Market Economics

    Prices, output, distribution, and industrial efficiency in alternative input and output markets; structural maladjustments, employment, and inflation; government-business relations and government-labor relations; international prices; alternative economic systems. Not open to students who are economics majors or students who have taken ECON 360 or its equivalent.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 665 - Survey of Income Economics

    Income, employment, prices and their determinants, theories of consumption, investment, taxation, fiscal, monetary and financial institutions and practices. Government debt, exchange rates, and balance of payments as influences on levels of economic activity. Not open to students who are economics majors or students who have taken ECON 361 or its equivalent.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 670 - History of Economic Analysis I

    Detailed treatment of the development of tools and concepts of theoretical economics up to the decline of the classical school.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 671 - History of Economic Analysis II

    Continuation of ECON 670 beyond the classical school to the analytics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 670 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 685 - Regional Economics

    Interregional trade and factor mobility, regional economic growth, economic analysis of industrial location, and quantitative methods useful in urban and regional planning with some computer applications.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 686 - Urban Economics

    Economic analysis of urban location and land use, urban economic growth, and problems of urban transportation, public finance, and housing. Quantitative methods of urban analysis useful in urban planning, with some computer applications.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 690 - Econometrics I

    Specification and estimation of economic models with emphasis on single equation models.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360, ECON 361 and ECON 590, or consent of department. CRQ: ECON 692A.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 691 - Research Tools for Economists

    Introduction for graduate students in economics to the software applications, programming, and basic computational techniques needed to be productive researchers in economics.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 692 - Methods in Economics

    Theory and practice in research methods used in applied fields of economics. Problems and techniques in data methods, econometrics, programming, and other advanced methods. Must be taken at the same time as a designated 600- or 700-level field course. May be repeated to a maximum of 10 semester hours with a limit of two enrollments (in connection with two separate courses) in a single semester and two enrollments overall in each of the following topic areas.
    A. Econometrics
    B. Financial Economics
    C. Labor Economics
    D. Public Economics
    E. Other Special Topics

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 1-2
  

  • ECON 695 - Special Topics in Economics

    Topics not dealt with in other courses. May be repeated once in subsequent semester as topic varies.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 660 and ECON 661, or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 697 - Economic Research Practicum

    Use of empirical data, statistical techniques (and computer software programs), and economic theory to do research needed by a business firm, government agency, or other economic organization, especially in the labor, public finance, and financial economics areas. Technical and nontechnical report writing.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department. Recommended: ECON 690.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 698 - Independent Study in Economics

    A. General Economics and Teaching
    B. History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches
    C. Mathematical and Quantitative Methods (including Econometrics)
    D. Microeconomics (Theory and Applications)
    E. Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
    G. International Economics
    J. Financial Economics
    K. Public Economics
    M. Health, Education, and Welfare
    N. Labor and Demographic Economics
    Q. Law and Economics
    R. Industrial Organization
    T. Economic History
    U. Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth
    V. Economic Systems
    W. Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics
    Y. Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
    AA. Other Special Topics
    Each topic may be repeated to a maximum of 6 semester hours.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 699A - Master’s Research Component: Master’s Thesis

    May be repeated to a maximum of 6 semester hours.

    Credits: 1-6
  

  • ECON 699B - Master’s Research Component: Master’s Research Paper

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 700 - Labor Market Analysis I

    Wage, employment, and human resource theory, empirical findings, and policy implications. Emphasis on human capital, household production, discrimination, and other sources of wage and employment difference.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360 and consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 701 - Labor Market Analysis II

    Various theories of unemployment. Collective bargaining analysis. The economic impact of unions on prices, productivity, wages, and resource allocation. Collective bargaining and wage theory. The economic impact of unions.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360 and consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 740 - Financial Economics I

    Introduction to theoretical financial economics with a focus on asset pricing in discrete time, complete and incomplete markets, agency theory, and financial intermediation. Additional topics may include market microstructure theory and optimal security design.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 660 and ECON 690 or consent of the department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 743 - Financial Economics II

    Advanced financial economic theory and an introduction to financial econometrics. Topics include dynamic portfolio choice, consumption-based asset pricing, and linear factor models. Additional topics may include option pricing and the term structure of interest rates.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 740, ECON 761, and ECON 790, or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 745 - Seminar in Financial Economics

    Selected topics in theoretical and empirical aspects of financial economics. May be repeated once for credit in a subsequent semester with consent of department.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 750 - Public Sector Economics I

    Economic nature of government services, public sector decision making, welfare and efficiency criteria in financing these services, and interrelationships of the public and private sectors.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 751 - Public Sector Economics II

    Budgetary policy, evaluation of different forms of taxation, pricing of government services, public borrowing and debt management, and programs of tax reform.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 360 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 760 - Microeconomic Analysis II

    Continuation of ECON 660 including new and advanced topics.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department. Recommended: ECON 660.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 761 - Macroeconomic Analysis II

    Continuation of ECON 661 including new and advanced topics.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 661 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 790 - Econometrics II

    Advanced topics in estimation and inference with linear and nonlinear models.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: ECON 690 or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 791 - Computational Economics

    Covers environments for scientific computing, numerical methods, and computational economics. Students will be expected to write their own computer programs to solve and estimate economic models.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 793 - Financial and Time-Series Econometrics

    Application of mathematical and statistical techniques to the analysis of economic and financial problems. May be repeated once for credit in a subsequent semester.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 795 - Internship in Economics

    May be repeated to a maximum of 6 semester hours.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Written consent of department Graduate Committee.

    Credits: 1-6
  

  • ECON 796 - Research Seminar in Economics

    Selected topics in theoretical and empirical aspects of economics. Emphasis on individual research. May be repeated for credit in subsequent semesters to a maximum of 9 semester hours.

     

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Must have completed at least one field or consent of department.

    Credits: 3
  

  • ECON 798 - Current Research Colloquium

    Discussion by faculty and graduate students of their current research. May be repeated to a maximum of 6 semester hours.  Doctoral students must satisfactorily complete at least 6 semester hours, at least 2 of which must be taken after passing the candidacy examinations. A maximum of 6 semester hours can be applied towards the doctoral degree. S/U grading.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    PRQ: Consent of department.

    Credits: 1
  

  • ECON 799 - Doctoral Research and Dissertation

    May be repeated to a maximum of 32 semester hours.

    Credits: 1-15