Economics

Summer

• Managerial Economics
  This course applies the ideas and methodology of economics to analysis of the firm, key decisions within the firm, and the industry. Topics covered include costs, pricing, competition, economic efficiency, and industry equilibrium and change. Particular attention is paid to behavior of the firm and industries when uncertainty and transaction costs exist. The course combines lectures/discussions of principles, with cases covering both current and classic firm and industry dilemmas. Issues of public policy, especially regarding pollution, are also covered.

Fall

• Energy Economics
  This course explores a managerial perspective on the economics of energy markets, including crude oil, refined products, natural gas, and electricity. The class will study drivers of supply and demand, imperfect competition, economic regulation, environmental regulation, and various other public policy issues. Students will compete in competitive strategy games by making decisions for countries in OPEC and for firms in the California electricity market.
• Leadership in the Global Economy: Contemporary Economics and Business
  The global economy began 2025 with notable momentum—but now faces significant uncertainties, in part because of historic shifts in U.S. economic policies. Will generative AI lead to a surge in productivity and innovation, or will its promise fade under unproven returns? What will a possible global trade war do to jobs, prices, and U.S. competitiveness? Can central banks successfully guide inflation down to its target level without derailing growth? The fusion of digital, global, and social forces continues to create immense business and economic opportunities—and yet serious pressures and anxieties as well. Perhaps most prominent among these anxieties is the fading belief among many people in many countries in the dynamic forces of globalization and innovation. Much of this ambivalence and related anxiety stems from workers and their families not seeing sufficient growth in their income, wealth, and sense of opportunity: sufficient relative to earlier decades, relative to those at the top, and relative to their hopes and expectations. We live in a time where many nations are fractious and less trusting, with far less consensus about the proper balance among for-profit businesses, sovereign governments, and civil society. Several business-policy questions await the rest of 2025 and beyond. LGE provides us a chance to engage with all these contemporary business and policy questions that are top of mind around the world in C-suites, boardrooms, and halls of government power—for aspiring unicorns and for generations-old companies alike.
• The Future of Capitalism
  In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and Communism in Eastern Europe imploded from within, followed two years later by the collapse of the Soviet Union. These events made liberalism – democracy and free markets – look triumphant. Francis Fukuyama called it “the end of history,” since history seemed to have reached its goal. The debate over political and economic systems was over: we had figured out the best way to organize a society’s politics and the economy. Things look different now. Many today look at growing inequality, environmental catastrophes, and political polarization, and are more likely to say they do not endorse democracy or free markets. For many, the promise of socialism is more satisfying than the reality of capitalism. Even capitalism’s strongest proponents often feel that it is due for an overhaul. Meanwhile, the world is experiencing the most significant backlash against trade and globalization since the 1930s. This course aims to give you a sense for the current debate over capitalism and its alternatives, weighing the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches. This course will examine the following core questions: 1. What is capitalism? 2. What are the alternatives (and how have they worked)? 3. How do markets work and when do they fail? 4. Should businesses be run solely to maximize profit? 5. Are tariffs good for American workers? 6. Is capitalism exploitative? 7. Do markets promote freedom or oppression? 8. Is capitalism fair? Does it reward merit? 9. Does capitalism make us happy? 10. How can we make capitalism work better?
• Cooperation and Competition in the 21st Century Global Economy
  The 21st century global economy will be defined by how government and business leaders respond to today’s complex policy challenges. This mini-course centers on a handful of critical economic policy issues, organized around the central theme of cooperation and competition. Topics include the rise of global value chains, national security, and the innovation race; rising market power and international data security; the deterioration of global governance rules and norms; and the challenges of sustainable and inclusive globalization, including the coming battles over carbon taxes. The course will leverage economic tools and data to inform and refine our understanding of market outcomes, market failures, and the scope for policy. These economic principles will be balanced with an emphasis on the interplay between firms, governments, and international institutions and agreements in practice.

Winter

• Policy, Politics, and Business
  This course will probe the boundaries between the public and private sectors and serve as an anchor class for students involved in the Center for Business, Government, and Society. The goal is to deepen students’ understanding of markets and explore how and why public policy creates institutions that support a robust private sector. The class will explain why many contemporary public policy problems cannot be addressed by the private sector alone. At the same time, we will discuss how private firms can play a more creative and robust role in addressing social challenges. One throughline of the course will be an exploration of the interplay between business, policy, and politics. Much of the focus will be on the American system, though the concepts are broadly applicable and students will be urged to apply lessons to other countries. All policy discussions in the class will be filtered through a political economy lens: Why does our political system produce the outcomes that it does? And what factors make a substantively attractive policy more or less politically viable. A handful of guests will share their experiences at the intersection of policy and politics.
• Countries and Companies in the International Economy
  This minicourse focuses on the interaction between countries and firms in the arenas of international trade, investment, and finance by applying and extending the tools acquired in the Global Economics for Managers core course. The ultimate objective is to help you and your organization make decisions in today’s global economy. Two broad themes recur throughout the term. One emphasizes the analysis of decision-making at the country level with emphasis on the constraints implied for individual enterprises. We visit a number of countries around the world that are at various stages of economic and market development and thus that face issues of monetary union, currency crisis, trade liberalization, and economic integration. In each case we consider how these events provide opportunities and constraints for companies. The second main theme of the course concentrates on the decisions faced by companies themselves as they participate in the international economy. Across a range of countries we look at issues surrounding production location, market entry, cross-border pricing, exchange-rate risk, hedging, and integrating the supply chain.

Spring

• Growth Economics
  In this elective course, we study the phenomenon of economic growth. In the past half-century, the world has witnessed remarkable shifts in the economic fortunes (and misfortunes) of countries. While Western Europe and North America have maintained high standards of living, their pace of growth has slowed and even stalled. On the other hand, we have witnessed the growth miracles of the East Asian tigers and the rise to prominence of the BRICS emerging economies. Even still, many developing countries remain seemingly stuck at low levels of income per capita. We will take a deep dive in this class to explore the fundamental drivers of countries’ growth performance over the medium- to long-term. A solid understanding of these drivers of growth is invaluable. For policy makers and the consultants they hire, this will inform the recommendations that they make over strategies to promote growth. For the managers of firms, a keen appreciation of these forces can be vital for identifying opportunities and navigating business decisions. The course will adopt a two-pronged approach. On one level, we will pursue the economic theories that seek to explain differences in growth outcomes across countries, and explore the empirical evidence marshaled for or against these theories. At the same time, we will ground our discussion in the real world through selected country case studies. These will draw out the relevance of the theories and speak to their more practical implications.
• Health Care Economics and Policy
  Health Care Economics and Policy is meant to be a foundational course that introduces the key economic concepts necessary to understand why health care is different than other goods and services in the economy: asymmetry of information; consumption shocks; risk pooling; moral hazard; behavioral economics; and so on. The course will explore how different health systems, in the U.S. and around the world, attempt to manage these unique challenges. It will probe the tradeoffs associated with different systems and explore innovations in health care delivery. The class will enumerate the various stakeholders involved in American health care and explore options for reform.