Major and Course Update

April 2013

To: All Economics Majors and Concentrators

From:   Susan Elmes, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Economics Department

Re: Newsletter for FALL 2013 Registration

Dear Students,

Please read through the following information as you plan your fall course schedule. Note that the registration information in the online CC bulletin often lags several days behind the Registrar’s page. For the latest information on classes you should always check the Registrar’s Directory of classes site. You should also complete a checklist (available on the department website) so that you can determine what courses you need to complete your major requirements.

SENIOR SEMINAR REGISTRATION

All students interested in taking a senior seminar in the fall semester must register for W4911 Section 0 ECONOMICS SEMINAR REGISTRATION. Details about the new senior seminar registration procedure were recently sent to you and can be found on the department website HERE. We expect to offer the following senior seminars in the fall semester:

^*These seminars will count towards the seminar requirement for the financial economics major. Titles and descriptions of these seminars will be posted HERE shortly.

ADVISING

Expanded office hours for econ-advising have been posted on the departmental website. Please direct any questions regarding your major requirements to econ-advising (either via email or during their office hours). The graduate students who staff econ-advising are also knowledgeable about course selection and will be able to help you select courses to meet your personal, professional and academic goals. Please refer to the summer 2012 mailing (posted HERE) for more information regarding advising.

COURSES

W4700 Financial Crises

Prerequisites: ECON W3211, ECON W3213 and STAT W1211

Prof José Scheinkman will be joining the department in the upcoming academic year. He will be teaching a course on financial crises that he has previously taught to undergraduates and Masters students at Princeton. This course is an acceptable economics elective for the major in financial economics. A description of the course is below and you can read more about Prof Scheinkman HERE.

This course uses economic theory and empirical evidence to study the causes of financial crises and the effectiveness of policy responses to these crises. Particular attention will be given to some of the major economic and financial crises in the past century and to the crisis that began in August 2007. 

W4230 Economics of New York City

Prerequisites: ECON W3211, ECON W3213 and STAT W1211

Prof Don Davis is expanding his senior seminar into a lecture course next year. This course is an acceptable elective for the joint major with philosophy. The course description is below:

This course draws on topics in urban and geographical economics. Applications focus on New York City. Topics covered include systems of cities, housing and real estate, business location decisions, segregation by income and race, transportation, crime, the urban environment, neighborhoods, and additional urban topics.

W4370 Political Economy
The political economy class will be offered only in the fall semester.  Seniors in the joint major with Political Science who have not previously taken W4370 Political Economy MUST take W4370 in the fall semester.

Accounting and Finance
Outside of the major in Financial Economics, economics students may not take accounting for major credit.  Students in the Financial Economics major may take either BUSI W3013 or IEOR E2261 to fulfill the accounting requirement for their major. If you have questions about these accounting courses, please contact Saphia Najafee (sbn2105) at the Business School or Jenny Mak (jsm46) in the IEOR department.  Online registration for IEOR E2261 is restricted to declared majors in Financial Economics.

College Business Courses
Columbia College offers several business oriented classes. The department does not oversee these courses and does not have any information about them. If you have questions about these courses please contact Saphia Najafee (sbn2105) in the Business School for information. Finally, note that you may NOT take these courses for elective credit towards any major in economics other than Financial Economics. Financial economics majors should check their major requirements for details on which courses may be taken for elective credit.

Corporate Finance
As in previous semesters, registration for corporate finance during the first registration period will be restricted to financial econ majors only. After this registration period, we will open the remaining seats to all majors. At the later time, the course caps will be raised.

Fall TBA Courses
Section 3 of W3412 Econometrics is currently listed as TBA for the fall semester and it may or may not be offered; it is closed to online registration until its schedule is set. It is recommended that you try to fit one of the other two sections in your schedule. W4213 Advanced Macro is also listed as TBA. We plan to offer this class next year but an instructor and schedule has not been finalized at this point. The class will remain closed for registration until the schedule is set.  

FALL Courses Open for Pre-registration
(See the Registrar's directory of classes site for scheduling info)

• W2105 The American Economy
• SDEV W2320 Econ and Financial Models for Sustainable Development
• V3025 Financial Economics
• V3265 Economics of Money and Banking
• W4230 Economics of NYC
• W4251 Industrial Organization
• W4280 Corporate Finance
• G4301 Economics Growth and Development
• W4325 Economic Organization and Development of Japan
• W4370 Political Economy
• W4412 Advanced Econometrics
• W4415 Game Theory
• W4465 Public Economics
• W4480 Gender and Applied Economics
• W4500 International Trade
• W4700 Financial Crises
• W4750 Globalization and its risks

SPRING (Tentative)

• W2257 Global Economy
• V3025 Financial Economics
• V3265 Economics of Money and Banking
• W4020 Economics of Uncertainty and Information
• W4211 Advanced Microeconomics
• W4235 Historical Foundations of Modern Economics
• W4251 Industrial Organization
• W4290 Corporate Finance
• W4321 Economic Development
• W4413 Econometrics of Time Series and Forecasting
• W4415 Game Theory
• G4421 Seminar on problems of emerging market economies
• W4465 Public Economics
• W4505 International Monetary Theory and Policy
• G4526 Transition Reforms, Globalization and Financial Crisis
• G4527 Economic Organization and Development in China
• W4615 Law and Economics

Note that we hope to offer in both semesters several classes (such as public economics, industrial organization and game theory) that have previously only been offered one time per year. 

COURSE EVALUATIONS

Course evaluations for many of the classes  offered next year are available in Courseworks (some in New Courseworks and others in Old Courseworks). We make course evaluations publicly available for all classes where a sufficient number of students have completed the evaluations. Please take a few minutes at the end of the semester to complete the course evaluations for your economics classes. The department uses the evaluations to make decisions ranging from staffing of courses to rewarding TAs for exemplary work and future students at Columbia will be able to use the evaluations to plan their courses.

ELECTIVE COURSES for the ECONOMICS-PHILOSOPHY joint major

The department is offering the following courses in the fall semester that may be taken for credit for the economics-philosophy joint major:

• W4230 Economics of NYC (new)
• G4301 Economics Growth and Development
• W4370 Political Economy
• W4415 Game Theory
• W4465 Public Economics
• W4480 Gender and Applied Economics
• W4500 International Trade
• W4750 Globalization and its risks

Please note that electives that are taken outside of the prescribed list from the CC/GS bulletin for the economics-philosophy joint major will not count towards the economics elective requirement.

ELECTIVE COURSES for the FINANCIAL ECONOMICS major

This is a list of the economics courses offered in the fall semester that may be taken for elective credit. For information about the offerings of non-economics you should consult the directory of classes.

• V3265 Economics of Money and Banking
• W4213 Advanced Macro (tentative)
• W4251 Industrial Organization
• W4412 Advanced Econometrics
• W4415 Game Theory
• W4465 Public Economics
• W4700 Financial Crises

COURSE PRE-REQUISITES

You must complete the pre-requisite courses before you can take an economics course. Students who take courses out of sequence (before or concurrently with its prerequisites) will be subject to the penalty of taking additional courses to be assessed by the department’s director of undergraduate studies. If you have already taken a course out of sequence, then contact the director of undergraduate studies immediately.

The prerequisites for courses are as follows:

Note that a prerequisite of STAT W1211 means STAT W1211 or a higher level statistics course. Neither STAT W1111 nor POLS W4910 may be taken in place of STAT W1211 to fulfill the pre-requisite requirements listed above.

SENIOR THESIS

Students interested in writing a senior thesis must come to see me during my spring advising hours in April (listed below) to discuss their thesis topic (so you must have a topic of interest).  At that time, we will discuss your proposed topic and possible thesis advisors. I will also try to suggest some general readings on your topic or recommend that you speak with someone to get recommendations for summer reading. There is a short form at the end of this document that you should complete and bring with you to our meeting.

General information about thesis topics, the timeline for thesis and a list of recent thesis titles can be found HERE. Please read the information online before you come to speak with me. Registration for the honors seminar is in September. Although, you will not be able to register at this time, you must leave the honors seminar time free in your schedule. The honors seminar will meet on Thursdays from 9-10:50.

Students must have a 3.7 or higher GPA in their major (including math and stats courses) to be considered for departmental honors. The minimum GPA is a necessary condition for admission to the honors seminar, but it is not sufficient. A faculty panel will review your transcript to judge the breadth and depth of your economics studies, as well as, review the feasibility of your proposal. The summer mailing that will be sent in August will announce a deadline for submitting an honors thesis proposal. A proposal is a brief document describing their topic, the research question they will hope to address in their thesis and their particular qualifications to write on their topic.

If you are studying abroad and cannot come to speak with me this semester, then fill out the senior thesis form at the end of this document and send it to me.  I will try to send you suggested readings on your topic.

Advising hours to discuss senior thesis will be:

Thursday, 11 April, 11:30 AM - 1PM
Friday, 12 April 12:30 PM - 2 PM
Tuesday, 16 April 11:30 AM - 1PM

All of the above advising hours are in my office 1006 IAB.

RULES for TRANSFER CREDITS, AP CREDITS and BARNARD ELECTIVES

The department limits the number of courses that students may take outside of the Columbia economics department.

• Briefly, all majors and joint majors (with the exception of philosophy) must take a minimum of 5 lecture courses in the Columbia department of economics. Concentrators and joint majors with philosophy must take a minimum of 4. V3025 and V3265 will be considered Columbia department electives regardless of the instructor (and so will not be counted as classes taken outside the department).
• The remaining credits for economics lecture courses may come from AP, Barnard elective courses (2000 or 3000 level), and transfer credits (either taken before registering at Columbia or study abroad). 
• Students must continue to take their senior seminar in the Columbia department of economics.
• The department will no longer have restrictions on the number of non-economics courses taken outside Columbia to fulfill major requirements. For example, a student who has AP or transfer credit for Calculus I will be able to take the same number of economics courses outside the department as a student who does not have such credits.
• Note that in the case of joint majors, courses taken to fulfill the requirements of the affiliated department are subject to the rules of that department. For example, a joint major with political science must check with the political science department whether or not a particular class taken outside of Columbia is acceptable for the joint major.

The following table summarizes the rules in terms of course counts:

^{1 - 3} The count of lecture courses represents the minimum number of economics lecture courses required of the program. The count does not include seminars nor courses in other departments such as Math and Statistics.

RESEARCH CREDIT

In early September, the department will send out a list of the names of faculty members who are looking for research assistants and descriptions of their projects There is no pre-registration during the spring registration period for these research positions.

The department occasionally receives requests for research assistants from other divisions of the university. We generally post these announcements on the wikispace.

WIKISPACE: ECON INFO for STUDENTS

When the department receives announcements and advertisements from other institutions, we post those announcements on the undergraduate wikispace. You will use your Columbia UNI and password to access the site.  We post job and internship job information on this site, as well as information from Career Services and the Fellowships office.  You will also find announcements of lectures, academic programs and other opportunities that we think may be of interest to students in economics. 

STUDY ABROAD and TRANSFER CREDITS

All students who are planning on studying abroad in the fall must see Sunil Gulati during the spring advising period to get preliminary approval for any economics courses that they are planning on taking abroad. All students who are planning on taking classes this summer outside of Columbia University must also see Sunil Gulati now to get preliminary approval for any economics courses that they are considering taking. Please review the material posted on the departmental website regarding transfer credit here.

UNDERGRADUATE TA POSITIONS

The department expects to hire undergraduate TAs again next year. Undergraduate TAs receive $1800 per semester. Undergraduate TAs have many of the same responsibilities as the graduate TAs in the department. In August you will receive an email listing the TA positions and their requirements. Please do not apply for a position before you receive this email.

Good Luck with Finals.

Susan Elmes

Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Economics
Columbia University