Economics 490
Political Economy (ECON 490) studies how self-interested, rational policy-makers make choices in an institutionalized environment. In this course students will utilize utility-maximization theories and tools of microeconomics to understand behavior of rational and goal driven political actors. Students will study political outcomes and the interaction between the actors within the institutional constraints of their environment. We will attempt to explain why the government behaves as it does and how its behavior influences and is in turn influenced by the behavior of private citizens. We will also investigate the effects of political institutions on political and economic outcomes and assess the relative performance of different political systems.
The syllabus for this course could be downloaded from here.