ECON 1203 - Economics of Social Issues
This course applies fundamental economic principles to the understanding of domestic and global issues such as poverty, treatment of minorities, immigration, agriculture, health, crime, labor markets, immigration, and environmental damage.

syllabus_fall_20.docx |
Link to MS Teams
First day of class activity
Book List: Choose one
First day of class activity
Book List: Choose one
- Eve Ewing – Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side
- David Grann – Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
- Mehrsa Baradaran – The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap
- Eric Eyre – Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic
- Richard Rothstein – The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
- Anne Case and Angus Deaton – Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism
- Matthew Desmond – Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
- Randy Krehbiel – Tulsa, 1921: Reporting a Massacre
- Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee – Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty
Income Equality and Economic Opportunity
Freakonomics: AEA Research:
Data Day:
Watching/Listening:
- Has tribal gaming been a boon for American Indians?
- How valuable is access to the social safety net in early childhood?
- As incomes become more unequal, are standards of living diverging too?
Data Day:
Watching/Listening:
- Planet Money: Patent Racism
- The Color of Law: Segregated by Design
- HOLC Redlining Maps
Discrimination
Gender Bias at RateMyProfessor
Econofact: The Effects of ‘Ban the Box’ on the Employment of Black Men
Freakonomics: AEA Research:
Econofact: The Effects of ‘Ban the Box’ on the Employment of Black Men
Freakonomics: AEA Research:
Economics of Crime and Violence
Crime Data Tool
Research on Gun Violence Cure Violence: Opioid Abuse and Crime:
Research on Gun Violence Cure Violence: Opioid Abuse and Crime:
- Paper by Jennifer Doleac and Anita Mukherjee
Education
Freakonomics: Bureau of Labor Statistics:
- Occupational Employment Statistics - www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm
- Excel Workbook with ED data only (.xlsx)
- Change "area_type" to 2 to see State-level statistics
- Change "area_title" to specific state names (e.g. Oklahoma or Texas) to make comparisons
- UCO Mobility Report Card
- journalrecord.com/2018/04/02/teachers-students-crowd-capitol/
- journalrecord.com/2018/04/02/state-braces-for-day-two-of-teacher-walkout/