The world of sports offers a broad laboratory to study many topics in microeconomics, while providing uniquely rich data on decisions, performance, and compensation. We will use theoretical and empirical tools to study topics such as behavioral biases in decision making, strategic behavior in games and tournaments, operation and efficiency of betting markets, salary determination, the value of diversity, evidence and implications of discrimination, the industrial organization of professional and collegiate leagues, and public policy issues concerning public infrastructure and exemptions from antitrust laws.

Europe is at a crossroads. Political and economic integration in the European Union (EU) exceeds levels reached in the rest of the world. Economic integration not only affects trade but also migration, agriculture, competition, regions, energy, and money. Most euro area economies have been grappling with interlocking crises involving debt, banking and growth. Moreover, the EU is struggling with Covid-19 and its economic fallout, Brexit and migrant inflows and integration. This course studies economic integration, the ongoing crises, and policy responses. It uses economic analysis to study policy issues.

This course focuses on the forces that shape changes in overall economic outcomes in both the short and long run, and the potential for macroeconomic policy to affect these outcomes in a positive way. The course will introduce students to the basic frameworks that are used by researchers and policy makers. Specific topics covered include growth, development, inequality, the stock market, the environment, unemployment, inflation, business cycles, the financial system and trade. Problem sets will help students build skills in basic data analysis and quantitative methods.

Economics studies the allocation of scarce resources. This course focuses on the decisions made by individual consumers and producers. We will consider a variety of different market structures ranging from monopoly to perfect competition, and discuss the rationale for government involvement in market activity.

This course will cover the key tools of microeconomics. In particular we will learn how to model the behavior of individual decision makers, and how to aggregate their behavior to better understand the way larger institutions operate. A lot of the class will be geared towards a fundamental economic institution *the market* to develop a better understanding of when it thrives, and when it fails.