::George
Mason University
Department of Economics
::Georgetown
University Department of Economics
Scholarship and Commentary by
Thomas Rustici
::A
Public Choice View of the Minimum Wage in Cato Journal
::Removing
Individual Health Risk From Health Insurance? Incremental Regulation Versus
Market Choices at Competitive Enterprise Institute
Other Scholarship
::Donald
J. Boudreaux
::Peter
Boettke
::Tyler
Cowen
::Alex
Tabarrok
::Walter
Williams
Policy & Economics Links
Institutes and Foundations
::Ayn
Rand Institute
::Cato
Institute
::Center
for the Advancement of Capitalism
::Center
for Freedom and Prosperity
::Center
for the Study of Public Choice
::Constitution
Society
::Competitive
Enterprise Institute
::Foundation
for Individual Rights in Education
::Foundation
for Economic Education
::Fund for American
Studies
::Future
of Freedom Foundation
::Goldwater
Institute
::Institute
on Political Journalism
::Interdisciplinary
Center for Economic Science
::Iowa
Electronic Markets
::James
M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy
::Library of
Economics and Liberty
::The
Locke Institute
::Mercatus Center
::National
Center For Public Policy Research
::Political
Economy Research Center
::Public
Choice Foundation
Punditry
::Capitalism
Magazine
::Instapundit
::Marginal
Revolution
::Rule
of Reason
::Rush
Limbaugh
::Sean
Hannity
::Volokh Conspiracy
Online History
::Isaac
DiIanni's Required Readings in Economics
::Rudy
Rummels' Webpage
::Museum
of Communism
::Economic
History Services
::History
of Economics Online
::McMaster
University Archive for the History of Economic Thought
::Test
Your Knowledge of Communist History
|
Economics is the science that
studies the production of wealth under a system of division of
labor. As an instructor at
George
Mason University and
Georgetown University, I have introduced thousands of
undergraduate students in economic principles in a way that has
served them as they pursued further academic study and embarked upon
their professional careers.
In 1999, I wrote the student guide
that accompanies ABC News reporter John Stossel’s "Greed," "Freeloaders" and
"Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death" videos.
These "Stossel
in the Classroom" guides are in almost 600 classrooms and have
been read by more than 175,000 students.
In 2000, the George Mason student
government named me "Professor of the Year" in economics and in
2004, the George Mason
Broadside profiled my teaching philosophy (article reprinted
here), saying
that I give my
students "a wealth of knowledge
in a three hour course that would take other instructors 15 hours to
communicate.”
Courses of Instruction:
Undergraduate:
Economics 103: Microeconomic
Principles
This course is an introduction to microeconomics in the context of
current problems. Students explore how the market mechanism
allocates scarce resources among competing uses and use basic tools
of supply, demand, production and distribution theory to analyze
diverse problems.
::Syllabus ::Other
course resources
Economics 104: Macroeconomic
Principles
This course is an
introduction to macroeconomics in the context of current problems.
Students explore national income analysis, money and banking,
economic growth and stability, unemployment, inflation, and the
impact of government power in the economy.
::Syllabus ::Other
course resources
Economics 309: Economics &
Public Policy
This course is designed to familiarize students with the
fundamental relationships between the individual citizen,
government, business and society. Philosophy, political theory,
economic theory and legal history are brought together to better
understand public policy issues. The nature of the state, firm and
markets are explored in a contractual context. Additionally, the
effects of government regulation in a wide variety of market
settings are highlighted though the course from a constitutional
perspective.
::Syllabus ::Other
course resources
Economics 310: Money and Banking
This course familiarizes students with the fundamentals of
monetary and banking institutions. In particular, the course will
focus on the economic dynamics (information and transactions costs)
that have propelled the historical evolution of money, credit and
financial intermediation from the ancient world to the present.
Related financial institutions such as bond, stock, and insurance
markets are also explored in detail as they relate to
risk-management and modern portfolio theory. The course also
highlights the structure of the Federal Reserve System, bank
regulation and the mechanics of the international monetary
framework. Finally, a wide variety of aspects relating to monetary
policy are examined from an economic perspective. These topics
include: the quantity theory of money, inflation, interest rates,
"monetary rules vs discretion," the gold standard, free-banking,
monetary theories of business cycles, deposit insurance, and
electronic money (digital cyber-cash).
::Syllabus
Economics 390:
International Economics
The lectures and readings in this course are designed to
familiarize students with the fundamentals of international
economics. The course will emphasize the role of market
institutions in the coordination of global economic activity. These
institutions will include: the price mechanism, exchanges rates,
comparative advantage, international investment, as well as formal
international institutions such as United Nations, World Bank, and
International Monetary Fund. We will also examine the foundation of
international law, the evolution of the world monetary system and
global environmental quality from a property rights perspective.
Also, various interventions into the global market mechanism such as
tariffs, import quotas, voluntary restraint agreements, capital
import-export controls are explored for their impact on the global
production and trading system. Finally, the role of the informal
economy is examined in the context of world economic development.
::Syllabus
Law School:
Law 108: Economic Foundations of Legal
Studies
This course is designed to
familiarize students with the fundamentals of microeconomic theory.
The central focus this course takes is an understanding of the
process of price formation in a free exchange economy. We rigorously
examine the various legal rules and economic incentives that operate
within the constitutional free enterprise system. Market
institutions such as: the firm, advertising, profit-loss mechanism,
futures speculation, and property rights are explored for their role
in the coordination of economic activity. Finally these principles
are applied to the larger issues of economic regulation,
environmental quality, and the “political marketplace” of
representative democracy.
::Syllabus
::Other
course resources
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