33 courses with the subject ECON BC, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
ECON BC1003Introduction to Economic Reasoning4
Covers basic elements of microeconomic and marcoeconomic reasoning at an introductory level. Topics include Individual Constraints and Preferences, Production by Firms, Market Transactions, Competition, The Distribution of Income, Technological Progress and Growth, Unemployment and Inflation, the Role of Government in the Economy. Note: Students cannot get credit for ECON BC1003 if they have taken the Columbia introductory course ECON W1105 Principles of Economics. Spring 2026: ECON BC1003 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment ECON 1003 001/00839 T Th 11:40am - 12:55pm 263 Macy Hall Alan Dye 4 41/100 ECON 1003 002/00888 T Th 4:10pm - 5:25pm 323 Milbank Hall John Park 4 54/55 Fall 2026: ECON BC1003 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment ECON 1003 001/00677 T Th 1:10pm - 2:25pm Ll003 Barnard Hall Mulu Gebreyohannes 4 60/60 ECON 1003 003/00688 T Th 11:40am - 12:55pm Ll104 R&D Science Center Rajiv Sethi 4 57/60 ECON 1003 004/00907 M W 1:10pm - 2:25pm 504 Diana Center John Park 4 59/60 ECON 1003 005/00908 M W 2:40pm - 3:55pm 504 Diana Center John Park 4 59/60
Covers basic mathematical methods required for intermediate theory courses and upper level electives in economics, with a strong emphasis on applications. Topics include simultaneous equations, functions, partial differentiation, optimization of functions of more than one variable, constrained optimization, and financial mathematics. This course satisfies the Calculus requirement for the Barnard Economics major. NOTE: students who have previously taken Intermediate Micro Theory (ECON BC3035 or the equivalent) are *not* allowed to take Math Methods for Economics
Examination of gender differences in the U.S. and other advanced industrial economies. Topics include the division of labor between home and market, the relationship between labor force participation and family structure, the gender earnings gap, occupational segregation, discrimination, and historical, racial, and ethnic group comparisons. Spring 2026: ECON BC2010 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment ECON 2010 001/00844 M W 10:10am - 11:25am 323 Milbank Hall Ashley Wong 3 66/65
BC: Fulfillment of General Education Requirement: Historical Studies (HIS). The course is an introduction to the transformative economic developments that began in Western Europe and spread globally. It applies economic and empirical reasoning to analyze the underlying forces of modern economic development from pre-modern Europe to the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of a global economy.
Prerequisites: (ECON BC1003 or ECON UN1105) Prerequisites: (ECON BC1003 or ECON UN1105) This course covers the core microeconomic theories and concepts needed to understand health and health care issues in the United States. It describes how the markets for health and health services are different from those for other goods, with an emphasis on providing the tools and skills for understanding health policy and regulations. In addition, it discusses theoretical and empirical aspects of key health economics issues, with a primary focus on applying the tools of economic analysis to understand the basic forces—supply and demand, asymmetric information, incentives, and externalities, for example—that influence health policies
Students will be introduced to current issues within development economics, and to fundamental economic concepts explaining economic growth. It will discuss the crosscutting themes of gender equality and environmental sustainability, while approaching topics within economic growth, population growth, human capital, health, agriculture, urbanization, natural resources, conflict, and institutions. Spring 2026: ECON BC2020 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment ECON 2020 001/00865 T Th 2:40pm - 3:55pm 328 Milbank Hall Mulu Gebreyohannes 3 38/56 Fall 2026: ECON BC2020 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment ECON 2020 001/00676 T Th 4:10pm - 5:25pm 304 Barnard Hall Mulu Gebreyohannes 3 55/55
Prerequisites: Introduction to Economic Reasoning (ECON BC 1003) or Principles of Economics (ECON W1105). An introductory course in political theory or political philosophy is strongly recommended, but not required.
Prerequisites: (ECON BC1003 or ECON UN1105) Prerequisites: (ECON BC1003 or ECON UN1105) Students will learn how to write computer programs that can be used to solve assignment problems, including matching buyers with sellers in electronic financial markets, as well as assignment problems that dont involve prices: matching organ donors with recipients, residents with hospitals, and students with high schools for example. The programming language used will be MATLAB. Suitable for students with little or no programming background
Elementary computational methods in statistics. Basic techniques in regression analysis of econometric models. One-hour weekly recitation sessions to complement lectures
Prerequisites: ECON BC3035 or ECON BC3033, or permission of the instructor. Conceptualization and measurement of inequality and poverty, poverty traps and distributional dynamics, economics and politics of public policies, in both poor and rich countries
Prerequisites: ECON BC3035 and ECON BC2411 or permission of the instructor. Analyzes education policies and education markets from an economic perspective. Examines challenges that arise when researchers attempt to identify the causal effects of inputs. Other topics: (1) education as an investment, (2) public school finance, (3) teacher labor markets, (4) testing/accountability programs, (5) school choice programs, and (6) urban public school reforms
Prerequisites: ECON BC3033 or ECON BC3035, and ECON BC2411 or STAT W1111 or STAT W1211, or permission of the instructor. Prerequisites: ECON BC3033 or ECON BC3035, and ECON BC2411 or STAT W1111 or STAT W1211, or permission of the instructor. Specification, estimation and evaluation of economic relationships using economic theory, data, and statistical inference; testable implications of economic theories; econometric analysis of topics such as consumption, investment, wages and unemployment, and financial markets
Prerequisites: ECON BC3035, or permission of the instructor. Prerequisites: ECON BC3035, or permission of the instructor. Factors affecting the allocation and remuneration of labor; population structure; unionization and monopsony; education and training, mobility and information; sex and race discrimination; unemployment; and public policy
Prerequisites: ECON BC3035 or ECON BC3033 Prerequisites: (Econ BC 3035) or (Econ BC 3033) This course examines a wide variety of topics about migration and its relationship to economic development, globalization, and social and economic mobility. At its core, this course reflects a key reality: that the movement of people--within regions, within countries, and across borders--is both the result of and impetus for economic change
Prerequisites: An introductory course in economics and a functioning knowledge of high school algebra and analytical geometry or permission of the instructor. Systematic exposition of current macroeconomic theories of unemployment, inflation, and international financial adjustments
Prerequisites: An introductory course in microeconomics or a combined macro/micro principles course (ECON BC1003 or ECON W1105, or the equivalent) and one semester of calculus or ECON BC1007, or permission of the instructor. Preferences and demand; production, cost, and supply; behavior of markets in partial equilibrium; resource allocation in general equilibrium; pricing of goods and services under alternative market structures; implications of individual decision-making for labor supply; income distribution, welfare, and public policy. Emphasis on problem solving
Prerequisites: ECON BC3033. Introduction to balance of payments and exchange rate theory; capital mobility and expectations; internal and external adjustment under fixed and flexible exchange rates; international financial markets; capital mobility and expectations; international policy coordination and optimum currency areas; history of the international monetary system
Prerequisites: An introductory course in economics or permission of the instructor. Intellectual origins of the main schools of thought in political economy. Study of the founding texts in classical political economy, Marxian economics, neoclassicism, and Keynesianism
Prerequisites: ECON BC3033 and ECON BC3035 This course deals with topics in both monetary theory and monetary policy and is designed for students interested in monetary economics and/or those aiming at working in policy institutions such as central banks. Monetary economics examines the relationship between real economic variables at the aggregate level and nominal variables (such as the inflation rate, nominal interest rates, nominal exchange rates, and the supply of money). Therefore, monetary economics overlaps significantly with macroeconomics. However, students in this class learn the "Money View" framework as their analytical tool as it provides a more in-depth treatment of money and central banking than is customary in standard macroeconomics textbooks
ECON BC3048Introduction to Behavioral Economics3.00
Prerequisites: ECON BC3035 This course reviews the assumption of rationality in microeconomic theory and presents evidence (primarily from experimental psychology and economics) of how judgement and decision-making systematically deviate from what rationality predicts
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and the completion of all courses (except for the senior requirement) required for the economics department majors. Exceptions to these prerequisites may be granted by the chair of the department only. Tutorials and conferences on the research for and writing of the senior thesis. This is the 1st semester of a two-semester course sequence
Permission of the instructor and the completion of all courses (except for the senior requirement) required for the economics department majors. Exceptions to these prerequisites may be granted by the chair of the department only. Tutorials and conferences on the research for and writing of the senior thesis. This is the 2nd semester of a two-semester course sequence
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and the completion of all courses (except for the senior requirement) required for the economics department majors. Exceptions to these prerequisites may be granted by the chair of the department only. Seminar sections are limited to 16 students. A topic in economic theory or policy of the instructors choice. See department for current topics and for senior requirement preference forms
Prerequisites: Instructors permission Provides students with the experience of participating in the research process by matching them to a faculty mentor who will put them to work on one of his or her current research projects
Prerequisites: ECON BC3033 or ECON BC3035 or permission of the instructor. Topic(s), requirements, workload and point value to be determined in consultation with faculty advisor. Forms available at the Office of the Registrar
