1) Last year I published this paper: Bottan, Daria, Douglas McKee, George Orlov, and Anna McDougall. 'Racial and Gender Achievement Gaps in an Economics Classroom.'International Review of Economics Education (2022): 100239. This year the paper was awarded 'Best Paper' award for that journal in 2022. 2) I started a new research project: Using Extra Credit to facilitate engagement and learning. Abstract: I have been teaching Principles of Microeconomics for more than a decade. Few instructors disagree with the fact that engaging students is important for learning. How to actually engage students is a more difficult question. One of the concepts students often struggle with is a distinction between Demand and Quantity Demanded. In this paper I illustrate how incentivizing students with extra credit can help them engage and as a result improve their understanding of concepts. I assigned students an extra credit exercise which was about explaining the difference between demand and quantity demanded. The amount of students answering the question on the topic wrongly decreased by 27% compared to a previous semester where I taught similarly but did not assign that extra credit exercise. This illustrates to me how engaging students with the material is beneficial for their learning: they can potentially explain things better to themselves than I can explain to them. 3) I am in process of trying to publish my other paper: 'Teaching as Art: what lesson from theater can we bring into teaching?'. Got a rejection, rewriting it.
ECON 2010 - Principles of Microeconomics
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2021 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2022 / Spring 2023 / Fall 2023 / Spring 2024
Examines basic concepts of microeconomics or the behavior and the interactions of individuals, firms and government. Topics include determining economic problems, how consumers and businesses make decisions, how markets work, and how they fail and how government actions affect markets.
ECON 3070 - Intermediate Microeconomic Theory
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2021 / Spring 2022 / Spring 2023 / Spring 2024
Explores theory and application of models of consumer choice, firm and market organization, and general equilibrium. Extensions include intertemporal decisions, decisions under uncertainty, externalities, and strategic interaction.
ECON 4211 - Public Economics: the Economics of the Government Sector
Primary Instructor
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Summer 2022 / Summer 2023
Focuses on taxation and public expenditures. Topics include economic rationale for government action, economic theory of government behavior, and effects of government policies on allocation of resources and distribution of income.
ECON 4262 - Economics of Crime and Corruption
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2023
Focuses on economic models of crime and punishment, and on empirical evidence that evaluates the models. The first part of the course will introduce economic models of crime and study what factors motivate and deter criminal behavior. Then we will turn to empirical evidence and will discuss the role of higher fines, imprisonment, death penalty, abortion, drugs, guns and other factors in deterring crime. In the end of the course we will discuss corruption and whether it is harmful or beneficial to society.
ECON 4929 - Special Topics In Economics
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2022
This course number is assigned to upper-level Economics electives that become available on an incidental basis. Refer to the Economics Department for a detailed description of current content. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. Formerly ECON 4999.
