Courses
- Course Updates: 2025-2026
- University Requirements
- Concurrent Enrollment
Course Updates for the 2025-2026 Academic Year
Spring 2026 Updates
ECON 129: Cities, Inequality, and Innovation
Why do cities exist, and why do some prosper while others decline? This course introduces students to the economics of American cities, past and present, with a focus on innovation, housing, and inequality. Building on the core tools from the introductory sequence, we develop the analysis step by step from first principles—no additional background in economics is required. A highlight of the class is the Mapping Project, where students create their own map of U.S. economic data, gaining practical skills in data analysis and visualization. The course is clear, engaging, and hands-on, with a project you can showcase in applications.
Instead of ECON 110A and 120A, ECON 3 and ECON 5 will be accepted.
Instead of ECON 110A and 120A, ECON 3 and ECON 5 will be accepted.
ECON 141: “Big Data in Health”
Course Description:
This course will introduce you to research in economics that uses big data to answer pressing questions in the design of health and social policies. We will use economic modeling to motivate well-defined hypotheses, which we will then test with empirical research on administrative datasets that cover millions of households across decades in different countries. We will ultimately study how economists use these precise estimates to inform heated policy debates in a scientific way.
This course is designed to emphasize what’s unique to economic research across all disciplines of the social sciences and health: 1) approaching enormous and messy datasets equipped with well-defined hypotheses, which are backed by rigorous formal modeling; 2) developing quasi-experimental research design to identify causal relationships in the real world. We will take a broad social sciences approach, which goes beyond markets and prices. This is what economists actually do in their research explorations to deliver timely rigorous science to solve social problems that affect the entire nation and beyond.
The didactic approach taken in this class is to identify a problem and develop strategies to offer solutions. It aims to provide you with skills, in contrast to asking you to memorize material in specific settings. No one setting is ever generalizable, and ready-made solutions are losing their relevance with new settings becoming increasingly prevalent in a fast-paced digital world. This course is geared toward students who wish to develop such skills for their future careers, whether as a scientist, a policymaker, an entrepreneur in the private sector, or a developer of an AI digital product that offers new solutions to unsolved problems.
Topics will include:
• Family spillovers and peer effects in health
• Health and labor market interactions
• Family health shocks and the gender earnings gap
• How medical residency shapes female physicians’ career and family choices
• Access to reproductive health in the US
• Using electronic health records to measure the social cost of poverty and crime
• Equity and efficiency in adoption of digital health
• The value of digital and AI solutions in healthcare
• Using AI to provide seamless healthcare
• Predictions in high-dimensional healthcare data and their integration into causal analysis
• Surviving spouses’ mental health and the value of life insurance
• Population aging and the protective effects of a healthy spouse
• How our choice of physician can determine our health
Prerequisites: 120B and 100A. The formal prerequisites ensure that you are familiar with basic economic modeling (120B) and basic econometric analysis (100A). Specifically, you should be familiar with constrained optimization (e.g., utility maximization under a budget constraint) and basic regression methods (e.g., OLS and issues such as omitted variable bias, endogeneity, correlation versus causality, etc.). If you have acquired this knowledge in other classes (for which you have records and accompanying syllabi), please reach out to me. The course is intended for a small class setting with students who are advanced in their undergraduate program. Active participation in class is central and expected.
Course Requirement: Research proposal (100% of your grade) either individually or in pairs. It will be assessed based on the importance of a well-defined research question (the “problem” you have identified) and the feasibility of the suggested empirical investigation to be conducted (the approach you suggest to explore potential “solutions”). The latter will include a discussion of research designs and relevant datasets. You will not be required to suggest a specific solution (or conduct the proposed analysis). The class is all about the process, not the particular outcome.
This course will introduce you to research in economics that uses big data to answer pressing questions in the design of health and social policies. We will use economic modeling to motivate well-defined hypotheses, which we will then test with empirical research on administrative datasets that cover millions of households across decades in different countries. We will ultimately study how economists use these precise estimates to inform heated policy debates in a scientific way.
This course is designed to emphasize what’s unique to economic research across all disciplines of the social sciences and health: 1) approaching enormous and messy datasets equipped with well-defined hypotheses, which are backed by rigorous formal modeling; 2) developing quasi-experimental research design to identify causal relationships in the real world. We will take a broad social sciences approach, which goes beyond markets and prices. This is what economists actually do in their research explorations to deliver timely rigorous science to solve social problems that affect the entire nation and beyond.
The didactic approach taken in this class is to identify a problem and develop strategies to offer solutions. It aims to provide you with skills, in contrast to asking you to memorize material in specific settings. No one setting is ever generalizable, and ready-made solutions are losing their relevance with new settings becoming increasingly prevalent in a fast-paced digital world. This course is geared toward students who wish to develop such skills for their future careers, whether as a scientist, a policymaker, an entrepreneur in the private sector, or a developer of an AI digital product that offers new solutions to unsolved problems.
Topics will include:
• Family spillovers and peer effects in health
• Health and labor market interactions
• Family health shocks and the gender earnings gap
• How medical residency shapes female physicians’ career and family choices
• Access to reproductive health in the US
• Using electronic health records to measure the social cost of poverty and crime
• Equity and efficiency in adoption of digital health
• The value of digital and AI solutions in healthcare
• Using AI to provide seamless healthcare
• Predictions in high-dimensional healthcare data and their integration into causal analysis
• Surviving spouses’ mental health and the value of life insurance
• Population aging and the protective effects of a healthy spouse
• How our choice of physician can determine our health
Prerequisites: 120B and 100A. The formal prerequisites ensure that you are familiar with basic economic modeling (120B) and basic econometric analysis (100A). Specifically, you should be familiar with constrained optimization (e.g., utility maximization under a budget constraint) and basic regression methods (e.g., OLS and issues such as omitted variable bias, endogeneity, correlation versus causality, etc.). If you have acquired this knowledge in other classes (for which you have records and accompanying syllabi), please reach out to me. The course is intended for a small class setting with students who are advanced in their undergraduate program. Active participation in class is central and expected.
Course Requirement: Research proposal (100% of your grade) either individually or in pairs. It will be assessed based on the importance of a well-defined research question (the “problem” you have identified) and the feasibility of the suggested empirical investigation to be conducted (the approach you suggest to explore potential “solutions”). The latter will include a discussion of research designs and relevant datasets. You will not be required to suggest a specific solution (or conduct the proposed analysis). The class is all about the process, not the particular outcome.
ECON 173B: Corporate Finance
This course introduces the firm’s capital budgeting decision, including methods for evaluation and ranking of investment projects, the firm’s choice of capital structure, dividend policy decisions, corporate taxes, mergers and acquisitions.
The prerequisites for ECON 173B will be as follows: ECON 4/MGT 4 or MGT 45 and ECON 100A and ECON 120B.
The prerequisites for ECON 173B will be as follows: ECON 4/MGT 4 or MGT 45 and ECON 100A and ECON 120B.
ECON 182: Topics in Microeconomics - Strategic Management
Joel Watson, winner of the Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award and author of the book Strategy, is developing a new course called Strategic Management to be piloted this spring quarter, and he is asking for your help in designing it. He envisions a hands-on course for students who want to learn how economics actually works inside real businesses. Because this class is still being developed, you can help shape the final set of topics. The course will explore key tools that managers use to make smart strategic decisions, including:
How to negotiate effectively
How to set optimal prices
How to design incentive systems that get the best from teams
How to organize and motivate production groups
How to compete with rival firms
Along the way, students will build foundations in game theory and contract theory, geared toward real-world application.
PREREQUISITES: We will be waiving the prerequisite for ECON 182 which is currently ECON 100C. Instead, the prerequisites for this course will be MATH 10C or 20C and ECON 1. Students will need to submit an EASy request for enrollment into this course.
Winter 2026 Updates
ECON 184 Topics in Economics with Data Analytics
Taught by Prof. Sara Lowes, this course examines the evolution of the global economy, tracing long-run patterns of growth, trade, and development from the pre-industrial era to the present. We explore the Industrial Revolution, colonialism and globalization, the emergence of modern institutions, and the divergence in income across regions. By comparing historical episodes across different regions and time periods, the course highlights the forces shaping economic growth, inequality, and institutional change. The course also provides students with tools to understand the roots of today’s global economy. Examples of topics covered in the course are: what drove the Industrial Revolution; what were the impacts of the slave trades?; how has women’s labor force participation changed over time?; how has immigration shaped growth?
The prerequisite for ECON 184 will be waived for winter 2026 which is currently listed as ECON 120B or MATH 181B. However, having econometrics training is recommended. To waive the prerequisite, you will have to submit an EASy request (easy.ucsd.edu) for enrollment. If you have any questions, please submit them into the VAC (vac.ucsd.edu) and we'll be happy to assist.
The prerequisite for ECON 184 will be waived for winter 2026 which is currently listed as ECON 120B or MATH 181B. However, having econometrics training is recommended. To waive the prerequisite, you will have to submit an EASy request (easy.ucsd.edu) for enrollment. If you have any questions, please submit them into the VAC (vac.ucsd.edu) and we'll be happy to assist.
Prerequisite Change for ECON 105, ECON 137, and ECON 151.
- ECON 100B (if taken in winter 2025 or after) will be accepted instead of ECON 100C as a prerequisite for the following courses during the winter 2026 quarter: ECON 105, ECON 137, and ECON 151. Please submit an EASy request (easy.ucsd.edu) for enrollment. If you have any questions, please submit them into the VAC (vac.ucsd.edu) and we'll be happy to assist.
Other Updates
Changes to ECON 100 ABC Series
Beginning in the 2024-25 academic year, the order of topics covered in the Econ 100ABC - Intermediate Microeconomics sequence has changed. The overall list of topics remains the same, but some topics previously covered in ECON 100C will now be covered in A and B, while more mathematically advanced topics will be moved to the new ECON 100C class.
The new sequence descriptions, as well as the old descriptions, for reference and comparison, are provided below. The new sequence course descriptions are not yet reflected in the official UCSD catalog, but will be by Summer 2025.
- ECON 100A (New): Economic analysis of household choices for the demand of goods and services. Analysis of firms’ production and costs and the supply of output. Analysis of perfectly competitive markets and introduction to general equilibrium. Prerequisites: ECON 1 and MATH 10C or 20C or 31BH.
- ECON 100A (Old): Economic analysis of household determination of the demand for goods and services, consumption/saving decisions, and the supply of labor. Prerequisites: ECON 1 and MATH 10C or 20C or 31BH.
- ECON 100B (New): Game theory and analysis of the effects of imperfect market structure, strategy and information economics, public goods, and externalities. Prerequisites: ECON 100A.
- ECON 100B (Old): Analysis of firms’ production and costs, the supply of output, and demand factors of production. Analysis of perfectly competitive markets. Prerequisite: Econ 100A.
- ECON 100C (New): Advanced analysis of production, costs, the supply of output, and demand for factors of production. Advanced analysis of the demand for goods and services. Applications to consumption and saving decisions, strategic behavior, and the supply of labor. General equilibrium and welfare. Prerequisites: ECON 100B.
- ECON 100C (Old): Analysis of the effects of imperfect market structure, strategy, and imperfect information. Prerequisite: Econ 100B.
To facilitate this transition, the change is being implemented gradually throughout the year, first by changing Econ 100A in the Fall, then Econ 100B in the Winter, and finally Econ 100C in the Spring as shown here:
|
Quarter |
100A |
100B |
100C |
|
Fall 2024 |
New |
Old |
Old |
|
Winter 2025 |
New |
New |
Old |
|
Spring 2025 |
New |
New |
New |
If you have taken Econ 100A according to the old structure, we strongly recommend that you take Econ 100B and Econ 100C also in the old format. Similarly, if you have taken Econ 100B according to the old structure, we strongly recommend that you take Econ 100C in the old format. If you are unable to do so, the classes will still count towards major credits.
If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to our Econ advisors on VAC.
New Class: ECON 186 - Careers in Economics and Business
We are excited to announce the offering of a new class, Econ 186 - Careers in Economics and Business, starting this Fall 2024. Econ 186 is uniquely designed to provide students with key knowledge and practical skills used in the real world that complement traditional academic skills to maximize interview, communication, and presentation skills and strengthen resume building. The class explores career paths in the business profession in various aspects to broaden students' knowledge of career opportunities and it reviews the current business environment, financial markets, economy, unemployment, banking crises, market updates, and all related business topics.
About the Econ 186 instructor: Steve Ross has been a Wall Street Executive for over 30 years. Steve was an Executive Committee Member and Partner at Nicholas Applegate where he managed over $5 Billion in equity assets from 1994-2004. Steve then spent 8 years as a Director at BlackRock and has spent the past 10 years as a Managing Director at Bank of America Private Bank where he oversees the investment team and over $2 Billion in assets in San Diego. Steve has taught at UCLA for the past 15 years and was previously the Executive in Residence for the College of Business at SDSU for 6 years where the course was initially designed in 2005.
The class counts for 2 units, has Econ 1 and Econ 3 as prerequisites, and can be taken as P/NP only. We plan on offering the class every quarter of the regular academic year (Fall, Winter, and Spring).
Note: Econ 186 cannot be used to satisfy the upper-division elective requirements in our majors (EN25, EN26, EN28, EN30, and EN31).