Summary of Teaching Effectiveness
Courses Taught:
I enjoy teaching and have had the opportunity to teach eight classes as a lead instructor in my time as a PhD student. All courses were taught at the University of Oregon.
As Lead Instructor:
EC 340: Public Economics (Summer 2016, 2017)
EC 360: Issues in Industrial Organization (Winter 2017, Winter 2018, Spring 2018, Summer 2018)
EC 333: Resource and Environmental Economics (Fall 2018, Spring 2019)
As Discussion Section Leader/TA:
EC 202: Introduction to Macroeconomics
EC 320: Introduction to Econometrics
EC 523: Econometrics (Graduate Level)
Description of Classes
EC 340 Public Economics: The goal of public economics is to give students a detailed understanding of what economists mean by efficiency and well being. We begin the course by discussing preferences, establishing the two fundamental welfare theorems and then use this framework to discuss various examples of market failures. In addition to discussing efficiency issues, I include a unit on inequality and distribution. The course discusses several real-world examples of programs to improve market outcomes, such as cap-and-trade, methods of public good provision, and anti-poverty programs such as Medicaid and SNAP. The course concludes with an overview of the economics of taxation.
EC 360 Issues in Industrial Organization: Economics 360 covers the economics of antitrust policy. Throughout the course, I seek to emphasize that good antitrust policy rarely has a one-size-fits all solution, but instead requires careful analysis of a firm’s incentives to distinguish pro-competitive and anti-competitive behavior. I pair the teaching of various economic models of firm behavior with the examination of antitrust case law. Besides giving students a greater understanding of the institutional detail of U.S. antitrust enforcement, I find that these cases serve as excellent settings to apply the mathematical models we learn in class to actual situations.
EC 333 Resource and Environmental Economics: Economics 333 provides an overview of the main models and concepts of natural resource policy and environmental regulation. I focus the class on the goal of understanding how environmental concerns can be modeled using tools from welfare economics to allow their inclusion in benefit-cost analysis. I also make sure to point out that the economic toolkit only addresses certain positive questions related to the environment and that perspectives from other disciplines are needed.