This lecture introduces the concepts of scarcity, choice and opportunity costs. It also discusses economics systems and the role of government.

Small-group study of advanced subjects under staff supervision. For graduate students wishing to pursue further study in advanced areas of urban studies and city and regional planning not covered in regular subjects of instruction. 11.941 and 11.955 are taught P/D/F.

This lecture discusses the AD/AS Model, the Keynesian and neoclassical macroeconomic theories, their differences and perspectives.

This lecture discusses the role of firms and households in the market as well as the circular flow. Market equilibrium, supply, demand and the concept of efficiency are also covered.

This course emphasizes dynamic models of growth and development. Topics covered include: migration, modernization, and technological change; static and dynamic models of political economy; the dynamics of income distribution and institutional change; firm structure in developing countries; development, transparency, and functioning of financial markets; privatization; and banks and credit market institutions in emerging markets.

At MIT, this course was team taught by Prof. Robert Townsend, who taught for the first half of the semester, and Prof. Abhijit Banerjee, who taught during the second half. On OCW we are only including materials associated with sessions one through 13, which comprise the first half of the class.

" Topics include productivity effects of health, private and social returns to education, education quality, education policy and market equilibrium, gender discrimination, public finance, decision making within families, firms and contracts, technology, labor and migration, land, and the markets for credit and savings."

Imagine your classmate missed last lecture and is asking you for help. In order to explain what opportunity cost is, you are taking the example of your opportunity cost of going to college. How would you explain him/her what your opportunity cost is and whether getting a formal college education is worth it?

This course examines the growing importance of medicine in culture, economics and politics. It uses an historical approach to examine the changing patterns of disease, the causes of morbidity and mortality, the evolution of medical theory and practice, the development of hospitals and the medical profession, the rise of the biomedical research industry, and the ethics of health care in America.

"This course focuses on dynamic optimization methods, both in discrete and in continuous time. We approach these problems from a dynamic programming and optimal control perspective. We also study the dynamic systems that come from the solutions to these problems. The course will illustrate how these techniques are useful in various applications, drawing on many economic examples. However, the focus will remain on gaining a general command of the tools so that they can be applied later in other classes."

Deterministic optimization: maximum principle, dynamic programming, calculus of variations, optimal control, dynamic games. Stochastic optimization: stochastic optimal control and dynamic programming, Markov processes, Ito calculus, Markov games. Applications. Dynamical systems: local and global analysis and chaos. The unifying theme of this course is best captured by the title of our main reference book: "Recursive Methods in Economic Dynamics". We start by covering deterministic and stochastic dynamic optimization using dynamic programming analysis. We then study the properties of the resulting dynamic systems. Finally, we will go over a recursive method for repeated games that has proven useful in contract theory and macroeconomics. We shall stress applications and examples of all these techniques throughout the course.

A comprehensive study of the nature of money and monetary standards; the development, structure, and functions of American central banking; commercial banking; non-bank financial intermediaries; investment banking; and financial markets. Federal and State bank regulation and supervision, major monetary theories. Analysis of the impact and major role of the American banking system on the economy. Includes a study of international finance. Successful completion of this course satisfies one Civic Engagement interaction.

National income components and their measurement, unemployment rate, and price levels. Determinants of aggregate demand and output. Effects of government spending, taxation, and monetary policy on national income, employment, and the rate of inflation.

The purpose of this course is to help the student acquire a greater degree of economic literacy to better understand the functioning of our social system. Economics is a technical discipline with its own specialized vocabulary and methodology and is also a subject where informed positions widely diverge. The student is expected to understand as well as to analyze complex social and economic settings. This course starts from how supply and demand cause prices changes leading different market equilibrium. We will examine how market economies are efficient, and the way governments can make our economy less or more efficient. We will delve behind the supply curve to see how firms choose their production levels to maximize profits, culminating in the model of perfect competition. We will look at market failures such as imperfect competition (monopoly and oligopoly) and externalities.