Welcome

The Economics Department has recently adopted some changes in our undergraduate curriculum that we believe will improve the content of our undergraduate program. Although we recognize that this news may cause you some concern, please be assured that it is not our intention to disadvantage any person who is “mid-stream” in their Rice education. Accordingly, when the new rules take effect in fall 2010, all Rice students who matriculated prior to fall 2010 will have the option of following either our existing rules or the new rules that will apply to students matriculating in fall 2010 and thereafter.

The following is a brief summary of the changes.

We have renumbered several courses so that our course numbers conform more closely to the analytical content of our courses. For the most part, these changes are cosmetic (although informative), but one aspect of these changes may be of consequence to you. In our new numbering scheme, the courses previously numbered as ECON 340 (Introduction to Game Theory), ECON 348 (Organizational Design), ECON 355 (Financial Markets), ECON 438 (Business, Law, and Economics), and ECON 452 (Religion, Ethics, and Economics) have been renumbered as 200-level courses.

If you have already taken these courses, they will remain on your transcript with their original numbers and will retain their upper-level designation. If you have not yet taken these courses, please be advised that henceforth they will count as 200-level courses. Considering that these courses require only introductory microeconomics (or less) as a prerequisite, we believe this designation is appropriate.

The course previously numbered as ECON 448 (Corporate Finance) has been replaced by two courses. Professor Hartley will now offer a somewhat more applied treatment of this material in ECON 243 (Corporate Finance). Professor Bejan will offer a more advanced treatment of related material in ECON 443 (Financial Economics). ECON 243 is not a prerequisite for ECON 443, but we think the two courses will complement each other nicely.

We have introduced a new independent research course, ECON 399, which will be available to all students who have earned at least a B average in a set of prerequisite courses. Students who wish to enroll in ECON 399 should contact Elizabeth Powell in Baker Hall 255 to arrange verification that they have met this requirement. Students will be permitted to enroll in this course only once. ECON 403/404 will remain available to seniors who matriculated prior to fall 2010, although no more than two semesters of independent research in total will be permitted. ECON 399 will replace ECON 403/404 for students matriculating next fall.

There will be no changes in the academic standards that current students must meet for departmental honors. New standards will apply only to students who matriculate in fall 2010 or thereafter (or for current students who elect to follow the new rules in their entirety).

As before, students matriculating in fall 2010 or later will be required (minimally) to complete Math 101 or Math 111-112, STAT 280, ECON 201 (formerly ECON 211), ECON 301 (formerly ECON 370), ECON 303 (formerly ECON 375), and ECON 309 (formerly ECON 446). Students matriculating next fall and thereafter will be required to complete six additional electives, at least three of which must be at the 400-level. Current students must complete only five additional electives.

The new requirements for the MTEC major differ from the old requirements in only one respect. Under the new rules, senior independent research is no longer a required course. Students who matriculate in fall 2010 and thereafter (and current students who elect to follow the new rules in their entirety) may substitute another elective in place of ECON 403/404.

The North American Productivity Workshop (NAPW), whose main co-sponsors are the Rice University School of Social Sciences and the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, will be held June 2-5 2010.  The first day of the conference will be reserved for the young researchers’ pre-conference, supported by a generous grant from the Baker Institute. 

The scientific committee welcomes theoretical and empirical papers on productivity, production theory and efficiency measurement in economics, management science, operations research public administration and related fields.  Historically, empirical papers have addressed such general topics as education, health, energy, finance, agriculture, transport, utilities, and economic development, among many others. 

Further information can be obtained at the conference website http://economics.rice.edu/~napw2010/  or by contacting the conference organizer, Professor Robin C. Sickles, at NAPW2010 <NAPW2010@rice.edu>

The Center on Race, Religion, and Urban Life (CORRUL) at Rice University invites all graduate and undergraduate students in U.S. and worldwide to take part in the 2010 National Student Paper Competition.  All entries must conduct scholarly research using the newly released data from the Panel Study of American Religion and Ethnicity (PS-ARE).  Please share this information and attached flyer with colleagues and students.  The PS-ARE website has complete details at  http://www.ps-are.org.

Ken Medlock, the James A. Baker III and Susan G. Baker Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and adjunct professor of economics, is quoted in articles on CBSNews.com and CNNMoney.com about movement to curb oil speculation. Medlock is also quoted in articles on NGOilGas.com and RigZone.com about the acquisition of BJ Services by Baker Hughes. Articles in the Houston Chronicle, Oil and Gas Investor and Gas2.org discuss a recent study on the effect of speculators on oil markets by Medlock and Amy Myers Jaffe, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies at the Baker Institute for Public Policy.