State of Things shows this year

Hog Farming and Lagoon Management

The Economic Impact of Championship Seasons in Sport

The Evolution of Manufacturing and its Impact on Workers

Economics 051

Fall 2006

 

Current Economic Problems: 
the Economics of North Carolina

This course is a First-Year Seminar providing the opportunity to apply practical economic analysis to a number of current economic debates within North Carolina.

The course will be organized around case studies, each occupying the class for six sessions apiece. Each case study will examine an economic issue of concern to the residents of North Carolina. The case studies will be chosen to highlight and extend fundamental economic concepts while also providing skills in organizing and examining data. The list of case studies is provided below.

The goal of this course is to provide students with illustrations of the economic perspective for thinking about current events. This will be useful both to those interested in majoring in Economics and to those with other majors with an interest in the workings of the North Carolina economy. 

Course requirements
We will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2 pm in Gardner 106. The class format will be a combination of instructor-led discussion and group activities, with some use of computer-aided analysis. The required text for the course is The Economic Way of Thinking , 11th edition by Paul Heyne, Peter Boettke and David Prychitko (hereafter, HBP).  There will be substantial reading from the case studies prepared expressly for this course and found predominantly on the Internet.

There are no pre-requisites for this course, and it is not a substitute for Economics 10. Grades will be assigned on the basis of a midterm, a final, four case assignments, and a group assignment. The midterm examination will count for 25 percent of the grade, each case assignment 5 percent, the final 30 percent and the group exercise will receive the balance (25 percent). Deadlines for assignments and group exercise submission will be announced in class, and late submissions will be penalized. Examinations will require students to apply the tools practiced in the case studies on new examples.  The final examination will be held on 11 December at 4 pm.

Resources:
For each case study there will be a set of readings from the text that you will be expected to absorb. There will also be references to World Wide Web sites for further reading. I expect all students to review the cited material before each case study.

Student interaction is an important component of this course, with one another, with me, and with outside specialists on the North Carolina economy. I will encourage this interaction through use of a discussion forum on the World Wide Web. I will post questions and answers to that forum on a regular basis. You can also use this for your own questions and communications. There is also an archive page for the course on which you'll find materials used in class.

There will be three "road trips" to locations that illustrate the issues we will study. The first will be to Randy Smith's farm in Deep Run, NC. The second will be to the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. The third will be to a textile plant in Mt. Airy, NC. You will be expected to take part in at least one of those road trips.

Enrollment will be limited to 20 to ensure proper hands-on learning. 

Computer use:
You all have laptop computers through the Carolina Computing Initiative, and you will be expected to use them in this course. There will be two mandatory uses. First, you will find much of the material used in this course on this Web page. There is also a discussion forum set up at that site for your use in communicating with me and with your classmates. You will be responsible for keeping up with that material. Second, the five case-study assignments will require your use of your computer. Many of them will be based in the software program Excel. I will be available to help you in those applications. There are also computer-based training sessions available from the University.

You are welcome to use your computers in the classroom to take notes. However, our classroom does not have sufficient electric outlets to allow students to plug in their laptops. If you wish to use your laptop in class, be sure that its battery is sufficiently charged to last the entire period. I also warn you of a personal peeve: I do not consider Tetris or Minesweeper to be academic activities. I will confiscate any computer on which I observe an individual playing games or doing non-class work during the class, and will only hand it back after the class is over.

I cannot stress enough the importance of saving your work done on the computer in a number of locations. Loss, theft or failure of your computer will not be a valid excuse for missing an assignment. Recall as well that if you plan to print out your work at the University computer labs, you will be competing with many others trying to do the same thing. Be sure to allow sufficient time to wait in line for use of a printer. A class missed because you were waiting to use a printer is an unexcused absence.

The Honor Code.
The Honor Code is in effect in this class and all others at the University. I am committed to treating Honor Code violations seriously and urge all students to become familiar with its terms. If you have questions, it is your responsibility to ask me about the Code's application in this class. All exams, written work and other projects must be submitted with a statement that you have complied with the requirements of the Honor Code in all aspects of the written work.

 

List of case studies

  • Agriculture in North Carolina: Tobacco and Hog Farming
    • Part 1: The economics of tobacco 
      Economic concept: price supports in a commodity market
      Background reading: HBP, chapters 3, 4 and 6

    • Part 2: The economics and environmental impact of hog farming. 
      Economic concepts: (1) negative externalities and the costs to localities, (2) proper evaluation and comparison of private profitability and social welfare measures.
      Background reading: HBP, chapter 2, 12 and 13.

    • On-site visit: September 22 in Deep Run and Raleigh.

  • Services and entertainment in North Carolina: Wal-mart and the Panthers.
    • Part 1: The economics of Walmart.
      Economic concepts: (1) competition among firms and (2) profit-maximizing location of stores.
      Background reading: HBP, chapters 5, 7, 9 and 10.

    • Part 2: The economics of the Carolina Panthers.
      Economic concepts: (1) profit-maximizing behavior in the entertainment industry and (2) impact on regional economic development.
      Background reading: HBP, chapters 8, 11 and 18.

    • On-site visit: October 13 in Charlotte.

  • Manufacturing in North Carolina.

    Economic concept: globalization, competition and employment. Background reading: HBP, chapter 19.

    Economic concept: the social costs and benefits of incentives offered to attract industries to sites in North Carolina.
    Background reading: HBP, chapter 20.

    • On-site visit: November 17 in Mt. Airy.


   
Assignments due:
  • First assignment:  19 September
  • Second assignment:  5 October
  • Midterm exam: 12 October
  • Third Assignment:  26 October
  • Fourth Assignment:  14 November
  • Group Assignment due: at showing
  • Final Examination: 11 December, 4 pm

All assignments are due at the beginning of the class cited.

This course is continually under revision. If you have comments or suggestions for better coverage of these (or other important) topics, please contact Patrick Conway in the Department of Economics at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.