Economics 452
Religion, Ethics, and Economics
Spring 2014
Professor: Mahmoud
A. El-Gamal
Classes: T 6:00--8:30 p.m. BKH
102
Office Hours: T 1--3, or by
appointment
TA: Peter Volkmar
Course Description:
This
course is
a research seminar. Although Econometrics (Econ 309, Econ 409, or
Stat
410) is not required, it is highly recommended. A primer on
regression
analysis will be given in the first two weeks. The main points of
papers, and any needed explanation technical details, will be
covered
in the second half of each class. Students will work in teams to
analyze papers and data before the following class, and the first
half
of each class will be dedicated to discussion of the papers listed
for
that week (and introduced in class the week before).
One quarter of the grade will be based on these weekly team
"projects."
Another quarter of the grade will be based on individual
presentations
of term paper synopses (last four weeks of classes). The remaining
half
of the grade will be based on the term paper. Students are
strongly
urged to start working on their term paper topics as early as week
3
(survey papers in Week 2 will facilitate picking a topic).
Readings
(required):
- Papers on Owl-Space under
"Resources"
Suggested additional readings:
- Toft, Monica Duffy,
Daniel Philpott, and Timothy Samuel Shah. God's Century:
Resurgent Religion and
Global Politics, W.W.
Norton & Co, 2011.
- Witham, Larry. Marketplace
of the Gods: How Economics Explains Religion, Oxford
University
Press, 2010
- Young, Lawrence (ed.) Rational
Choice
Theory and Religion,
Routledge, 1997
Tentative
syllabus:
- Introduction
- Week 1 -- Jan 14: Introduction,
intro to ARDA, Econometrics
Primer
- Week 2 -- Jan 21: Iannaccone (Journal of Economic Literature,
1998), McCleary and Barro (Journal
of
Economic Perspectives, 2006)
- Week 3 -- Jan 28: Durlauf,
Kourtellos and Tan (Journal
of
Applied Econometrics, 2012), Barro and McCleary (American Sociological Review,
2003)
- Demand
- Week 4 -- Feb 4: Azzi and
Ehrenberg (Journal of
Political Economy,
1975), Iannaccone (Journal
for the
Scientific Study of Religion,1990)
- Week 5 -- Feb 11: Durkin and
Greely (Rationality and
Society, 1991),
Montgomery (American
Economic Review,
1996)
- Supply
- Week 6 -- Feb 18: Iannaccone (American
Journal of Sociology, 1988),
Iannaccone (Journal of
Political
Economy, 1992)
- Week 7 -- Feb 25: Berman (Quarterly Journal of Economics,
2000), Ekelund, Hebert and Tollison (Journal
of Political Economy, 2002)
- Spring Break -- Mar 4
- Market
- Week 8 -- Mar 11: Iannaccone,
Finke,
and Stark (Economic Inquiry,
1997) + Hull and
Bold (Review of Social
Economy,
1998), Barro and McCleary (Quarterly
Journal
of Economics, 2005)
- Week 9 -- Mar 18:
Montgomery (Rationality and
Society, 1996),
Montgomery (American Sociological Review, 2003), McBride (American Journal of Sociology,
2008)
- Endgame
- Week 10 -- Mar 25: Macro, Micro
effects papers (summary)
- Week 11 -- Apr 1: Student
presentations (term paper synopses)
- Week 12 -- Apr 8: Student
presentations (term paper synopses)
- Week 13 -- Apr 15: Student
presentations (term paper synopses)
- Week 14 -- Apr 22: Student
presentations (term paper synopses)
Grading:
- Class Participation (team
projects):
25%
- Class Participation (individual
term
paper presentation): 25%
- Term Paper: 50%
- Data:
