ECON 357 The Strange Economics of College and Other Non-profits (Not offered 1998-99)

Economics courses from 101 through 251 to 401 concentrates on for-profit firms and whole nations made up of them. We nurture and polish our collective intuitions into elegant and useful theories of behavior. But there's a significant minority of economic enterprises (employing about 10% of the US workers) that are different in very fundamental economic ways - colleges, public radio stations, churches, nursing homes and day care, ... -because they operate as non-profits. Broadly, the course will look closest at hand-at Williams and the higher education "industry"-but only after considering the significant progress that's been made in the past twenty years in understanding these places, and why they do what they do. There will be a good deal of room for independent work, but the main focus of the course will be on discussion and exchange of information/perspective/insight - there's an advantage to studying a subject on which you are, in some respects, the experts. There will be an hour test and final or, alternatively, an hour test and research paper project. This course satisfies the Economics Department's alternative paradigms requirement. Prerequisite: Economics 251. Enrollment limited to 20. Seminar/discussion.

WINSTON