In May 2011, Pro Vice Chancellor Peter Donkor published this article in the Digital Learning Resources online journal.
Examines the long term effects of information technology on business strategy in the real estate and construction industry. Considerations include: supply chain, allocation of risk, impact on contract obligations and security, trends toward consolidation, and the convergence of information transparency and personal effectiveness. Resources are drawn from the world of dot.com entrepreneurship and "old economy" responses. Taught by case study method and grading is based on class participation and papers.
Neoclassical analysis of the labor market and its institutions. A systematic development of the theory of labor supply, labor demand, and human capital theory. Topics discussed also include theories of wage and employment determination, turnover, search, unemployment, equalizing differences, and union behavior. Particular emphasis on the interaction of theoretical and empirical modeling. The aim of this course is to acquaint students with traditional topics in labor economics and to encourage the development of independent research interests. This course is taught in two parts: Fall term and then in the subsequent Fall term.
" This course is an introduction to labor economics with an emphasis on applied microeconomic theory and empirical analysis. We are especially interested in the link between research and public policy. Topics to be covered include: labor supply and demand, taxes and transfers, minimum wages, immigration, human capital, education production, inequality, discrimination, unions and strikes, and unemployment."
Theory and evidence concerning the functioning of the labor market. Particular emphasis on the roles played by government and institutions. Topics include minimum wages, labor market effects of social insurance and welfare programs, the collective bargaining relationship, discrimination, human capital, and unemployment.
Analyzes - through lectures, discussions, and class exercises - the human processes underlying organizational behavior. Through lectures, discussions, and class exercises, 15.322 analyzes the human processes underlying organizational behavior and change. The class makes students aware of the challenge of organizational change and equips them to better handle it. There are many psychological and sociological phenomena that regularly occur in organizations, though many of these forces are difficult to see. The aim is to increase the students' understanding of these forces -- in themselves and in others -- so they become more visible and manageable.
" This half-semester course provides an introduction to microeconomic theory designed to meet the needs of students in the economics Ph.D. program. Some parts of the course are designed to teach material that all graduate students should know. Others are used to introduce methodologies. Topics include consumer and producer theory, markets and competition, general equilibrium, and tools of comparative statics and their application to price theory. Some topics of recent interest may also be covered."
" This course in organizational economics prepares doctoral students for further study in the field. The course introduces the classic papers and some recent research. The material is organized into the following modules: boundaries of the firm, employment in organizations, decision-making in organizations, and structures and processes in organizations. Each class session covers a few leading papers. This course was joint-taught between faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. The Harvard course is Economics 2670 Organizational Economics."
This is a new class on the topic of field (that is, 'in situ') and laboratory experiments in the social sciences - both what these experiments have taught and can teach us and how to conduct them.
In this study, the researchers investigated the perceived relationships of financial and non-financial incentives on teacher recruitment and retention among public school teachers in the State of Texas from the perspective of 98 public school superintendents. Findings revealed that school districts tended to offer teachers’ salaries over the state base pay, although signing bonuses were relatively infrequent. Other than contributing to teacher health care plans, financial incentives were generally not provided to teachers. Non-financial incentives were positively responded to by these superintendents. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Governments at every level assume a measure of responsibility for seeking good design. Some of that responsibility is exercised directly--through the design and construction of government buildings, for example. But most changes to our environments are neither designed nor built by governments. Rather, they are the result of the actions and investments of private individuals, institutions, corporations, joint ventures, or private/public collaborations. Yet, the actions of all of these actors are affected by the design policies of government and the interventions that are undertaken to implement those policies. In this advanced graduate-level seminar we will explore new ways of thinking about urban design policy in an attempt to better understand just what government does--and what it can do effectively--in the realm of design policy.
