ECN3600: Urban and Land Use Economics

4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

Cities are great places where populations gather, interact, and create new ideas. At the same time, cities represent problems such as traffic, crime, and economic inequality. Why do cities exist in the first place? Why are buildings in the city center taller and more expensive? How do we explain land use patterns and housing prices? Does building infrastructure relieve congestion or create pollution? Does gentrification help revitalize inner cities? This course offers a rigorous survey of urban and spatial economics, building upon previous knowledge in introductory economics courses. Core theories in urban economics will be introduced, as well as ideas in economic geography, spatial econometrics, and sustainable development. Further skills in data analysis and visualization especially through GIS will be developed.

Prerequisites: ECN 2002

HSS2030 US Politics
(Formerly American Politics)
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThe course begins with a focus on significant ideas, major political and economic institutions, and key social conflicts and events that have shaped the character of American politics. We will position American politics in its historical context, recognizing and contending with the legacies of enslavement, white supremacy, and imperial violence in its development. As such, the fundamental role of race, colonialism, gender, sexuality, and class will be addressed throughout so that we can understand key and persistent features of American politics. The latter half of the course will examine contemporary ideologies, struggles over civil liberties and rights, the forces generating economic inequality, and the origins of mass incarceration and systemic racism. We will also spend the beginning of classes discussing the news, so the class will be flexible enough to respond to and address political events as they occur. The course will involve a combination of lecturing, discussion, and small-group activities, so class participation is important.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

ECN3606 Uses and Abuses of Financial Derivatives: An Economist's View

4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

The significant use of derivative instruments began in the 1970s and, since then, has grown at a thunderous rate. Derivatives are used by individuals, businesses, financial institutions, central banks, and governments throughout the world. This course explains financial derivatives from microeconomic and macroeconomic perspectives.

Microeconomic Perspective
The wise use of derivative instruments requires the identification, measurement, evaluation, management, and monitoring of major risks. Some risks are willingly held, but many of are not, and derivative instruments provides a way to transfer these risks to others. Uses and Abuses of Financial Derivatives: An Economist's View explains how companies have used derivative contracts to mitigate risks. It also describes how these instruments can be used for speculative, often destructive, purposes, which have little or nothing to do with a well-conceived strategy. In some cases, actions that were intended to hedge positions ended up being speculative, due (usually) to unpriced risks and a lack of understanding.

In the spirit of "Never waste a good crisis," this course explains the steps and missteps of companies connected to some of the most spectacular derivative disasters, such as Amaranth Advisors LLC, American International Group (AIG), JPMorgan Chase ("London Whale"), Metallgesellschaft AG, Orange County, and Proctor & Gamble Inc. In doing so, the course addresses important questions, such as: What risks did these companies fail to identify or incorrectly price? Could these losses have been prevented?

The chances are high that students in this class will be offered employee stock options sometime in their professional careers, so this course explains how to put stock option offers into the broader perspective of different forms of compensation and their risks. We will find that employers (especially those in start-up companies) often look at ESOs quite differently from employees.

Macroeconomic Perspective
Derivative products have been used by central banks to influence exchange rates and by governments to hedge international borrowing and lending costs. This course explains how central banks hedge themselves and the positive and negative impacts these transactions can have on international capital flows, domestic credit markets, and foreign exchange markets.

Uses and Abuses of Financial Derivatives: An Economist's View also connects you to an ongoing debate about whether financial derivatives can have significant negative effects on national and world economies. On one side are those who believe derivatives are zero-sum games, with the losses of some offset by the gains of others. On the other side are those who believe that derivative instruments can negatively influence nations' monetary and fiscal policies and expectations, thereby precipitating national and international economic and financial crises. This course discusses both sides of this debate, with particular focus the currency crises of Mexico (1994), Thailand (1997 - 1998), Russia (1998), and Argentina (2001).

Engaging in a forward contract means agreeing to pay or receive payment in the future at a price agreed upon today, but how can one know if a forward price is "fair." To address this question, we discuss four "parity conditions," which are at the heart of many macroeconomic discussions - particularly those dealing with derivatives.

Prerequisites: ECN2000 or ECN2002

LTA2069 Utopia and Dystopia: Literary and Cultural Expressions
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThis course will examine the difference between ideas of absolute societal perfection and absolute societal imperfection as expressed in literary and cultural texts. Topics of study through such texts will include the ways we govern, the ways we create order, the ways we progress, and the ways we treat others. Over the course of the semester, students will be confronted with a number of questions. What are the elements of a utopia or dystopia? If one is complete perfection and the other complete imperfection - both by definition unattainable - then why are the concepts even worth talking about, and why have they persisted throughout history and across cultures? And maybe most interestingly, is there much of a real difference between the two? We will read works by Jose Saramago, Cormac McCarthy, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ursula LeGuin, and Margaret Atwood.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

MOB3526 Values Based Entrepreneurial Leadership
4 Advanced Management Credits

This course has been created specifically for students who wish to develop their capability as a values based entrepreneurial leader. Specifically, the course is about helping students to better understand and develop their own values and learn how effectively apply those values as a leader. Being a successful entrepreneurial leader requires a clear set of values and a willingness to allow those values to govern decision-making beyond simple decision rubrics like profit maximization.

For more information: http://www.kaltura.com/tiny/0l0yj

Prerequisites: (FME1000 and FME1001) or (EPS1000 and MOB1010)

LTA2016 Violence: Theories of Cruelty, Evil, and the Inhuman
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts CreditsThis course will investigate the idea of violence across an extensive spectrum of authors, texts, films, and literary-philosophical perspectives from the East and the West. We seek not merely to engage in a conventional critique but to exceed the boundaries of our embedded understanding by also contemplating this concept's fascinating potential as a form of literary imagination and intellectual expression. Topics will therefore include cruelty, vulnerability, power, betrayal, destruction, vengeance, anger, terror, defacement, pain, disaster, and inhumanity. From the poetics of torture to the damaged writings of war, from theoretical works on catastrophe to cinematic and artistic pieces on the nature of evil, the intent is to explore the many narratives that have emerged across the global horizon in the face of an often violent experience of the modern world.

Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)

HIS4610 Virtuous Capitalism in Malaysia and Thailand

(Formerly Social Responsibility in Malaysia & Thailand)
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Elective Abroad CreditsProgram fee and group international airfare is paid to Glavin Office - program fee includes accommodations, breakfast, group flights (2), airport transports, ground transportation, site visits, program planned meals, and cultural excursions. Not included: tuition, visa costs, additional meals and personal expenses.

The purpose of our course is to explore the question: "How do Malaysians and Thais think about 'Social Responsibility' and how do they act in order to achieve it?" By extension, we will be asking about how approaches to business ethics in our own countries differ from Malaysians' and Thais'? Often in Western discussions of business ethics, it is assumed that the West is far ahead of Asia in business ethics. We will make no such assumption, but rather, we will ask if Malaysia and Thailand have anything to teach our countries.

More particularly, we will focus on three Asian faiths and cultural traditions - Islam, Buddhism, and Confucianism. We will visit 3 socially responsible companies, each representing, respectively, an approach to social responsibility consistent with one of those 3 traditions. We will aim not only to learn about the implications of Islam, Buddhism, and Confucianism for business ethics. We will also aim to understand what qualities those 3 Asian traditions share which may distinguish them generally from Western traditions in business ethics.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

MBA7546 Wealth Management
3 Blended CreditsWealth management does not necessarily have as much to do with how much asset value you now have or how you accumulated that wealth. But wealth management is more about how you manage the wealth you have. There is an accumulation stage and a distribution stage. Wealth management does not involve just investing. Investing is an important element but good management also involves income taxes, estate taxes, how to fund education for children, how to fund a retirement, and how to protect your assets from creditors.

There are 6 pillars of wealth management. This course examines tax planning, estate planning, investment planning, retirement planning, education planning, and risk management including asset protection and insurance, from an individual planning perspective. The course is designed for students who have already accumulated wealth or are in the process of doing so. This could be the successful entrepreneur (or in the process of becoming successful) but also includes students who expect to inherit wealth and those that are interested in helping parents manage their wealth. Also students who have interest in the financial services industry - financial advisors, insurance advisors, bankers, mutual fund managers, etc. will find the course of interest.

The course will use a combination of cases, readings, power point presentations, spread sheet models, and discussions amongst students. Since many of the topics change quickly (for example expiration of the Bush tax cuts and the fiscal cliff legislation known as The American Tax Relief Act of 2012) there will also be cutting edge updates (for example the Affordable Care Act) to planning techniques.

The course is offered in a blended learning format. Thus the course is about 7 weeks long with two face to face sessions. The text will be supplemented with numerous articles which are very practical in nature. Although not a guarantee past students have learned how to save on income and estate taxes!

Prerequisites: None

OIM3690 Web Technologies

4 Advanced Liberal Arts Elective Credits

OIM3690 introduces students to web site development. Students will learn general design and programming skills that are needed for web site development. Students will explore languages and tools of the world wide web (WWW), including the hyper-text markup (HTML), cascading style sheet (CSS), and JavaScript languages. Some related design concepts are also discussed, in addition to aspects concerning design methodology and project management. As part of the course requirements, each student will publish a website to a hosting service, which charges a hosting service and domain registration fee of $30-40. (Students will be responsible to pay this fee separate from the tuition charges during the term.)" The various tools may include FrontPage, text editors, and graphics design editors. This course emphasizes hands-on computer skill development in a computer lab setting.

Prerequisites: SME2012 or OIM2000

HUM4606 What Does it Mean to Live a Good Life?

4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits

This advanced liberal arts elective investigates what it might mean to live a 'good life', and how these interpretations might contribute to your own discoveries and thinking as you head out into the 'real world' beyond Babson. Rather than a philosophy or psychology or self-help course (although all of this is intertwined), this course is based around how writers and filmmakers and other creative thinkers have tried to explore this enduring focus of human inquiry. Through a wide range of literature, film, podcasts, and other media, we will examine differing efforts to perceive and live out a 'good life.' How can we define and measure happiness, and whether that should even be our ultimate goal? How important are extrinsic rewards like achievement and money compared to more internal ones like relationships and human connection? How do we avoid being overwhelmed by the news of the world and instead to create stories that matter and move us to positive action? Where can we find value in odysseys and unexpected detours? What is the meaning of work and its relationship to play? How can we better approach mortality and loss? And how can we grasp the simultaneous individuality and immensity of the human condition in ways that strive to make ourselves and the world better? Together, we will wrangle with these and other ongoing life questions.

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)