Applied Economics & Management (AEM)

AEM 1101 - Dyson Foundations: Business for a Better World (3 Credits)  
AEM 1101 is the required introductory course for the AEM major and the Grand Challenges program. It provides an essential foundation for understanding academic resources, expectations, and opportunities at the Dyson School, within the Cornell community, and beyond. The course fosters collaborative connections among Dyson students, faculty, staff, and alumni—building relationships that will support students throughout their academic journey. Students will explore global Grand Challenges through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), identifying the SDGs that best align with their values and skill sets. This exploration may inform future coursework and capstone projects.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: Dyson first-year students.  
Distribution Requirements: (SCH-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Demonstrate awareness of the history, programs, and support structure of the Dyson School within both the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
  • Describe and evaluate the interconnections among at least three SDGs in relation to global economic, societal, and environmental systems.
  • Use systems analysis to examine an SDG-related issue, recognizing multi-level constraints, uncertainty, and the interplay of human, natural, institutional, and systemic drivers.
  • Use insights from guest speakers, develop and articulate a perspective on the role of for-profit businesses in addressing global or local inequities within a free-market economy.
  • Establish a clear set of academic and co-curricular growth objectives for the next 3-4 years, based on personal reflection and an understanding of available Dyson and Cornell resources.
  
AEM 1200 - Introduction to Business Management (3 Credits)  
Provides an overview of management and business. Human resource, marketing, finance, and strategy concerns are addressed with consideration paid to current issues such as technological innovation and its impact on operations, globalization, ethics, teamwork, leadership, and entrepreneurship. Opportunity to deliver an integrative group project.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 1200, AEM 2200, HADM 1810, ILRID 1700, NCC 5540  
Enrollment Information: Not open to: Dyson or Nolan students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Spring 2025, Winter 2025, Fall 2024  
AEM 1300 - Introduction to Macroeconomic Theory and Policy (3 Credits)  
This course is an introduction to macroeconomic analysis at the college level and the issues that are most important to the national debate relating to economic policy.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 1300, ECON 1120  
Distribution Requirements: (SBA-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (SAAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Summer 2024, Summer 2023, Summer 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify the basic structure of the US Economy.
  • Explain a simple macroeconomic model of how the economy works to generate growth and employment.
  • Illustrate how macroeconomic aggregates (such as GDP, inflation, employment) are measured.
  • Identify data sources for macroeconomic variables.
  • Use all of the above to critique important macroeconomic issues of the present time.
  
AEM 1500 - An Introduction to the Economics of Environmental and Natural Resources (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ENVS 1500  
This course provides an introduction to the economic foundations for public decision-making regarding environmental quality and natural resources. Emphasis is placed on how basic tools of economic analysis can be used to identify sources of environmental problems and solutions to these problems. Topics to be covered include individual hand concepts underlying market success, market failure with particular focus on public goods and externalities, benefit-cost analysis and non-market valuation, incentive-based policies for controlling pollution, and economic aspects of renewable and non-renewable resources.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 1500, AEM 2500, ENVS 1500, ENVS 2500  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: E&S majors. Not open to: Dyson School students.  
Distribution Requirements: (SBA-AG, SCH-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Understand how economic incentives influence individual and group behavior and how this knowledge can be used to explain and address environmental challenges.
  • Develop the ability to identify the range of potential economic costs and benefits of a particular environmental policy and the array of economic tools that can be used to estimate these costs and benefits.
  • Improve critical thinking skills to assess the tradeoffs inherent to a broad range of contemporary environmental issues.
  
AEM 1600 - The Business of Modern Medicine (1.5 Credits)  
Medicine as practiced today is no longer just a profession. It has become a multi trillion dollar business. The purpose of this lecture series is to present the changes that have occurred in medical practice through the eyes of someone who has lived and practiced medicine during these tumultuous times. Students will gain a better understanding of how third-party payers, the government and other regulatory agencies, new technology, and entrepreneurship have impacted the medical profession and healthcare in general. Upon completion of the course, students will have the capacity to asses their future career paths not only from a scientific, but a business perspective.
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Make strategic decisions regarding future healthcare careers.
  • Articulate the role that business has and will play in the health professions.
  • Develop a pro-active mindset in the constantly changing healthcare environment.
  
AEM 2000 - Contemporary Controversies in the Global Economy (3 Credits)  
This course aims to stimulate critical thinking, economic reasoning, and cogent writing about contemporary controversies that attract regular attention in the international press and among key private and public sector decision-makers. Students read and discuss competing arguments about current issues such as morally questionable market exchange among willing buyers and sellers, immigration policy, foreign aid, sovereign debt forgiveness, regulating genetically modified foods, etc. Students write, edit, and rewrite short briefing papers which are evaluated for quality of communication as well as subject matter content.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Distribution Requirements: (WRT-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-ITL, CU-SBY); (EUAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Student will demonstrate proficiency in written communication.
  • Student will demonstrate competency in analysis of ethical problems in business or economics in both domestic and international contexts.
  • Student will be able to identify and analyze evidence pertaining to business and economics problems in society and communicate results.
  • Student will develop an awareness and understanding of the cultural issues that impact business operations in a global society.
  • Student will be able to demonstrate familiarity with major business and economics issues facing a firm and society.
  • Student will demonstrate ability to offer critical analysis of a variety of contemporary business issues.
  
AEM 2010 - Spreadsheet Modeling for Management and Economics (3 Credits)  
This course emphasizes applied decision making in the business world using Excel as a business analytics tool. The course covers theory behind decision-making and teaches students to apply tools and methods to various business scenarios throughout the semester. Understanding the value of such skills, this course will introduce students to navigating tools and applications, and typical business scenarios where such capabilities can be leveraged in business. Students dedicated to success in this course can expect to achieve a beginner to intermediate knowledge of spreadsheet modeling skills in an Excel platform. Students will enjoy a thorough exposure to real world applications and learn to demonstrate these new capabilities in a business environment. AEM 2010 will help students understand the dynamics of using Excel modeling to solve optimization problems, forecast future outcomes using assumptions and projections, and evaluate problems that involve uncertainty in order to inform business strategy and quantitative decision-making. In business analytic vernacular, students will learn to leverage descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytic methods using data.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: Dyson students.  
Distribution Requirements: (DLG-AG), (OCE-IL)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 2011 - Spreadsheet Modeling for Non-Dyson Majors (3 Credits)  
This Excel based course will emphasize applied decision making in the business world. This introductory course covers the theory behind decision making and applying analytic tools like Excel to various business scenarios. Understanding the value of such skills, this course will introduce students to methods used to navigate tools and applications, or typical business scenarios where such capabilities can be leveraged in business. Students dedicated to success in this course can expect to achieve a basic to intermediate understanding of many features available in Excel. Students will enjoy a thorough exposure to real world applications related to leveraging the tool and learn to demonstrate new analytic capabilities in a business environment. AEM2011 will help students understand the dynamics of using Excel to solve optimization problems, forecast future outcomes using assumptions and projections, and evaluate problems that involve uncertainty in order to inform business strategy and quantitative decision-making.
Distribution Requirements: (DLG-AG)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Spring 2025, Winter 2025, Summer 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Understand business applications of spreadsheet modeling analysis and decision making.
  • Efficiently organize and retrieve data and datasets.
  • Apply logic when making business decisions.
  • Solve real world business problems using statistical analysis tools.
  • Apply Excel tools and skills for problem solving and decision making using business scenarios.
  • Leverage data tables to run scenarios and conduct what-if analysis.
  • Design and utilize effective and efficient data display with charts and tables.
  • Apply financial impact analysis using loan and investment scenarios.
  • Expand into more complex decision making using multivariable scenarios.
  • Become skilled consumers of business data, information and knowledge and leaders in the production of data driven decisions.
  
AEM 2015 - The Business Case for Diversity and Inclusion (3 Credits)  
Diversity is everywhere. But research and experience show diversity alone does not produce better results. To reap the benefits of diversity, organizational leaders must understand and be prepared to address the challenges of our diverse, interconnected world. One academically proven way to maximize the benefits differences bring to organizations is to combine diversity with cultural intelligence (CQ), the capability to relate and work effectively in culturally diverse situations. This course is designed to cultivate a theoretical and practical understanding and application of the business case for diversity and inclusion, and help develop cultural intelligence for working successfully in today's diverse, globalized reality. This course combines conceptual and experiential approaches to diversity and inclusion in organizations through exercises, case studies, discussions, readings, videos, guest speakers, and group work.
Distribution Requirements: (D-AG)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to reflect on and evaluate your CQ capabilities.
  • Students will be able to explore concrete ways to strengthen your CQ.
  • Students will be able to apply CQ learnings to class discussions and course assignments.
  • Students will be able to demonstrate an awareness and understanding of the cultural issues that impact business operations in a global society.
  • Students will be able to critically analyze diversity and inclusion issues and challenges in today's diverse and globalized world.
  
AEM 2020 - Better Decisions for Life, Love and Money (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with PSYCH 2940  
Effective judgments and decisions are critical to success in every avenue of life. This course will explore research on the principles of sound judgment and decision making, and on the ways in which people's judgments and decisions are prone to bias and error. The course aims to improve students' critical thinking skills and to enable them to make better judgments and decisions in an increasingly complicated world. The course is taught by a team of psychologists and economists who draw on recent research in psychology and behavioral economics that can benefit the lives of students.
Distribution Requirements: (KCM-AG, SBA-AG)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to make sound decisions.
  • Students will be able to be aware of common biases that plague people's judgments and decisions.
  • Students will be able to critically evaluate empirical evidence.
  • Students will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of new ideas and policies.
  
AEM 2025 - Work and Well-Being (3 Credits)  
What is the good life? Is it more than personal achievement, excellent health, and contentment? This course examines well-being in the context of work, with a focus on a sometimes-neglected aspect of the good life: doing good by contributing to the well-being of others and the planet. In this class, students will discover frameworks from social and moral psychology that help them identify their own ethical beacons, or what really matters (e.g., sustainability; reducing inequality), and develop a crucial skill in management: self-awareness. Through a combination of reflection and critical analysis of theory and research findings, students will build a practical understanding of a range of topics related to well-being at work, including meaning, authenticity, workplace culture, stress and burn-out, and organizational and personal values. At the same time, students will have the opportunity to envision a blueprint for their own future work as ethical leaders.
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2022, Spring 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will critically assess a range of frameworks, theories, and research findings from social and moral psychology relevant to well-being at work.
  • Students will build a practical understanding of topics including meaning and authenticity at work, workplace culture, stress and burn-out, and organizational and personal values.
  • Students will develop a skill crucial for effective and ethical management and team leadership: self-awareness.
  • Students will construct a blueprint for their own future work as ethical leaders, drawing from the course materials and reflection.
  
AEM 2030 - Sports as Society: The Science, Ethics, and Business of Sport (3 Credits)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2023  
AEM 2050 - Introduction to Agricultural Finance (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ALS 2050  
Introductory course which provides an overview of principles and practices of agricultural and development finance, from the perspectives of the business owner, lender, and policymaker. Topics include sources of capital, financing entry into agriculture, financial analysis, capital management, financial statements, credit instruments, loan analysis, and financial risk. Applications in farm investments, the Farm Credit System, crop insurance, and risk management.
Distribution Requirements: (SBA-AG)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will learn and be able to apply financial concepts to solve financial economic problems in agriculture and development including understanding mortgages, bonds, equity, and other fundamental concepts.
  • Students will gain an introductory knowledge and understanding to financing concepts including time value of money, financial and risk management instruments, among others.
  
AEM 2100 - Introductory Statistics (4 Credits)  
Introduces statistical methods. Topics include the descriptive analysis of data, probability concepts and distributions, estimation and hypothesis testing, regression, and correlation analysis. Includes an introduction to Minitab, a statistical software package.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 2100, BTRY 3010, BTRY 6010, CRP 1200, ENGRD 2700, HADM 2010, HADM 2011, ILRST 2100, ILRST 6100, MATH 1710, PSYCH 2500, PUBPOL 2100, PUBPOL 2101, SOC 3010, STSCI 2100, STSCI 2150, STSCI 2200. In addition, no credit for MATH 1710 if taken after ECON 3130, ECON 3140, MATH 4720, or any other upper-level course focusing on the statistical sciences.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Distribution Requirements: (DLS-AG, MQL-AG, OPHLS-AG)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Attain analytical and functional competency in basic statistical skills.
  • Demonstrate a working knowledge of ethics as it relates to statistical analysis and communication.
  • Demonstrate the ability to solve practical problems.
  • Develop skills to be critical consumers of business and economic research.
  
AEM 2180 - Introduction to Design and Innovation (1.5 Credits)  
In an increasingly complex world, creative problem solving has become a critical tool for business and community leaders to drive innovation and transformation across different industries. This hands-on, collaborative course serves as an initial introduction to a design toolkit, strategies and mindset. Topics covered include: opportunity finding and innovation; the design thinking cycle of inspiration-interpretation-ideation-implementation; and creative leadership. This course requires openness to new ways of thinking and the ability to embrace ambiguity.
AEM 2200 - Business Management and Organization (4 Credits)  
Foundational course, meant to familiarize students with the use of core concepts in marketing, accounting, organizational design and management, entrepreneurship and strategy, teamwork, leadership, and ethics; as well as with the Dyson/AEM major and the business careers that may follow it. Significant writing and analytical components (both individual and team based case study analysis, evaluation of a U.S. publicly traded corporation).
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 1200, AEM 2200, HADM 1810, ILRID 1700, NCC 5540  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Become conversant with foundational concepts of marketing, entrepreneurship, accounting, strategic management, organizational design and management, teamwork, leadership and business ethics.
  • Practice the ability to apply foundational concepts to analyze business situations, problems, and news.
  • Become familiarized with methodologies and tools (ie. Excel) that can be applied successfully in the analysis of business situations, problems, and news.
  • Practice the ability to apply foundational concepts through a comprehensive analysis of a US publicly traded corporation.
  • Gain exposure to a critical stance towards business and management, and with the ethical principles associated with business and management.
  • Become familiar with the concepts of professional career and organizational citizenship through formal exposure to the Dyson School and AEM, and mentorship in the development of a plan of studies and of a professional plan.
  • Practice both formal and informal teamwork.
  
AEM 2210 - Financial Accounting (3 Credits)  
This is an introductory course on financial accounting intended for non-business majors. The course examines the format and creation of the four main financial statements prepared by organizations: income statement, balance sheet, statement of shareholders' equity, and statement of cash flows.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 2210, AEM 2225, HADM 1210, HADM 2230, NCC 5500  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: non-Dyson students.  
Distribution Requirements: (OCE-IL)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Spring 2025, Winter 2025, Fall 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Read and evaluate standard financial statements.
  • Assess the financial condition and financial performance of organizations.
  
AEM 2220 - Dilemmas in Entrepreneurship (3 Credits)  
This is a required course for the campus-wide Entrepreneurship Minor as well as the Entrepreneurship Concentration in the Dyson School. The purpose of the course is to examine a series of decision points, or dilemmas, faced by founders in the process of starting and growing new ventures. These include dilemmas of a) whether and when to start a company; b) whether to be a solo founder vs. recruiting co-founders; c) which co-founders to recruit, and how to allocate potential rewards among co-founders; d) how to go to market, either independently or partnering with incumbents; e) whether to “bootstrap” by reinvesting revenues vs. raise outside financing; f) whether to relinquish control in order to accelerate growth; and g) whether and when to exit.
Distribution Requirements: (OCE-IL)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Differentiate the theory and discipline of entrepreneurship versus the practice of entrepreneurship.
  • Articulate the role entrepreneurship plays in society, public policy, and economics.
  • Evaluate potential careers offered in the entrepreneurial arena. Demonstrate innovative and creative thinking.
  
AEM 2225 - Financial Accounting For Dyson Majors (4 Credits)  
Comprehensive introduction to financial accounting concepts and applications. Focuses primarily on recording and communicating financial information for use by external users such as investors, creditors and regulators, and is intended to provide a basic understanding of the accounting cycle, elements of financial statements, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and financial statement interpretation. Topics include accounting for inventory, receivables, depreciation, bonds, equity, and cash flows.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 2210, AEM 2225, HADM 1210, HADM 2230, NCC 5500  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop effective communication skills in finance.
  • Attain analytical and functional competency in basic business and economic skills.
  • Demonstrate working knowledge of ethics and ability to apply to real world setting.
  • Demonstrate ability to solve practical business problems and make an impact in real world and society.
  • Develop skills to be critical consumers of business information and research.
  • Develop the ability to work with computerized accounting systems.
  
AEM 2240 - Finance for Dyson Majors (3 Credits)  
Focuses on the mathematics of finance, valuation, and the economics of managerial decisions, corporate financial policy, risk management, and investments. Topics include the time value of money, bond and stock valuation, capital-budgeting decisions, financing alternatives, the cost of capital and the capital-structure decision, distribution policy, mergers and acquisitions and restructuring, options, forward and futures contracts, market efficiency and market anomalies, strategies of successful investors, and personal finance.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100, AEM 2200 and AEM 2225, or equivalents.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Become familiar with the "Time Value of Money" and comfortable using that concept and formulas to solve problems in the areas of corporate finance, investments, and personal finance.
  • Become familiar with stock and bond markets and learn the economics and mathematics behind the valuation of bonds, stocks, and firms.
  • Become familiar with modern portfolio theory including the relationship between risk and return, the concept of diversification, the capital asset pricing model, and the arbitrage pricing theory.
  • Become familiar with corporate financial decisions such as whether to accept or reject a project ("Capital Budgeting"), how to finance operations ("Capital Structure"), if and how to make payouts to investors ("Distribution Policy"), and how to analyze potential acquisitions ("Mergers & Acquisitions").
  • Become familiar with using derivatives as investment and risk management tools. Derivatives covered include options, convertibles, forward and futures contracts, and swaps.
  • Become familiar with the concept of market efficiency and the data in support of the theory. Also become aware of tests suggesting the existence of market anomalies which run counter to the notion of market efficiency.
  • Become aware of some basic investment concepts and strategies.
  • Become aware of some basic personal financial decisions including the use of tax-advantaged retirement accounts such 401(k)'s and IRA's, asset allocation, saving for educational expenses, insurance decisions, and ways to pass assets on to one's heirs.
  • Become aware of current financial and economic events.
  
AEM 2241 - Finance (3 Credits)  
The course is a survey of topics in finance. It focuses on the mathematics of finance, valuation, the economics of managerial decisions, corporate financial policy, and risk management. It also provides insight into investment management and personal finance issues, such as the analysis of mortgages and various types of loans. Key concepts include the time value of money; the mathematics of various types of annuities, loans, bonds stocks; net present value and internal rate of return; project analysis in relation to corporate decision-making; expected return as a function of risk; the security market line; as well as elements of financial modeling and the application of financial models to real-life problems.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100, AEM 2210, or equivalents.  
Enrollment Information: Priority given to: Dyson minors, university-wide business minors, and CALS students. Only AEM 2240 will satisfy the Dyson major requirements. Students who will be applying for internal transfer to Dyson should not take this course. Satisfies finance requirement for the Dyson Business Minor for Engineers, the Dyson Business Minor for Life Sciences and the University-Wide Business Minor.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will receive a thorough grounding in the fundamentals of corporate finance and acquire a set of quantitative tools that facilitate financial modeling.
  • The course prepares students for more advanced optional courses in Finance, and gives them a head start toward successfully pursuing internships or full-time jobs in finance or consulting, or toward following a management track in their respective future professions.
  • The course prepares students for the financial component of certifications like the CFA, CFP, CPA, as well as actuarial exams.
  
AEM 2300 - International Trade and Finance (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ECON 2300  
Introduction to international economic principles and issues. Begins by surveying key topics such as the elements of comparative advantage, tariff and nontariff barriers, and multilateral institutions. The second part of the course treats selected topics in international finance, including exchange rates, balance of payments, and capital markets. Discusses current issues such as the effects of trade liberalization, trade and economic growth, and instability in international capital markets. Designed as a less technical introduction to concepts developed at a more advanced level in AEM 4300 and ECON 4510-ECON 4520.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110.  
Distribution Requirements: (OCE-IL, QP-IL), (SBA-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-ITL); (EAAREA, EUAREA, LAAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
AEM 2310 - Business and Economics of Food (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ALS 2310  
This course will examine the food system from an economic and business perspective. In the first part of the course, students will study the key economic and regulatory elements that affect the production of food. The second section will focus on the business aspects of food and beverage processing, distribution and retailing, and the material in the final section will focus on a range of contemporary business and economic issues that are relevant to consumers of food and beverages.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110.  
Distribution Requirements: (AFS-AG)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to use and evaluate scientific and economic information to reach defensible conclusions.
  • Students will be able to identify the implications of business decisions on the supply of food.
  • Students will be able to describe the effects of information and policies in food and beverage markets.
  • Students will be able to develop skills to evaluate the consequences of consumer behavior for food products.
  
AEM 2350 - Introduction To The Economics Of Development (3 Credits)  
This course is intended as an introduction to the economics of low income countries. It focuses on the policies and constraints to promoting growth and development.
Prerequisites: at least one full semester university course in introductory economics.  
Distribution Requirements: (OCE-IL, QP-IL), (SBA-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-ITL, CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Summer 2024, Fall 2023, Summer 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to understand the nature of poverty and how it is measured.
  • Students will be able to understand how economic growth is measured and how this correlates to alternative measures of development.
  • Students will be able to understand the structural changes in the economy that occur as a country increases per capita income.
  • Students will be able to understand the leading economic models explaining these changes.
  • Students will become familiar with competing views of how economic policy can best promote economic growth and development.
  • Students will be able to understand how linkages to the international economy can promote or hinder the process of economic growth and development.
  
AEM 2400 - Marketing (3 Credits)  
Provides a broad introduction to the fundamentals of marketing. Explores the components of an organization's strategic marketing program, including targeting and positioning, and how to price, promote, and distribute goods and services. Marketing applications from various companies are presented and analyzed via multiple case discussions and field projects.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 2400, AEM 2420, HADM 2410, HADM 2430, NCC 4530  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: non-business majors.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Winter 2025, Fall 2024, Summer 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Learn about concepts and terminology of modern marketing management and data analytics.
  • Identify real-world issues faced by marketing managers and how to address them with qualitative and quantitative tools.
  • Attain the techniques of marketing research and other tools used in the practice of marketing.
  
AEM 2420 - Marketing for Dyson Majors (3 Credits)  
Provides a broad introduction to the fundamentals of marketing. Explores the components of an organization's strategic marketing program, including targeting and positioning, and how to price, promote, and distribute goods and services. Marketing applications from various companies are presented and analyzed via multiple case discussions and field projects.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 2400, AEM 2420, HADM 2410, HADM 2430, NCC 4530  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Learn about concepts and terminology of modern marketing management and data analytics.
  • Identify real-world issues faced by marketing managers and how to address them with qualitative and quantitative tools.
  • Attain the techniques of marketing research and other tools used in the practice of marketing.
  
AEM 2480 - Food and Consumer Packaged Goods Industry Dynamics (3 Credits)  
Covers merchandising principles and practices as they apply to food industry situations. Examines the various elements of merchandising such as buying, pricing, advertising, promotion, display, store layout, profit planning and control, and merchandising strategy. Considers the consequences of food industry trends and initiatives for other industry members, public policy makers, and consumers.
Prerequisites: AEM 2200 and AEM 2420 or equivalents.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will explore the dynamics of food distribution systems and the economic principles that underlie food industry dynamics.
  • Student assignments and exams will require finding, evaluating, and ethically using information.
  • Student assignments will require integration of quantitative and qualitative information to propose solutions.
  • Student assignments will be graded for clarity and composition.
  • Students will complete both individual and team assignments.
  
AEM 2500 - Environmental and Resource Economics (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ENVS 2500  
This course uses microeconomics to understand the causes and how to devise solutions to environmental and natural resource problems. Subjects include valuation, benefit-cost analysis, policy design and property rights. The course relies on these concepts to explore major current policy issues such as economic incentives in environmental policy, air and water pollution, depletion of renewable and nonrenewable resources, and global warming. Students are evaluated based on problems sets, short essays, 3 quizzes and 3 prelims.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 1500, AEM 2500, ENVS 1500, ENVS 2500  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students and E&S majors.  
Distribution Requirements: (OCE-IL), (SBA-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
AEM 2555 - Corporate Sustainability (3 Credits)  
This course provides an overview of the area of corporate sustainability, with particular emphasis on the finance industry. The focus will be on understanding how a growing recognition of the importance of sustainability affects corporate behavior. Through a combination of classroom presentations, assigned readings, in-class discussions, and individual writing assignments, students will develop critical thinking and writing skills while they learn about the most important themes in corporate sustainability.The impacts of business activity, both positive and negativeEnvironmental and social risk managementSustainability initiatives and self-regulation in the corporate sectorStakeholder engagement and managementThe growth of sustainable business, including environmental finance and impact investing
Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar or equivalent.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Distribution Requirements: (WRT-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify the key trends in the area of corporate sustainability, as well as the risks and opportunities that arise from a growing public awareness of the impacts of corporate activity.
  • Recognize sustainability risks associated with particular corporate activities and will be able to propose actions that mitigate these risks.
  • Critically examine the interactions between corporate entities and their peers, their regulators, the public, and their other stakeholders, and to recognize opportunities for improving the outcomes of these interactions.
  • Recognize controversial issues in business ethics, will analyze the issues critically, and will convincingly articulate their personal views on the issues.
  
AEM 2600 - Managerial Economics (3 Credits)  
This course covers microeconomic principles that inform managerial decisions in firms and organizations. The course will touch on how these principles apply to the Dyson School research foci of management, agribusiness, environmental sustainability, and emerging markets.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110, MATH 1110.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 2600, AEM 5600, ECON 3030, PUBPOL 2000  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
AEM 2601 - Strategy (3 Credits)  
This course analyzes the sources of firms' competitive advantage and develops the knowledge and skills necessary to be an effective strategy analyst. The course is grounded in microeconomic concepts taught in AEM 2600 in terms of discipline, and draws from corporate finance, marketing, human resource management and organization science. This course uses both lecture, discussion and case studies to encourage students to develop skills in formulating strategy in a practical context.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110, MATH 1110.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
AEM 2700 - Management Communication (3 Credits)  
Management Communication is intended to help you think strategically about communication and aid you in improving your writing, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills as a future manager. We will look at a set of best practices or guidelines that have been derived from both research and experience, give you the opportunity to put those guidelines into practice, and provide you with feedback on your work to help you strengthen your abilities. More often than not, we will be using a workshop format that will rely heavily on discussion and in-class exercises.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: Dyson students.  
Distribution Requirements: (ORL-AG)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Formulate an effective communication strategy for any message, in any medium, and in any situation.
  • Write clearly, concisely, and convincingly.
  • Create effective presentations that are delivered with confidence and poise.
  • Give and receive feedback that will improve yours and others' communication.
  • Listen for understanding.
  • Work effectively with others in small groups or teams.
  • Identify and negotiate the difference in communication between yourself and people who are not from your culture.
  
AEM 2710 - Interpersonal Influence and Impact (1.5 Credits)  
Mastering interpersonal influence is crucial for personal and professional success. This course focuses on navigating interpersonal communications to build credibility, inspire trust, and ethically create the desired impacts personally and professionally. You will practice your communication and leadership skills through a variety of immersive exercises and simulations designed to help you learn to manage conflict, navigate office politics, inspire others, and advocate for your ideas. Theory from empirical research and business press will complement practical learning, allowing you to apply insights directly to your professional life. You will gain a deeper understanding of interpersonal communication dynamics and enhance your ability to influence others effectively in various situations to create the impact you desire.
Enrollment Information: Not open to: first-year students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Explain social influence process in group decision making.
  • Demonstrate effective communication skills for interpersonal influence such as managing conflict, navigating office politics, inspiring change, and advocating for themselves and others.
  • Critically evaluate empirical research on interpersonal communication and behavior.
  • Synthesize across multiple theories of interpersonal communication and behavior.
  • Apply theoretical knowledge to real-world experiences, demonstrating their understanding of social influence processes in interpersonal settings.
  
AEM 2770 - Excursions in Computational Sustainability (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with CS 2770, INFO 2770  
Balancing environmental, economic, and societal needs for a sustainable future encompasses problems of unprecedented size and complexity. Computing and information science can play an important role in addressing critical sustainability challenges faced by present and future generations. The goal of the course is to introduce students to a range of sustainability challenges and to computational methods that can help address such challenges. Sustainability topics include sustainable development, biodiversity and wildlife conservation, poverty mitigation, food security, renewable resources, energy, transportation, and climate change. In the context of these sustainability topics, the course will introduce students to mathematical and computational modeling techniques, algorithms, and statistical methods. The course is at the introductory undergraduate level. Students are expected to have basic knowledge of probability theory and calculus.
Distribution Requirements: (SBA-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2021, Spring 2020  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to identify notions of sustainability as they arise in ecology, geology, economics, and other biological, physical, and social sciences.
  • Students will be able to mathematically interpret and calculate levels of sustainability.
  • Students will learn how to problem solve techniques of sustainability via computational models, algorithms, and statistical methods.
  
AEM 2805 - Strategic Responses to Poverty and Hunger in Developing Countries (3 Credits)  
As a writing course, AEM 2805 provides students with an opportunity to understand the problems of poverty and hunger in developing countries. An important focus of the course will be to explore strategies that United Nations agencies, governmental bodies, and international non-governmental organizations employ to meet challenges of poverty and hunger.
Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar or equivalent.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Distribution Requirements: (WRT-AG)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop the capacity to evaluate evidence and express ideas coherently through writing.
  • Recognize the ways in which poverty and food insecurity are distributed across the globe.
  • Define how economic pressures (food prices, market failures, supply chain problems), natural disasters (droughts, floods) and political conflict affect poverty and food security.
  • Identify and assess strategic orientations that various organizations use to address problems of poverty and hunger.
  • Assess the effect of both existing risks and emerging challenges that undermine efforts to improve the well-being of populations who suffer poverty and experience food insecurity.
  
AEM 2810 - The Economics of Vice and Corruption (3 Credits)  
This writing course is designed to explore the important but largely undocumented role of vice and corruption in modern economies. A particular focus of the course will be learning how to identify activities, such as corruption and creating, that are designed to avoid detection. Techniques to uncover nefarious behavior are an important tool to understand the nature and extent of bad behavior and to prescribe policy treatment to minimize it. Students will write essays reflecting critically on weekly readings of recent literature on vice and deception.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110, First-Year Writing Seminar.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: Dyson students.  
Distribution Requirements: (WRT-AG)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will have a well-developed capacity to evaluate evidence and the ability to express ideas coherently through writing.
  • Students will be able to identify, access, and understand primary academic research from leading journals.
  • Students will be able to illustrate how econometric tools can be used to identify the existence and scope of nefarious behavior that is intended to be hidden.
  • Students will be able to distinguish policy prescriptions to minimize the extent of nefarious behavior.
  
AEM 2816 - Climate-Smart Agribusiness (3 Credits)  
This course examines strategic business innovations in climate-smart agriculture, centered on the challenge of transforming global food systems with low carbon land-use practices. Students will use insights from economics to analyze the environmental impacts of farming and identify opportunities for transformative actions in agribusiness management. Our focus will be on four important economic sectors (rice, livestock, aquaculture, and agroforestry) in the context of three climate change mitigation strategies: (1) Sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes; (2) Adapting and building resilience to climate change; and (3) Reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions.
Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar or equivalent.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: Dyson students.  
Distribution Requirements: (WRT-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Investigate the most important and controversial topics in climate-smart agribusiness, formulate their personal views about the issues, and debate them critically with their peers.
  • Develop the skills of argumentative writing through exercises in concision; using evidence to support claims; self-editing; effective use of tone, grammar, and rhetorical devices; and peer-review through a multi-draft essay composition practice.
  • Weigh the relative sustainability of business practices associated with low carbon farming and propose actions to foster strategic business innovation in the sector.
  • Prioritize the advantages and disadvantages of a climate-smart agribusiness outlook compared to the business as usual approach.
  • Diagram the roles and interactions of different stakeholders in climate-smart agribusiness (managers, executives, regulators, consumers, banks) and propose solutions for improving those interactions.
  
AEM 2818 - Sustainable Arguments (3 Credits)  
In Fall of 2015 the United Nations' General Assembly adopted a resolution titled, Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This 35-page resolution includes an elaborate vision statement, a list of principles and commitments, and a list of 17 goals, among many other items. In 2022, the resolution is still very much in effect and having an impact on our world. Upon analyzing or reflecting on the text of the UN resolution and exploring its related goals and topics, we can quickly begin to identify the issues people, organizations, and governments are likely to argue over, or are already arguing over. Thus, UN goal and topic is up for argument, including facts (e.g., climate change) will be contested in one way or another, by someone or some group or another, and arguments of all kinds, formal and informal, will proliferate. It is amid these arguments about our sustainable future that this course will take place. Sustainable Arguments will focus on making and understanding data driven, logical, and rhetorically focused arguments about sustainability that connect to the UN's Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar or equivalent.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: Dyson students.  
Distribution Requirements: (WRT-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Analyze, state, and arrange the structures of written and oral arguments.
  • Generate data-driven arguments appropriate to varied contexts and situations.
  • Explain the general history of rhetoric and argument as fields of study.
  • Identify types of arguments and logical fallacies, and apply them effectively.
  • Design arguments that use and follow the rules and tools of rhetoric.
  • Construct arguments (written and oral) to specific audiences.
  
AEM 2820 - Introduction to Database Management Systems (3 Credits)  
Introduces the principals and functions of relational database management systems (DBMS) and their business application. Students will explore both logical and physical database designs and develop a clear understanding of the concepts and terminology related to DBMS. A small relational database will be designed and students will learn to run SQL queries. Students will learn a set of skills to describe what happened in the past using queries, descriptive statistics, data visualization, and some data mining techniques. Excel add-ins and other DBMS software may also be employed.
Prerequisites: AEM 2010.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 2820, HADM 3740, HADM 6740  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Discuss database management systems and design.
  • Explain the terminology related to database management systems.
  • Describe the design and implementation of a database management system.
  • Execute queries using SQL syntax.
  • Build models to solve real-world business problems.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of skills for supporting the decision-making process.
  
AEM 2830 - VBA for Data Analysis and Business Modeling (3 Credits)  
This course is an introduction to programming with Excel Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) for students aiming to enter the world of business analytics. Using business applied cases students will increase decision making efficiency and productivity through a detailed understanding of VBA programming languages.
Prerequisites: AEM 2010.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 2830, AEM 2831  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Program VBA, a strong tool that adds a great deal of functionality to Excel.
  • Develop algorithmic thinking.
  • Utilize and understand Basic Data Structures.
  • Utilize and understand Conditional Branching and Looping.
  • Build Procedures, and Functions in VBA.
  • Develop skills in building models to solve real-world business problems.
  • Produce an Excel VBA solution for a business application.
  
AEM 2831 - Excel VBA Programming for Non-Dyson (3 Credits)  
This course is an introduction to programming with Excel Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) for students aiming to enter the world of business analytics. Using business applied cases students will increase decision making efficiency and productivity through a detailed understanding of VBA programming languages.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 2830, AEM 2831  
Enrollment Information: Not open to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Summer 2024, Summer 2023, Summer 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Utilize VBA, a strong tool that adds a great deal of functionality to Excel.
  • Develop algorithmic thinking.
  • Recognize Basic Data Structures.
  • Apply conditional branching and looping.
  • Create procedures and functions.
  • Develop skills in building models to solve real-world business problems.
  • Produce an Excel VBA solution for a business application.
  
AEM 2840 - Python Programming for Data Analysis and Business Modeling (3 Credits)  
This course is an introduction to programming with Python for students aiming to enter the world of business analytics. Using business applied cases students will increase decision making efficiency and productivity through a detailed understanding of Python programming languages. Students will also learn how to use a range of Python libraries for data analytics such as NumPy, MatPlotLib, Seaborn, Pandas, and Scikit.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 2840, AEM 2841, AEM 5840, CS 1133, HADM 3710  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Program Python, a strong and popular open source programming language.
  • Develop algorithmic thinking.
  • Utilize and understand Basic Data Structures.
  • Utilize and understand Conditional Branching and Looping.
  • Create functions in Python.
  • Utilize Python libraries that can be used for business analytics.
  • Develop skills in building models to solve real-world business problems.
  • Produce a Python solution for a business application.
  
AEM 2841 - Python Programming for Data Analysis and Business Modeling - Non-Dyson Majors (3 Credits)  
Data-driven decision making and the use of analytical approaches are critical skills for success in business. Analytics skills are increasing in demand and in many cases, are required for business professionals. The new technologies and development such as personal electrical devices, social media, online shopping,...resulted in exponential growth in the amount of data we generate and collect on a daily basis. Companies are highly interested in extracting knowledge from these sources. To be able to manipulate and analyze a large structured and unstructured dataset, you need to learn how to code. In this course, by learning Python, one of the most popular programming languages, you are taking a significant step in data analysis. You will learn how to design and code an algorithm and manipulate datasets.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 2840, AEM 2841, AEM 5840, CS 1133, HADM 3710  
Enrollment Information: Not open to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Winter 2025, Summer 2024, Winter 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop algorithmic thinking.
  • Utilize and understand Basic Data Structures.
  • Utilize and understand Conditional Branching and Looping.
  • Build Functions in Python.
  • Develop skills in building models to solve real-world business problems.
  • Effectively use various Python libraries for data analysis.
  • Produce a Python solution for a business application.
  
AEM 2850 - R Programming for Business Analytics and Data Visualization (3 Credits)  
This course provides business students with an introduction to the most important tools in R for programming and data visualization. Students will learn the basics of R syntax, data structures, data wrangling, and data visualization using the grammar of graphics. After taking this course, students will have the tools to complete basic tasks in R and interface effectively with statisticians and data scientists in business settings. This course also provides a foundation for future coursework to implement more advanced statistical methods in R.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 2850, GDEV 4290, GDEV 5290, NTRES 6100, STSCI 3040, STSCI 5040  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop basic proficiency in R programming.
  • Understand data structures and manipulation.
  • Describe effective techniques for data visualization and communication.
  • Construct effective data visualizations.
  • Utilize course concepts and tools for business applications.
  
AEM 3000 - Collaboration and Strategic Impact (1.5 Credits)  
Part of the Grand Challenges program, the Pre-Project Immersion prepares students to work with a team during their senior year to solve a societal problem. The Immersion is an intensive learning experience with reinforcements throughout the semester. Students will build skills in working as part of a team, presenting to a client, reflecting on their experience, and demonstrating cultural humility.
Prerequisites: completion of Grand Challenges writing requirement or permission of instructor.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 3000, AEM 3380  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: Dyson students.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Work collaboratively with a team to practice managing a project.
  • Use design thinking strategies to understand a problem and navigate uncertainty and complexity.
  • Practice consulting skills, such as listening and engaging with community partners.
  • Develop a communication strategy and demonstrate clear writing and effective presentation skills.
  • Reflect on your views and experiences to improve self-awareness.
  • Identify personal biases and understand how reframing and cultural humility may improve team and community outcomes.
  
AEM 3005 - Skills and Strategies for Executive Management (1 Credit)  
This class is designed for 3rd and 4th year students in the Dyson School. The class will be open to students in other majors depending on available space. The class will describe some of the key strategies and skills required to be an executive manager/CEO/owner of a company. The course will also detail the executive challenges of starting your own company.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify situations of conflict and respond appropriately.
  • Assess company and asset valuations.
  • Make capital allocation decisions.
  • Describe what actions are necessary to create and manage a start-up company.
  
AEM 3010 - Managing People (1.5 Credits)  
How do we understand the diverse and significant role of human factors in creating business performance and success? Business leaders espouse in generalities that 'people make the difference' but what human factors are the most significant and why? What strategies, processes, and commitments harness the best possible human capital outcomes? There is a critical difference between merely espousing a policy of harnessing the best possible human capital and executing one. This course is designed to help you understand these questions, using time-tested ideas along with research currently being undertaken by SC Johnson College of Business faculty.
Prerequisites: AEM 3000 or permission of instructor.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify opportunity in how organizations use human resources with the use of theory and evidence.
  • Analyze how different incentive systems, both financial and nonfinancial, affect the productivity and retention of employees, to allow students to better consider both their own incentive structures and how they motivate peers and employees.
  • Develop a framework for considering how to hire people for their organization, and give them appropriate tasks, to improved productivity and culture as firm leaders.
  • Identify a tool for understanding individual biases and leadership styles that students can use throughout their careers (4Cs).
  
AEM 3020 - Farm Business Management (4 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ALS 3020  
This course explores the management of farm and food enterprises, with a focus on topics, policies, and issues relevant to New York State agriculture. This course will cover management issues related to organization and context, farm and food policy, marketing, finances, operations, and human resources. To practice applying the concepts and tools learned in class, as well as to support NYS farm and food businesses, this course includes an engaged learning project. In working with your client business you will learn to appropriately use economic and business principles, as well as to employ clear communication strategies.
Prerequisites: at least one of the following courses: AEM 1200, AEM 2050, AEM 2200, AEM 2240 / 2241, AEM 2310.  
Enrollment Information: Not open to: first-year students.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Find, use, and evaluate financial information and decision-tools to make defensible management decisions.
  • Advance skills to work with real life clients.
  • Develop technical competency to appropriately apply economic and business principles to farm and food businesses.
  • Expand written and oral communication skills, including the ability to clearly communicate analysis methods and findings.
  
AEM 3040 - Dairy Markets and Policy (3 Credits)  
This course is a survey of topics related to: 1) the structure and performance of U.S. dairy markets; and 2) federal and state policies that regulate market activities. This is not a course in how to market or sell farm milk or dairy products, although we will discuss some topics related to marketing and dairy demand analysis. Policy sections emphasize understanding why regulations were created and how they impact market activity, as well as describing what they do.
Distribution Requirements: (AFS-AG)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Learn where to access data and information about dairy markets and policy and how to interpret publicly available information.
  • Develop knowledge and understanding of federal dairy programs and key elements of the dairy supply chain.
  • Improve ability to analyze dairy market interventions and the possible roles of the public sector in regulating competition.
  
AEM 3050 - Negotiation Strategies and Skills (1.5 Credits)  
Negotiation is the art and science of securing agreements between two or more interdependent parties. To reach agreements, it is necessary to understand the behavior and relationships of individuals, groups and organizations in the context of cooperative and competitive situations. This course is designed to help you build a negotiation skillset that can be used in a broad set of organizational situations, as well as in your personal life. A basic premise of the course is that while you need analytic skills to discover or create optimal solutions to problems, you need a broader array of skills for these solutions to be accepted and implemented. During the course, you will develop these skills experientially and learn to apply relevant analytic frameworks.
Distribution Requirements: (OCE-IL)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Fall 2017, Fall 2016  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Analyze diverse negotiation scenarios and identify their distributive, collaborative, and integrative elements.
  • Improve your negotiation outcomes by preparing effectively and recognizing when you should walk away from a potential deal.
  • Identify your counterparty's hardball negotiation strategies and defuse or counteract them.
  • Negotiate effectively as part of a team.
  • Create win-win (integrative) solutions that maximize the potential value of a deal.
  
AEM 3060 - Practitioner's Overview of Securities Markets and Asset Management (1 Credit)  
A broad overview of various aspects of the Fixed Income and Equities Markets and the role of Investment Banks. Topics, amongst others, will include: Securities Sales and Trading, Fiscal and Monetary Policy effects on Markets, Asset Management, Private Equity and Leveraged Buyouts, Mergers and Acquisitions, and Risk Management. Course will focus on real life practices and may include guest speakers, role playing and trading simulations.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2022, Spring 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop effective communication skills.
  • Attain analytical and functional competency in basic business skills.
  • Demonstrate the ability to solve practical business problems and make an impact in society.
  • Develop skills to be critical consumers of business information and research.
  
AEM 3070 - Risk Management in Emerging Markets (3 Credits)  
This distance learning course will introduce students to the opportunities and market potential, as well as the challenges and risks of operating in emerging markets such as China, India, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, South Africa and many others. Students will learn about the various types of risk that businesses face when operating in these markets, and the major approaches to risk assessment and management. Through a combination of readings, lectures and case discussions students will gain practical skills in evaluating and assessing risk, and in developing business models and strategies that are suitable for success in emerging markets.
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Summer 2024, Summer 2023, Summer 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Analyze the opportunities and market potential of emerging markets.
  • Recognize the various types of risk that businesses face when operating in emerging markets, and discuss the major approaches to risk assessment and management.
  • Demonstrate practical skills in evaluating and assessing risk, and in developing business models and strategies that are suitable for success in emerging markets.
  
AEM 3100 - Business Statistics (3 Credits)  
Focuses on techniques used to analyze data from marketing research, business, and economics.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100 or equivalent.  
Distribution Requirements: (DLS-AG, OPHLS-AG)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Critically analyze statistical models.
  • Be able to communicate (orally and written) complex analyses.
  • Distinguish appropriate approaches to answering research questions using quantitative methods.
  
AEM 3110 - Design and Innovation (3 Credits)  
This course introduces students to a design toolkit and mindset for creative problem solving that enables a shift from a 20th century, market-based perspective to a more sustainable, human-centered approach appropriate to this century's systemic challenges. Topics covered include: opportunity finding and innovation; the design thinking cycle of inspiration-interpretation-ideation-implementation; and visual communication. Students will learn to apply design strategies to their work to make it more integrated and collaborative. This course will require openness to new ways of (divergent) thinking.
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop an empathic mindset.
  • Implement qualitative and ethnographic design research techniques.
  • Synthesize and communicate data and concepts through introduction to visualization and storytelling methods.
  • Generate, test, and refine ideas, products, business models, etc., to become familiar with the iterative process.
  • Explain how design strategies can augment and complement analytic and quantitative decision making.
  
AEM 3115 - Evaluation of Green Energy Strategies and Markets (3 Credits)  
After an overview of the trends in renewable energy and the multitude of public policies and private initiatives, a conceptual framework to analyze the social costs and benefits will be developed and each policy compared in terms of achieving social goals. The perverse effects of combining policies like subsidies and mandates at both the state and federal levels will be emphasized, along with the interaction of renewable policies with regional cap and trade regimes, and regulations like fuel economy standards and EPA environmental regulations. The specific economic and technology issues facing renewable electricity versus biofuel markets will be addressed, providing students a detailed understanding of each market and the effects of public policies. The effects of biofuel policies on food commodity prices will be emphasized.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Analyze how the renewable energy industry got started, the technological and economic challenges it faces and the consequences of government policies.
  • Assess how well the broad spectrum of policies achieve GHGE reductions.
  • Identify the many perverse and contradictory effects of such policies as mandates, subsidies, import barriers, sustainability standards and indirect land use measures.
  • Explain how to revise current policies and recommend alternatives to best achieve a carbon neutral economy using renewable energy.
  • Detail how biofuel policies were the major driver of the tripling of grains/oilseed prices in 2008 and 2011 and to high food commodity prices to this day.
  
AEM 3121 - Branding and Brand Management (3 Credits)  
Branding has become one of the most important aspects of business strategy. A strong understanding of branding is essential for the success of a business. This course provides an opportunity to internalize the concepts, principles and tools important in successful branding. The course covers the building blocks and principles of branding and strategy, importance of brand equity and how to build and manage brand equity. What is a brand? How can a brand stay relevant? What is brand strategy? How are meaningful brands created? Why do some brands have greater longevity and loyalty? How to reach the target audience? This course will provide opportunities to understand the building blocks of a strong brand and apply strategies and techniques. Students will develop acumen and confidence in their strategic and analytical ability working with discussions, assignments, readings and problem solving. Students will develop enhanced strategic skills, conceptual, analytical and decision-making skills.
Prerequisites: AEM 2420 or equivalent.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 3121, HADM 4480  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Summer 2024, Winter 2024, Summer 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify and apply the foundational building blocks of developing a brand-mission, vision, values, and brand purpose.
  • Explain what makes a strong brand and why a brand can command a premium.
  • Identify brand opportunities and determine a brand strategy to best position the brand and achieve the goals.
  • Describe and implement the key components in brand planning.
  • Recognize the importance of the target market and consumer insights and develop examples of each.
  • Analyze consumer and marketplace trends and demonstrate their implications.
  • Develop strategies to capitalize on opportunities to strengthen a brand position.
  • Evaluate a brand marketplace performance through practice on data sources.
  • Create brand long term essentials-building blocks of brand meaning.
  • Formulate effective brand strategies to build and manage brand equity
  
AEM 3200 - Business Law (3 Credits)  
Examines legal problems of particular interest to persons who expect to engage in business. Emphasizes the law of contracts, sales, agency, and property.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 3200, HADM 3870  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Attain analytical and functional competency in business skills.
  • Demonstrate working knowledge of ethics and ability to apply to real world settings.
  • Demonstrate ability to recognize legal issues in business and propose ways to solve problems that are effective given the governing legal rules.
  • Demonstrate ability to solve practical business problems and make an impact in real world and society.
  
AEM 3205 - Ethics in Business and Organizations (3 Credits)  
This course will survey ethical problems that arise in business and other organizational contexts, and develop theoretical resources to help address them.
Prerequisites: AEM 2200 or equivalent.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Distribution Requirements: (ETH-AG, KCM-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Spring 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify and define central ethical problems in business.
  • Distinguish major ethical theories and how they my illuminate the central ethical problems in business.
  • Recognize and define psychological processes that influence moral and organizational behavior.
  
AEM 3220 - Digital Business Strategy (3 Credits)  
As digital innovations revolutionize industries, many companies struggle to figure out the changing terms of competition. We will examine earlier digital transformations of industries such as books, music, software, telecommunications, and newspapers to assess the potential impact of Internet of Things, 5G networks, and the fourth industrial revolution. Students will critically evaluate the nature of data and information as economic goods; the role of communication networks in the economy; the industrial impact of digitization, including data, analytics, and AI; the platformization of markets; and new business models and business opportunities.
Prerequisites: AEM 2200 or ECON 1110.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students use analytical frameworks to craft digital business models and facilitate organizational design.
  • Students assess the effects of technological and societal change on competition in digital markets.
  • Students develop strategies for capturing economic benefits from innovation opportunities.
  
AEM 3230 - Managerial Accounting (3 Credits)  
This course provides an introduction to the basic concepts, analyses, uses, and procedures of accounting and control used by internal company managers when they are faced with planning, directing, controlling, and decision-making activities in their organization. Topics covered focus on the relationship between strategy and decision-making and include product and service costing, budget setting, decision-making, profitability analysis, pricing, investment analysis, management control systems, and performance measurement.
Prerequisites: AEM 2210 or AEM 2225 or equivalent.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 3230, HADM 2210  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Winter 2025, Spring 2024, Winter 2024  
AEM 3245 - Organizational Behavior (3 Credits)  
This course examines evidence-based principles of individual and group behavior in relation to leadership and management. Topics include the nature and design of groups, the factors that improve team performance, and the importance of skills including dispute resolution, persuasion, and negotiations, assignments provide opportunities for the engagement and application of analytical skills relating to real-world organizations.
Prerequisites: AEM 1200 or AEM 2200 or equivalent.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 3245, AEM 6245, HADM 1150, ILROB 1220, ILROB 5200  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to juxtapose and consider organizational dynamics that involve individuals and groups across a wide array of model domains.
  • Students will closely and directly engage an array of research/analytic methodologies that have applicability across industries.
  • Students will leverage lessons that are available from their past organizational experiences for the purposes of leadership development as well as organizational analysis and management.
  
AEM 3249 - Entrepreneurial Marketing and Strategy (3 Credits)  
The course is focused on the tools and frameworks that assist a startup entrepreneur in exploring the feasibility of a new idea. After establishing an understanding of the funding process for new ventures, students will learn about and practice market research techniques involving both formal (in person interviews) and informal (expert interviews, social media) ways to understand the adoption behavior and urgent needs/wants of prospective customers. In addition, participants will learn how to take findings from market research to formulate business models and strategies.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • After doing the project, students will be able to use formal (in person interviews) and informal (expert conversations, social media) methods to understand the adoption behavior and urgent needs/wants of prospective customers.
  • After completing the course project, students will be able to take findings from market research to formulate business models and strategies.
  • At the end of the project, students will be able to use the Lean Startup principles to analyze a new opportunity by identifying the problem/solution fit and the product/market fit.
  • At the end of the course, students will be able to create an effective written and oral investor pitch for a new business opportunity.
  
AEM 3251 - The Business Laboratory and New Venture Management (3 Credits)  
This course is a team oriented approach to allow students to understand through a simulation what happens when a new business is launched with funding in place. During the course of the implementation they will be presented with obstacles that often occur in real-life situations and learn how to develop creative ways to solve and overcome those obstacles. By the end of the term, it is expected that each team will have experienced (through simulation) managing a new venture.
Prerequisites: AEM 1200 or AEM 2200, AEM 2220 or equivalents.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2022, Spring 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop a company mission and vision.
  • Develop an appropriate budget; manage revenue and seek additional funding sources if necessary.
  • Interview and hire employees and consultants.
  • Acquire space and negotiate contracts with suppliers.
  • Deal with unexpected obstacles i.e. delays in material deliveries, sudden loss of key employees.
  • Initiate a marketing plan for the company.
  • Project development and achieving milestones.
  
AEM 3255 - Creativity Sprint: An Entrepreneurship Hackathon (1.5 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ILROB 3255  
The ability to shepherd an idea from ideation to development to implementation is an essential skill in today's business environment for entrepreneurs, innovators, and organizational change agents. To this end, this course aims to develop students' abilities to identify problems and generate solutions to real world business and societal challenges. The course focuses on problem identification (understanding the core elements of a presenting problem), idea generation (developing solutions to those problems), and implementation (putting those solutions into practice). The course includes lecture-based content and activities around these topics and features participation in a weekend-long hackathon event that serves as a practicum experience where students will generate, develop, and pitch an idea related to a societal or business challenge.
Distribution Requirements: (ICE-IL)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify real problems (a.k.a., pain points).
  • Effectively ideate creative solutions, including thinking through the idea's feasability, viability, and novelty.
  • Recognize how technologies and solutions from one industry can be adapted to solve teh pain points of another industry.
  
AEM 3260 - Cooperative Business Management (4 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ALS 3260  
An evaluation of the fundamental principles, structure, finance, management, and governance associated with cooperatively structured businesses, with an emphasis on agricultural cooperatives. Analyses of the cooperative business organization within the modern economy are emphasized through a mix of lectures, case study discussions, and engaged learning projects with cooperative industry clients.
Prerequisites: at least one of the following: AEM 1200, AEM 2200, AEM 3020, ILRID 1700, or permission of instructor.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify and illustrate alternative economic justifications for cooperatives as a business entity relative to other forms of business.
  • Distinguish the unique characteristics of the governance, finance, and management of cooperatives and hypothesize and evaluate how they support or hinder business performance.
  • Appraise and critique contemporary issues facing cooperatives, with an emphasis on the challenges and opportunities facing cooperatives that compete with investor-owned firms.
  • Cultivate business relationships with cooperative industry firms to appraise contemporary issues they face and to formulate, assemble, and recommend solutions and actions that address them.
  
AEM 3270 - Supply Chain Strategy and Supermarket Simulation (3 Credits)  
In Wisconsin and Ohio, farmers are dumping thousands of gallons of fresh milk into ponds and manure pits. In California, farmers are plowing under thousands of acres of lettuce and perfectly ripe strawberries. Months after concerns about shortages in grocery stores shoppers are still scrambling to find the last box of pasta or roll of toilet paper. It is Cyber Monday every day at retailers like Amazon.com, Walmart, Target, and Kroger as they struggle to meet the surge in demand. Could CoVID-19 be the black swan event that finally forces many companies, and entire industries, to rethink and transform their global supply chain model? The main objective of this course is to introduce students to the important concepts in supply chain management that any student of business (regardless of their current interests) should know to be an effective business manager in the future, and what students with interests other than business can benefit from knowing. Topics include design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply-chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand, and measuring performance globally. Effective supply chain management can enable companies to increase market shares, reduce costs, and improve customer service.Student teams will compete to affect a turnaround of an underperforming retail company. This competition allows students to use and practice skills, tools and knowledge acquired in other classes in a dynamic simulation of a company's operations in a competitive marketplace. Instruction will include review of concepts important to the simulation and the coaching of student teams as they management decisions and interpret the financial results of their (and competitors') decisions.
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to describe supply chain (network) components, processes, objectives, drivers and performance metrics.
  • Students will be able to discuss why SCM concepts are relevant to other business functional areas.
  • Students will undertake basis analyses of sourcing and purchasing of raw materials or finished goods for re-sale.
  • Students will be able to apply basic demand forecasting tools as one component of demand planning (demand management) to support decision-making in supply chains, and to evaluate forecast information provided to you by others.
  • Students will be able to develop and interpret basic Sales & Operations Plans (Aggregate Plans) used to determine production schedules in many organizations.
  • Students will develop and interpret basic business process analyses and related diagrams and use them for SCM process improvement.
  • Students will be able to describe lean manufacturing and sustainability issues and their importance in supply chains.
  
AEM 3275 - Introduction to Machine Learning in Business (3 Credits)  
This course aims to provide business majors with essential machine learning concepts and practical skills. Through a blend of theory and hands-on experiences, you'll learn how to utilize data-driven insights in the business world. The focus is on analyzing data effectively, improving prediction performance, and extracting valuable information for managerial decision-making. We'll apply machine learning to diverse business contexts, including predicting customer behavior, forecasting prices, and natural language processing. Each application involves specific machine learning tasks like classification, numeric prediction, and clustering. We'll tackle these tasks using various models, such as logistic regressions, support vector machines, decision-trees, ensemble learning (e.g., random forests and boosting), and neural networks.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify opportunities and challenges associated with machine learning in various business contexts.
  • Implement different machine learning models, and evaluate the model performance.
  • Interpret and visualize analytical conclusions and insights.
  • Design machine learning based solution to business context problems.
  
AEM 3290 - International Agribusiness Study Trip (2 Credits)  
Crosslisted with FDSC 3290  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2019, Spring 2017, Spring 2015  
AEM 3310 - Introduction to Business Regulation (3 Credits)  
The purpose of this course is to help and guide business and policy students in understanding and recognizing the multiple motivations of society to control certain business activities, the several general approaches to regulation and what is understood of the outcomes, and to provide an appreciation through case studies of how different sectors manage in a regulated environment. The treatment is to include an evaluation of the concept of 'regulatory risk', the uncertainly about regulatory outcomes/changes which constitute a risk, the major risk in some industries, so that understanding and managing that risk is a significant aspect of profitability for many firms, and a consideration for policy makers. Specific emphasis will be placed on the healthcare, biotechnology, energy, and technology business sectors.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110 or AEM 2200, or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Evaluate and articulate the reasons for business regulation.
  • Extract pertinent information from the case studies and synthesize justifications for the need and reasoning behind certain regulations.
  • Determine and articulate the difference between good vs. bad regulations.
  • Create their own specific industry regulations to benefit the industries involved and society as a whole.
  • Apply game theory and other analytical models to predict the effects of current and new regulations on business sectors.
  • Create management scenarios to conform with new regulations.
  
AEM 3320 - Leadership and Management in Sports (3 Credits)  
This course draws upon the study of sports for the purpose of understanding and studying evidence-based principles of individual and organizational behavior. Topics include the nature of motivation, momentum, and coaching as well as the challenges of talent identification, team-level coordination, and strategy development. Assignments provide opportunities for the development and application of analytic skills relating to leadership and management.
Distribution Requirements: (OCE-IL)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to consider and juxtapose organizational dynamics that involve individuals and teams across and beyond the domain of sports.
  • Students will closely and directly engage an array of research/analytic methodologies that applicability inside and outside of sports-focused organizations.
  • Students will leverage lessons that are available from the study of sports for the purposes of leadership development as well as organizational analysis and management.
  
AEM 3330 - The Startup and Venture Capital Experience (3 Credits)  
This course is designed to introduce undergraduate students to the startup ecosystem from the critical legal and young venture capitalist perspectives. We will cover corporate structures, boards of directors, startup capitalization and ownership structure, preferred stock financing (including in-depth analysis of economic and control terms), employee stock options, convertible debt and SAFE notes, fundraising legal frameworks, startup founder evaluation and relationships, the venture capital due diligence process (both qualitative and quantitative), the internal deal approval and selling process (particularly for the young venture capitalist), post investment portfolio company support, and navigating follow-on investment opportunities. Students who take this course are encouraged to enroll in HADM 4195 (also taught by Professor Shulman), which is a 3.5-day NYC VC Trek early in the spring semester.
Exploratory Studies: (EUAREA)
AEM 3360 - Corporate Financial Reporting I (3 Credits)  
AEM 3360 is the first of a series of two courses in intermediate accounting. This is a one-semester course for students in the accounting and finance concentrations. This course is an important prerequisite for students intending to pursue a graduate degree in accounting. The course focuses on 1) the accounting process, 2) the conceptual framework underlying financial accounting, 3) the primary financial statements, and 4) the measurement and reporting of assets, liabilities, and shareholders' equity. Specific topics include an overview of generally accepted accounting principles, financial statements and ratios, cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, inventories, operating assets, current and long-term liabilities, and stockholders' equity.
Prerequisites: AEM 2225.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
AEM 3370 - Corporate Financial Reporting II (4 Credits)  
Continuation from AEM 3360 of the in-depth study of accounting theory, generally accepted accounting principles, and the techniques involved in measuring, recording, summarizing, and reporting financial data for business organizations, considering both the perspective of preparers of financial statements and users who need to extract information from financial statements. Coverage includes accounting for revenue, investments, pensions, taxes, accounting changes, stock-based compensation, earnings per share and the statement of cash flows. Course objectives will be achieved by a combination of lectures and cases that are based on actual financial statements.
Prerequisites: AEM 3360.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
AEM 3380 - Social Entrepreneurs, Innovators, and Problem Solvers (3-4 Credits)  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 3000, AEM 3380  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2022, Summer 2021, Summer 2020, Summer 2019  
AEM 3385 - Social Entrepreneurship Practicum: Anabel's Grocery (3 Credits)  
AEM 3385 is a hands-on learning experience that serves as an entry point for new Anabel's Grocery team members, introducing them to social entrepreneurship, food justice, systems thinking, collaborative leadership practices, and the day-to-day operations of Anabel's. No prerequisites and no previous experience with Anabel's required. The course is open to students regardless of major. We are looking for students with diverse interests who are passionate about making healthy food accessible to everyone through practical actions that further racial, economic, and ecological justice. This experiential-based course meets once a week. It includes small group discussion sessions and a practicum commitment of about 4 hours per week.
Distribution Requirements: (D-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL, CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Analyze the systemic forces of capitalism and racism that give rise to ongoing inequities in our food system.
  • Gain hands-on experience implementing a food justice social enterprise; understand and apply systems thinking to evaluate and solve problems; use an antiracist lens to consider and evaluate norms, practices and policies.
  • Explore how choices, norms, and policies that center human well-being and that of the planet can create an ecologically sound and socially just market economy and food system.
  • Understand the UN SDGs within the limits of planetary boundaries.
  • Engage with others in honest, reflective dialogue.
  • Cultivate trusting, caring relationships as a foundation for collaborative action and decision making.
  • Become confident in yourself and others to bring about meaningful change towards a more just world.
  
AEM 3388 - The Asian Century: The Rise of China and India (3 Credits)  
The course will be thoroughly comparative in order to highlight both the specificity of each country as well as more generalizable dynamics of 21st century development. It will be divided into a number of inter-related modules. After a framing lecture, we will briefly cover the two countries' distinct experiences with colonialism and centralized planning. Then we will move on to dynamics of growth, which will seek to explain the relative success of China in the era of market reforms. In analyzing political consequences, we will assess how new forms of cooperation and conflict have emerged. This will involve attention to both internal dynamics as well as how rapid development has seen an increasing accumulation of political power in the East. It goes without saying that accelerating growth has led to huge social change, resulting in profound reorganizations of Chinese and Indian society. Finally, the course will conclude by returning to our original question - is this indeed The Asian Century? What does the rise of China and India mean for the rest of the world, and how are these two giant nations likely to develop in the future?
Enrollment Information: Open to: undergraduate students.  
Distribution Requirements: (CA-AG, SBA-AG), (ICE-IL, ICL-IL)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-ITL); (SAAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2020, Fall 2017  
AEM 3390 - Research Methods in International Development (3 Credits)  
Exploratory Studies: (SAAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018  
AEM 3400 - Marketing Analytics Immersion (4.5 Credits)  
Crosslisted with HADM 3435  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 3400, HADM 3435, HADM 3470  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2022  
AEM 3440 - Consumer Behavior (3 Credits)  
Develops a useful, conceptual understanding of the problem and strategies associated with the psychology behind consumer behavior. In doing so, the course provides frameworks that enable students to address these issues responsibly, systematically, and creatively.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Fall 2021  
AEM 3520 - Financial Statements Analysis (3 Credits)  
The course will focus on developing a framework for analyzing financial statements to make business decisions. The framework is intended to enhance the ability to qualitatively and quantitatively assess financial information. Goals of the course include learning to read financial statements for relevant information, understanding the impact of a business' accounting choices and estimates, analyzing financial ratios and cash flow measures and methods for valuation of a business. Cases are incorporated in class discussions and assignments in order to illustrate concepts and allow students to put into practice the tools presented.
Prerequisites: AEM 2010, AEM 2225, AEM 2240.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 3520, HADM 4240, HADM 6240, LAW 6060, NBA 5060  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop effective communication skills in finance.
  • Attain analytical and functional competency in basic business and economic skills.
  • Demonstrate working knowledge of ethics and ability to apply to real world settings.
  • Demonstrate ability to solve practical business problems and make an impact in real world and society.
  • Develop skills to be critical consumers of business information and research.
  
AEM 3547 - WIM: America, Business and International Political Economy (4 Credits)  
Crosslisted with GOVT 3547, ILRGL 3547, GDEV 3547  
Do you want to learn the discussion-based case method as taught at the Harvard Business School? Do you want to learn how to write a long research paper? Do you not want to take a final examination? If you answer these questions affirmatively, this course may be for you. We are told often that American primacy is in decline and that other powers are rising. What does this mean when we examine the experience of Government and Business in different countries around the world? Is the international political economy a hydraulic system in which some units rise and others fall? Are the dynamics of the international political economy all pointing in one direction? Or are they marked by cross-currents? This course seeks answers to these questions by teaching the basics of macro-economics, examining a range of powerful states (among others China, India, Russia and Japan) and persisting issues (financial globalization and foreign investment; oil and OPEC; trade and aid) as they play themselves out in different countries (such as Malaysia, Korea; Saudi Arabia, Nigeria; Mexico, Brazil, Uganda, Indonesia).
Distribution Requirements: (CA-AG, SBA-AG), (GLC-AS, SSC-AS), (ICE-IL)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2019, Fall 2017, Fall 2015  
AEM 3557 - Exceptionalism Questioned: America and Europe (4 Credits)  
Crosslisted with GOVT 3557, ILRGL 3557  
Do you want to learn the discussion-based case method as taught at the Harvard Business School? Do you want to learn how to write a long research paper? Do you not want to take a final examination? If so this course may be for you. Since the beginning of the republic, American intellectuals, politicians and businessmen have extolled the exceptionalism of America. In a world of diverse forms of capitalism, can this view be sustained? Is America a shining city on the hill or a darkened city in the valley? Comparison is an effective way to discern and assess what is unique and what is general in the distinctive form of America's capitalist democracy. In this course the liberal market economy of the United States with its distinctive strengths and weaknesses is put side-by-side with different forms of liberal, corporatist and statist market economies that characterize different European countries in the emerging European polity. The diversity of capitalism points to one overarching conclusion: all of these countries are arguably capitalist, democratic market economies belonging to the West; and each of them has distinctive strengths and weaknesses. Like all other countries, America is ordinary in mobilizing its formidable capacities and displaying its glaring weaknesses as it copes with change.
Distribution Requirements: (CA-AG, SBA-AG), (GLC-AS, SSC-AS), (ICE-IL)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2020, Fall 2016  
AEM 3605 - BREXIT: UK Study Trip (2 Credits)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2020, Spring 2019  
AEM 3610 - Introduction to Operations Management (3 Credits)  
Operations Management (OM) is the design and management of processes that transform inputs of materials, labor, capital, and information into finished goods or services that customers want and are willing to pay for. All organizations have operations that directly affect their ability to execute on their specified strategies. These operations processes can be managed well or poorly. This course provides a general introduction to operations management, and trains students to see the world with operations eyes, through which they can identify operational inefficiencies and improvement levers.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Comprehensively define operations management concepts and tools.
  • Apply tools to create value in an organization.
  • Analyze key operational dimensions such as flow time management, service operations management, inventory management, project management and supply chain management.
  • Recognize when and how to apply tools and intuition to improve processes.
  
AEM 3990 - Cornell-Dyson Exchange (15 Credits)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 3991 - Global Business Strategy (3 Credits)  
In today's globalized and interconnected world, more and more companies are going abroad to pursue their major business objectives. How can they take advantage of the global marketplace and create economic value through their multimarket activities? This distance learning course gives students a basic grounding in global business, so they can become capable of understanding and analyzing events and trends in the global business environment and their impact on managerial decision making. Through a series of case discussions and an internationalization project for a local company, students develop practical skills in applying the tools of global strategic analysis in concrete business situations. Students registered for NBA 5991 will be required to analyze a current-event situation based on the theoretical and methodological framework developed in this course.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 3991, AEM 5310, NBA 5991  
Last Four Terms Offered: Summer 2025, Winter 2025, Summer 2024, Winter 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Learn how to recognize, analyze and explain events and trends in the global environment and their impact on managerial decision making and business strategy across borders.
  • Develop practical skills in applying the tools of global strategic analysis and management in concrete business situations.
  
AEM 4000 - Grand Challenges Project (3 Credits)  
Part of the Grand Challenges program, the Project Course is a capstone, team-based learning experience. Students work with a faculty member and a client or community partner to tackle a societal problem. Projects span the entire semester and, for larger projects, may extend to student cohorts over several semesters.
Prerequisites: Grand Challenges writing course and AEM 3000.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Demonstrate client engagement skills in interactions with a community partner.
  • Work collaboratively with a team to manage a project and produce deliverables that meet or exceed the partner's expectations.
  • Reflect on individual and team learning to manage through conflict, uncertainty, and successes and failures.
  • Translate your learning into stories and plans for future community engagement.
  
AEM 4004 - Grand Challenges Abroad (3 Credits)  
The final course in the Grand Challenges program is the semester-long team project. This is the culmination of Grand Challenges courses and your entire Dyson experience. Through your engaged-learning project, you will apply everything you learned about yourself, about working as part of a team, about business, and about the world around you. You will engage with a client or community partner, manage a project, and contribute to solving a societal problem.
Prerequisites: AEM 3000.  
Course Fee: Course Fee, $3775. For in-country travel, lodging, project and cultural excursions and most meals.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop professional skills in project management, leadership, communication, and client relationship management.
  • Work collaboratively with a team to produce deliverables that meet or exceed the client's expectations.
  • Practice consulting skills, such as listening and engaging with stakeholders.
  • Translate learnings into stories and plans for future community engagement and work.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of how business principles can contribute to positive societal impact on a global scale.
  
AEM 4005 - Rating Nations: Economic Performance and Other Indicators (1.5 Credits)  
There are various ways in which nations are rated and ranked. Rating agencies like S&P ranks nations on the basis of how good and safe they are in terms of investment returns. The World Bank's Doing Business report ranks nations in terms of how easy it is to do business in a nation. The UNDP ranks countries in terms of their level of human development. This half semester course will introduce students to the theory and practice of rating and ranking nations in different ways. The students will be encouraged to develop their own ideas of new ways to rate and rank nations. One particular fledgling idea that will be discussed is how easy it is for citizens in different nations to interact with their government. We can call it the Living Life index, to chime with the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business index. It is hoped that by the end of the course we will have two or three concrete ideas for new ways of rating nations.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Define what constitutes a good and efficient economy.
  • Collect data and perform your own rating and ranking of countries.
  • Collaborate with UNDP office in NYC on the development of the Human Development Index.
  
AEM 4015 - Customer Analytics and Strategy (1.5 Credits)  
Aimed at students who are interested in pursuing activities in customer strategy and analytics built around the notion of customer centricity. The primary objective of this course is to provide students with how customer relationship management (CRM) can help accomplish strategic initiatives, improve firm profitability and build lasting competitive advantage. Students will be exposed to the practical side of CRM through case studies and hands-on exercises. This course is particularly relevant for students interested in careers in consulting, strategy, marketing and retailing, as well as for entrepreneurs.
Prerequisites: AEM 2400, AEM 2100 or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop essential skills to collect, analyze, and act on customer information.
  • Identify how customer strategy creates value for organizations and customers.
  • Evaluate the success of the relationship management efforts.
  
AEM 4050 - Farm Credit Fellows - Agricultural Lending (1 Credit)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019  
AEM 4060 - Risk Simulation and Monte Carlo Methods (3 Credits)  
This is a computer-based course that deals with the concepts of randomness and risk in financial management, capital budgeting, stock valuations, derivatives, and investment portfolios. The focus of the course is on applying realistic probability using Monte Carlo simulation to solve a variety of problems in finance.
Prerequisites: AEM 2240, AEM 2100 or equivalents, working knowledge of Excel, or permission of instructor.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: undergraduate students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
AEM 4080 - Innovation And New Product Management (3 Credits)  
In a rapidly changing business environment where product life cycles are shortening and competition is intensifying, creating new products has become the most significant and most risky activity within a firm. This course aims to develop an understanding of the state of the art strategies, processes and methods used in developing new products. This course focuses on key new product issues including generation and assessment of ideas, value creation in competitive markets, the impact of disruptive technologies on mainstream industries, and the diffusion of innovative new products and services. This is a case based course, where students participate in a dynamic and interactive group environment to develop the capacity to use the information learned to make informed new product decisions.
Prerequisites: AEM 2420 or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2020, Spring 2019  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to integrate the customer and knowledge of the customer into this process.
  • Students will be able to apply concepts and tools appropriate for new product development analysis.
  • Students will develop effective recommendations and action plans for companies facing difficult decisions about bringing new products to market.
  
AEM 4090 - Environmental Finance and Markets (3 Credits)  
This course provides an overview of environmental finance and markets, with particular emphasis on the development and use of financial instruments and investment strategies that seek to further the long-term sustainability of ecosystems. The course will explore the uses of such products as debt-for-nature swaps, environmental impact bonds, structured notes, and green bonds, and seek to illustrate both their potential and their limitations through a review of market transactions. The course will also explore how investment decisions can influence environmental outcomes, and the role that sustainable asset management strategies can have in achieving desired conservation objectives.
Prerequisites: AEM 2240 or equivalent.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL, CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2021, Spring 2020  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Describe how the tools of finance can be used to address societal challenges such as ensuring the long-term sustainability of ecosystems.
  • Identify opportunities to leverage the power of the investment markets to achieve particular outcomes by identifying potential cash flows inherent to preserved or sustainably-managed ecosystems.
  • Examine proposed investment blueprints and assess their potential to achieve desired conservation outcomes.
  • Propose ways in which financial products and services may be used to better manage environmental risks and deliver both financial and environmental returns.
  
AEM 4095 - Digital Marketing (1.5 Credits)  
The purpose of this class is to introduce you to fundamental concepts in digital marketing and prepare you for roles as a marketer, entrepreneur or product manager. Students will be exposed to an overview of the major players in the advertising and digital industries, as well as a variety of tools commonly found in start-ups and technology firms. I will cover this using a mixture of case studies, lectures, and guest speakers. My hope is that you will leave this course with the skills and a plan that you could refer to when you interview for established firms or starting your technology venture. Each year I will also use an emerging digital technology as an anchor for the speakers and the assignments, such as the interaction of AI and digital marketing.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
AEM 4100 - Microeconomics for Management and Consulting (3 Credits)  
Many managerial decisions, as well as recommendations provided by consulting firms, are based on economic analyses. The goal of this course is to go beyond basic microeconomics and cover more advanced microeconomic frameworks and analyses most useful for management and consulting. The course is divided into four parts. Part I starts by reviewing the basic analyses of supply and demand, profit maximization concerning production and pricing, and competitive equilibrium. It then covers a number of advanced issues concerning the costs of production. Part II focuses on advanced issues concerning pricing including price discrimination, two-part pricing, and pricing a product line. Part III focuses on other firm-consumer strategies including issues that arise when selling a durable good, as well as basic concepts concerning asymmetric information. Part IV focuses on firm-firm strategies including contracting/agency analysis and oligopoly interaction.
Prerequisites: AEM 2600 or ECON 3030 or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Employ microeconomic basics such as maximization analysis and the marginal cost equals marginal revenue rule, perfect competition and long run equilibrium, and the basics of input choice in managerial decision making.
  • Apply the marginal cost equals marginal revenue rule to various real-world situations concerning costs such as multiple factories, capacity issues, and peak-load pricing/joint supply.
  • . Formulate optimal pricing strategies for capturing consumer surplus across various real-world settings employing the logic of price discrimination and/or two-part pricing. This includes how to price a product line.
  • Design internal firm operations concerning contracting issues/ agency analysis, transfer pricing, and the make/buy/sell decision.
  • Formulate firm strategies in oligopoly/rivalry settings. This includes understanding the role of antitrust.
  
AEM 4110 - Introduction to Econometrics (3 Credits)  
This course is an introduction to basic econometric principles and the use of statistical techniques to estimate empirical economic models. Multiple regression is introduced and procedures to accommodate data issues and limitations are presented. Topics discussed include simultaneous equations, panel models and limited dependent variable models. Time series approaches are introduced. Students are required to estimate econometric models using provided data sets.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100, AEM 2600 or equivalent.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 4110, AEM 6120, PUBPOL 3100  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
AEM 4120 - Computational Methods for Management and Economics (3 Credits)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2018, Fall 2017  
AEM 4140 - Behavioral Economics and Managerial Decisions (3 Credits)  
Behavioral economics integrates psychology and economics by identifying systematic anomalies in decision making. These are now recognized to be an important source of error in business decisions, and they provide the foundation for both behavioral marketing and finance. The course compares rational choice theory with behavior both in lecture and through a series of economics experiments in which students face situations that are likely to lead to anomalies such as the winner's curse, the status quo bias, hyperbolic discounting, and bias in assessing risks. Students have the opportunity to evaluate their own decision making.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110 or permission of instructor.  
Course Fee: Course Fee, $40. For behavioral experiments in discussion sections.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to explain the major decision making anomalies that constitute the core of behavioral economics.
  • Apply lessons from behavioral economics to actual business decision making.
  • Design laboratory experiments testing hypotheses from economics and psychology that relate to economic decision making.
  • Explain IRB requirements and procedures regarding human subjects and confidentiality.
  • Administer experiments and analyze the data.
  
AEM 4150 - Price Analysis (3 Credits)  
Focuses on the analysis of supply and demand characteristics of commodities with particular attention to agricultural products. Pays special attention to empirical analysis. Includes institutional aspects of pricing, temporal and spatial price relationships, price forecasting, and the economic consequences of pricing decisions.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100 and AEM 2600, or ECON 3030, or PUBPOL 2000, or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2021, Fall 2019  
AEM 4160 - Strategic Pricing (3 Credits)  
This quantitative course explores various pricing strategies by taking into consideration the role of consumer behavior, economics, statistics, and management science. Topics include: product tying and bundling, peak load pricing, price matching, warranty pricing, advanced booking, and the 99-cent pricing perceptions.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100, AEM 2600 and MATH 1110, or equivalent.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 5550  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
AEM 4190 - Strategic Thinking (3 Credits)  
The art of thinking strategically puts outdoing one's adversary at the core of the decision-making process, while anticipating that the adversary is doing exactly the same thing. Businesses make investment decisions and innovate products in anticipation of the reaction of their rivals; managers make pay contingent on peer performance, taking into account the reaction of their subordinates and superiors; national trade policies are formulated based on whether trading partners are committed to make credible concessions. This course introduces and explores the use of game theory to understand these interactions; students are expected to work with a balanced dose of both theory and relevant case studies. The objective of the course is to facilitate students' ability to think strategically on firm level issues (e.g., pricing, advertising wars, product differentiation, and entry deterrence) and strategic policy interaction in international economic relations (e.g., trade wars and the arms race).
Prerequisites: AEM 2600, or PUBPOL 2000, or ECON 3030, or equivalents.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2020  
AEM 4200 - Dilemmas in Founding New Ventures (3 Credits)  
Distribution Requirements: (OCE-IL)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
AEM 4210 - Futures, Options and Financial Derivatives (3 Credits)  
Covers the pricing of derivatives and how derivatives can be used for the purpose of risk management and speculation. A portion of this course involves the use of spreadsheet or other computer programs.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100 and AEM 2240, or equivalent.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
AEM 4225 - Systems and Analytics in Accounting (3 Credits)  
An investigation of the systems and software that capture and store accounting and economic information, and of the tools and techniques that support a robust use of that data for the benefit of individual enterprises and greater society. Topics include Big Data, Data Visualization, Optimization Tools and Accounting Support Systems and Databases. Students taking this course at the graduate level will have a semester project related to the extension of the utility of large data sets beyond their initial purposes.
Prerequisites: AEM 2210 or AEM 2225, AEM 2100.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Gain and demonstrate an understanding of the Systems and Software that support the financial functions of modern and complex business enterprises.
  • Engage these systems in support of the array of decisions that internal and external accountants encounter in the practice of their discipline.
  • Investigate and develop the analytical tools that support the use of Big Data to address questions that reach beyond the boundaries of individual enterprises.
  • Further explore the ethical framework within which accounting and assurance professionals and academics employ their skills, and discuss the risks of working with Big Data and the safeguards that are available to address those risks.
  • Refine the cooperative work and leadership skills that are critical to success in this field through the completion of high quality analysis and casework in analytical teams.
  
AEM 4230 - Behavioral Finance (3 Credits)  
The traditional framework for thinking about financial markets assumes that all market participants are fully rational. The past four decades have seen the emergence of an important new paradigm, behavioral finance, which argues that many financial phenomena are the result of less than fully rational thinking and which draws on psychology to understand the ways in which people are not fully rational. This course provides an introduction to the field. We revisit basic topics in finance from a behavioral finance perspective: topics related to markets (stock market fluctuations, popular investment strategies, bubbles); topics related to investor behavior (poor investment decisions by households); and topics related to corporate finance (security issuance, mergers and acquisitions). A running theme in the course is that knowledge of behavioral finance is essential for anyone who seeks a full understanding of modern financial markets.
Prerequisites: AEM 2240 or equivalent.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop basic understanding of how human psychology affects investor behavior, asset prices, and firm behavior in financial markets.
  • Develop basic understanding of quantitative models of behavioral finance that make sense of important financial phenomena.
  • Become familiar with frontier research and future directions of behavioral finance.
  
AEM 4260 - Fixed-Income Securities (3 Credits)  
Focuses on fixed-income securities including corporate bonds, default-free bonds, and floating rate notes. Other topics include related financial instruments such as forwards and futures on fixed-income securities, interest rate swaps, bond options, and mortgage-backed securities. In addition to the analysis of specific types of fixed-income securities, there is an examination of the tools used in bond portfolio management.
Prerequisites: MATH 1110, AEM 2100, AEM 2240 or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop effective communication skills.
  • Attain analytical and functional competency in the basic business and economic skills.
  • Demonstrate the ability to solve practical business and economic problems and make an impact in real world and society.
  
AEM 4280 - Valuation of Capital Investment (3 Credits)  
This course is about the analysis of financial information for making decisions to invest in businesses. The primary focus is on quantitative stock selection and equity (share) valuation. Various valuation models will be examined in detail and applied in cases and projects involving listed companies. First, the issue of market efficiency will be explored. Second, important quantitative stock selection methods will be examined. Third, discounted cash flow models will be examined. This include models of shareholder value, the analysis of profitability, growth and valuation generation in a firm, forecasting earnings and cash flows, pro-forma analysis for strategy and planning, analysis of risk, and the determination of price/earnings and market-to-book ratios. Advanced topics on valuation including valuation by multiples and earnings management will then be discussed.
Prerequisites: AEM 2240 or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will learn how to detect market efficiency, stock screening, and the relevance of cash-flows, dividends, earnings, and book values.
  • Students will be able to extract information from the financial statements for valuing equities.
  • Students will survey some of the most important quantitative techniques and profitable strategies in equity markets.
  • Students will identify the role of financial statements in calculating equity values.
  • Students will be able to perform ratio analysis on companies.
  • Students will determine whether a firm's P/E and price-to-book ratio are justified, and detect some common earning management tricks.
  
AEM 4290 - International Financial Management (3 Credits)  
Exploratory Studies: (EAAREA, EUAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2022, Fall 2020, Fall 2016, Fall 2015  
AEM 4300 - International Trade Policy (3 Credits)  
Examines the economic principles underlying international trade and monetary policy, and the policies, practices, and institutions that influence trade and foreign exchange markets. Also emphasizes applications to current topics in international trade policy, to trade in primary commodities, and to both developed and developing countries.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110, ECON 1120, AEM 2600 or equivalents.  
Distribution Requirements: (OCE-IL, QP-IL)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-ITL); (EAAREA, EUAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2023, Spring 2021, Spring 2019  
AEM 4315 - Economics of Developing Countries (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ECON 3550  
The goal of this course is to expand students' understanding of the economics of developing countries. We will address questions like: why do some countries grow quickly and others slowly? What factors prevent countries, households, and individuals from escaping the cycle of poverty? How do policymakers balance economic growth and environmental sustainability? Why don't financial markets work well in most developing countries, and do informal institutions fill the gap? How do we analyze the challenges facing small-scale farming households, and how do decisions by those households influence migration, labor markets, and the growth of industry? How do we evaluate policies and programs in order to understand what works for development? The approach in this course will be primarily microeconomic, although a basic understanding of macroeconomics is important for some topics. Emphasis will be on theory, real-world examples, and reading and interpreting research and policy papers.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100, AEM 2600, AEM 4110, ECON 1110, ECON 1120 or equivalents.  
Distribution Requirements: (OCE-IL, QP-IL), (SBA-AG)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Explain, use, and critically assess the primary metrics used for measuring growth, poverty, and inequality.
  • Apply the tools of economic analysis to problems of growth, poverty, and environmental sustainability in developing countries.
  • Interpret and evaluate empirical research on the economic and social impacts of specific policies and programs.
  • Formulate succinct, informed arguments on a variety of contemporary policy issues facing developing countries.
  
AEM 4350 - Political Economy of the WTO (3 Credits)  
The politics of the WTO and trade policy are explored. Examines what the WTO is, how it operates, how much power it really has, why it was created, and incentives for governments to cooperate. Also explores how WTO rules affect domestic politics and foreign policy goals and how WTO rules and agreements are enforced. Students also debate the effect of trade on growth and poverty.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110.  
Distribution Requirements: (OCE-IL, QP-IL)  
Exploratory Studies: (AFAREA, EUAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
AEM 4355 - Healthcare Entrepreneurship: Perspectives and Controversies (1.5 Credits)  
The course will introduce students to various perspectives and controversies regarding entrepreneurship in a unique market segment, healthcare. Utilizing a case based approach; students will gain an understanding of how healthcare differs from other business sectors, how opportunities are identified within different sectors of healthcare, and other issues including cost control and regulation. The course will assist students from multiple disciplines in determining whether healthcare entrepreneurship may be a suitable choice in their career future.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Differentiate the economic factors involved in healthcare compared to other business segments.
  • Develop creative thinking skills.
  • Interpret the needs and opportunities among healthcare sectors.
  • Create opportunities in the global healthcare sector; 5. Determine the costs associated with new technologies.
  • Determine the costs associated with new technologies.
  
AEM 4375 - Business Design (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with DEA 4375  
This engaged learning course applies design strategies to real-world problems in a business context; in other words, we take a human-centered approach to innovation. Students act as business design consultants working directly with a social enterprise client on a sustainability-related challenge throughout the semester. Working in multidisciplinary teams, students apply a design toolkit and mindset for creative problem solving to a project that results in a portfolio-ready deliverable. This collaboration allows students to immerse themselves in a professional setting in which they explore business opportunities; develop innovative concepts; and propose and prototype entrepreneurial solutions, particularly around the theme of circular economy. Past clients include the City of Ithaca Economic Development and Finger Lakes ReUse. Satisfies the Dyson Grand Challenges project requirement.
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2020  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to apply qualitative and ethnographic design research techniques in a client-based project.
  • Students will be able to hone visualization and storytelling methods to synthesize and communicate data and concepts.
  • Students will be able to use the iterative process for problem solving: generating, testing, and refining ideas, products, business models, etc.
  • Students will be able to practice working collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams.
  • Students will be able to model innovative concepts at the intersection of design and business.
  
AEM 4400 - Retail Strategy (3 Credits)  
Welcome to the jungle of retail strategy, where the stakes are high, and the competition is fierce. This advanced-level course is your ticket to mastering the art and science of retail. We'll dive deep into the nitty-gritty of consumer behavior, market research, branding, pricing, promotion, merchandising, supply chain management, e-commerce, and retail analytics. Expect a mix of hard-hitting lectures, real-world case studies, and hands-on workshops challenging you to think like a retail mogul. From food to fashion, mass to niche, online to international, we've got it all covered. You'll be required to complete a project that showcases your strategic prowess, and you'll get the chance to learn from some of the sharpest minds in the industry: selected retail executives who know the game inside out.
Prerequisites: AEM 2420 or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
AEM 4401 - Field Research Methods in International Developmnt (1.5 Credits)  
AEM 4410 - Marketing Research (3 Credits)  
This course provides a fundamental understanding of marketing research methods typically employed by firms. It is primarily aimed towards the manager who must decide the direction of research activities and focuses on how one should design research, construct questionnaires, and collect and analyze data. The course will primarily focus on the interpretation and use of results rather than mathematical derivations. Students will be exposed to the practical side of marketing research through problem sets and projects.
Prerequisites: AEM 2400 or AEM 2420.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to explain contributions and limitations of marketing research data.
  • Students will competently develop and carry out marketing research according to the standards of typical managers and firms.
  • Students will apply new statistical tools to answer basic marketing questions.
  
AEM 4415 - Field Research and Pre-Engagement with Social Enterprises in Emerging Markets (1.5 Credits)  
This course prepares students for engaged-learning opportunities that include working with diverse community partners e.g., small and medium enterprises [organizations], NGOs, universities, and public agencies in emerging markets. This course comprises two sections: 1. Field research methods, which provide students with a strong theoretical grounding on how to collect and report primary data in publishable works (e.g., case studies). 2. Development of field safety, research protocols and client pre-engagement opportunities for students who have successfully been selected to participate in the Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Teams (SMART) projects. For information on SMART, visit the Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Teams (SMART) Program website.
Distribution Requirements: (OCE-IL)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL, CU-ITL, CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Describe the legal and ethical considerations for research dealing with human participants.
  • Identify global trends and issues that might promote social, economic, technological, and policy development within resource-poor counties, organizations, and communities.
  • Identify and employ various resources that will promote meaningful cross-cultural and multidisciplinary communication, learning, and working to solve an applied business problem.
  • Apply, use, and synthesize multiple environmental scanning frameworks in analyzing the macro and micro-environments of social enterprises in emerging markets.
  
AEM 4420 - Emerging Markets (3 Credits)  
Provides a framework for examining the effectiveness of marketing strategies in economies in transition and identifying the challenges and opportunities for firms in low-income economies to access industrial markets. Appraises the risk of entering markets in low-income economies and assesses the political, legal, cultural, and economic forces. Analyzes and discusses case studies of companies.
Prerequisites: AEM 2420 and PUBPOL 2000, or ECON 3030, or AEM 2600.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: juniors and seniors.  
Exploratory Studies: (AFAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
AEM 4421 - Research and Strategy in Emerging Markets (3 Credits)  
This course complements the Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Teams (SMART) Program and is only open to students participating in the SMART Program. This course offers students unique research and strategy development opportunities with small and medium enterprises (SMEs), non-profit organizations, public agencies, and other disadvantaged communities in emerging markets. To achieve this, the course is divided into two parts: stakeholder engagement and field research, which takes place during the winter intermission (students travel to the field for data collection and client engagement) and in-class instruction and project development, which takes place during the spring semester. In this second phase, students analyze and report their collected field data through the development of case studies, policy briefs, technical reports, and research papers.
Prerequisites: AEM 4415 or AEM 5415.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students participating in the SMART Program.  
Distribution Requirements: (CA-AG, D-AG, SBA-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL, CU-ITL, CU-SBY); (AFAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Increased understanding of the role private-public partnerships play in the promotion of economic development.
  • Improved problem-solving, decision-making, communication, and other soft skills development.
  • Increased appreciation of the unique role multidisciplinary teams play in solving complex socioeconomic problems.
  • Produce peer-reviewed publications (e.g., case studies, policy briefs, technical reports, and research papers) that can be adopted by the community partner and in classroom settings.
  
AEM 4435 - Data Driven Marketing (1.5 Credits)  
This course deals with the use of data to make marketing decisions. It introduces concepts, methods, and applications of analytics to products, markets, and marketing actions. Unlike marketing courses that focus on conceptual material, this course will provide skills to translate conceptual understanding into specific operational plans - a skill in increasing demand in organizations today.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100, AEM 2420, AEM 2010, or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop appreciation for the value of evidence-based decision making in marketing.
  • Use the vocabulary of marketing analytics.
  • Develop and apply common analytical tools in marketing.
  • Utilize the findings from analytical models to improve marketing decisions in business situations.
  
AEM 4450 - Toward a Sustainable Global Food System: Food Policy for Developing Countries (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with GDEV 4450, NS 4450  
Comprehensive presentation and discussion of policy options for a sustainable global food system, with focus on developing countries. Topics include economic policy related to nutrition, health, consumption, production, natural resource management, trade, markets, gender roles, armed conflict, and ethics. A social entrepreneurship approach based on case studies and active participation by students will be used.
Distribution Requirements: (AFS-AG, SBA-AG, SCH-AG), (SBA-HE)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY); (AFAREA, SAAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Ability to analyze a specific food policy problem, identify the related policy issues, suggest one or more policy options to solve the problem, and estimate how each option would affect relevant stakeholder groups and their expected response.
  • Ability to undertake the above with limited information and within a short time frame.
  • Motivation to engage in the design and implementation of innovative solutions to existing and expected future problems related to the global, national and local food systems, i.e. to be a social or policy entrepreneur within or outside the public sector.
  
AEM 4460 - Food Marketing Fellows (0.5 Credits)  
The course focuses on current topics in food marketing and may be supplemented by field trips to food industry firms and other exposure to food industry activities and practitioners. In addition, the course includes preparation for a field study trip during the winter break period.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students participating in the Food Marketing Fellows program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Winter 2025, Fall 2024, Winter 2024, Fall 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Maximize benefits gained from Food Fellows International Study Trip.
  • Broaden understanding of world food system.
  • Gain perspective about culture and consumer behaviors outside of the U.S.
  • Cultivate interest in the food industry as a career option.
  
AEM 4485 - Economics of Food and Malnutrition (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with NS 4480  
This course focused on the economics of food and malnutrition from the perspective of individuals and households; that is, a micro-economic approach. Topics include characteristics and constraints associated with food production in both developed and developing countries; the determinants of household food security; the social and economic causes and consequences of undernutrition; the social and economic causes and consequences of obesity; intervention design to reduce food insecurity, undernutrition and obesity.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110, AEM 2100, or equivalent, and 9 additional credits in economics, applied economics, or nutrition. Recommended prerequisite: ECON 3140, NS 3600, or equivalent.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: seniors and juniors.  
Distribution Requirements: (AFS-AG, D-AG, SBA-AG), (SBA-HE)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-ITL, CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Ability to analyze problems of food security and nutrition using perspectives and tools drawn from both economics and nutrition; critically assess studies of the determinants of these; understand the strengths and limitations of interventions designed to ameliorate these.
  • Integrate knowledge from the biological and social sciences to address nutrition problems facing individuals, societies and governments.
  • Ability to understand and analyze quantitative data on food security and nutrition.
  • Ability to access and critically evaluate scientific information from the primary research literature to investigate the causal effects of nutrition.
  • Motivation to engage in debates surrounding the design and implementation of innovative solutions to current existing and future problems related to food, hunger, and nutrition.
  
AEM 4490 - Financial Markets and Sustainability (3 Credits)  
This course provides a broad overview of the financial markets, including the structure and function of these markets, the financial products that are transacted on them, and the institutions that operate within them, while addressing how financial markets are evolving in response to the challenges of sustainability. Through the use of case studies, lectures, readings, and project work, students learn how the leading actors in the financial services industry operate, what motivates them, and how they facilitate the flow of capital between those who can provide financing and those who need it. In parallel with this, the course explores how the tools of finance can be used to generate social and environmental returns in addition to financial returns.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Describe the structure of the financial markets, explain the role of key market actors, and discuss the attributes of the main products and services transacted on the financial markets.
  • Recognize and assess the negative externalities likely to result from particular financial transactions.
  • Illustrate how financial products and services are utilized by sustainable finance practitioners to generate social and environmental co-benefits such as ecosystem conservation, poverty reduction, and improved education.
  • Evaluate proposed sustainable finance transactions and weigh their potential to generate both financial returns and nonfinancial returns.
  • Identify sources of unused natural or social capital and propose strategies to unlock cash flows currently locked within such sources.
  
AEM 4500 - Resource Economics (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ECON 3860  
AEM 4500/ECON 3860 introduces students to the economics of renewable and nonrenewable natural resources. Topics covered include the valuation and use of land; water economics, management, and conservation; the extraction and management of nonrenewable resources such as minerals, rare earth elements, and energy resources; renewable and nonrenewable sources of energy; forest management; fishery economics; groundwater; natural resource markets, demand, and supply; and sustainability. Students will learn how to use dynamic models to analyze decision-making over time, and to solve dynamic optimization problems analytically and numerically. Students will also learn how to analyze and explain the intuition and logic behind the theory and concepts. Students will apply the methods, quantitative tools, and concepts to analyze natural resource issues at global and local levels; to introspectively reflect on their own lives and future aspirations; and to draw lessons and implications for leadership, management, and policy. A solid background in calculus is required.
Prerequisites: MATH 1110, ECON 3030 or AEM 2600.  
Distribution Requirements: (OCE-IL), (SBA-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2021  
AEM 4510 - Environmental Economics (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ECON 3865  
This class will focus on the role of the environment in the theory and practice of economics. It will make use of microeconomic analysis at the intermediate level and will incorporate real-world examples. It examines market failure, externalities, benefit-cost analysis, nonmarket valuation techniques, and cost-effective policy instruments.
Prerequisites: MATH 1110, and AEM 2600 or ECON 3030.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: undergraduate students.  
Distribution Requirements: (OCE-IL), (SBA-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Gain understanding of policies to deal with environmental challenges and their impacts on different players in the society.
  
AEM 4520 - Advanced Accounting (3 Credits)  
Detailed analytical study of special issues and situations in financial accounting. Continuous emphasis is placed on the relationship between theory and practice to reflect the latest professional pronouncements. Highly technical topics related to corporation, partnership, government, and not-for-profit organizations, with a focus on business combinations and the particular accounting challenges that they present.
Prerequisites: AEM 3360.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
AEM 4521 - Cost Accounting and Management Control (3 Credits)  
Cost Accounting and Management Control is a senior seminar focused on managerial decision making and uses of internal accounting data (i.e., revenue and costs; incentive contracts; forecasts; etc.). You will integrate knowledge acquired in your undergraduate accounting courses with that from other courses, readings from current academic and professional literature, and related articles to sharpen skills related to cost assessment, performance evaluation, and managerial control. This course is designed to explicitly consider the role of uncertainty and other statistical issues when making corporate decisions. For the most part, this course is a selected topics course; focusing on topics intimately related with managerial decision making.
Prerequisites: AEM 3230 or permission of instructor.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Apply economic principles and analytic skills to cost assessment under uncertainty.
  • Measure and evaluate costs for decision-making and performance evaluation purposes.
  • Develop appropriate financial data for forecasting and decision making.
  • Apply alternative performance assessment approaches.
  • Recognize the costs and benefits of different cost allocation methods.
  • Improve research and communication skills.
  
AEM 4530 - Auditing and Assurance (3 Credits)  
Theory and practice of independent examination of financial statements. Discussion of relationships with clients; working papers, assurance procedures, including evaluations of internal controls, accounting principles, risk assessment, liability, and professional ethics.
Prerequisites: AEM 3360.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
AEM 4531 - Federal Income Taxation (3 Credits)  
Introductory course in federal income taxation covering structure of present tax law; basis for income tax computations; concepts of gross income, adjusted gross income, deductions, exemptions and credits. The emphasis is on tax questions and problems relating to individuals. Students enrolled in the graduate-level section will be required to do additional tax problems.
Prerequisites: AEM 2225 or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Explore the tax environment, fundamentals of tax planning, measurement of taxable income, taxation of business entities (individuals, corporations and partnerships) and tax compliance.
  
AEM 4532 - Fraud Examination (3 Credits)  
Fraud Examination is a senior seminar designed to allow you access to theories of fraud examination, to develop an understanding of the fraud examination process, and to provide a background in fraud-related issues.
Prerequisites: AEM 4530 or permission of instructor.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop effective communication skills in finance.
  • Attain analytical and functional competency in basic business and economic skills.
  • Demonstrate working knowledge of ethics and ability to apply to real world settings.
  • Demonstrate ability to solve practical business problems and make an impact in real world and society.
  • Develop skills to be critical consumers of business information and research.
  
AEM 4533 - Federal Income Taxation of Low Income Taxpayers (2 Credits)  
This course covers the present structure of tax law in the United States, including the measurement of taxable income, tax compliance fundamentals, and other related Federal and state tax issues facing low-income taxpayers, with some emphasis on immigrant taxpayers. Participants also discuss various tax research and compliance tools that may be used by practitioners and/or volunteer low-income taxpayer assistance programs. Guest lecturers will focus on specific topics such as the rules surrounding ITIN preparation and other tax issues unique to low-income taxpayers.
Prerequisites: AEM 2225 or equivalent.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop effective communication skills when dealing with low-income taxpayers, including immigrant taxpayers.
  • Attain analytical and functional competency in various areas of Federal and state tax law.
  • Demonstrate working knowledge of ethics and ability to apply to real-world settings.
  • Demonstrate the ability to solve practical tax problems that surround low-income taxpayers.
  • Develop skills to be critical consumers of tax information and research.
  
AEM 4534 - Federal Income Taxation of Real Estate Ventures (3 Credits)  
This course presents the tax skills necessary to make business, and personal, decisions as it relates to real estate ventures. Emphasis is placed on such areas as acquiring ownership of real property, the various entity structures that a real estate venture can create, and the operational rules surrounding a real estate venture, including the sale and/or exchange of real estate. In addition, securitized real estate investments, such as limited/master limited partnerships and real estate investment trusts (REITS), will be introduced in the later part of course. Practical application of the tax law will be emphasized with proper consideration placed on the historical, economic and political perspectives of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). The content and design of this course is, only, suitable for advanced undergraduate students and graduate students.
Prerequisites: AEM 2210 or AEM 2225 or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to develop effective communication skills in various areas of taxation and accounting.
  • Students will be able to attain analytical and functional competency in basic finance and economic skills.
  • Students will be able to demonstrate working knowledge of ethics and ability to apply to real world settings.
  • Students will be able to demonstrate the ability to solve practical tax problems that may impact an entity's business decisions.
  • Students will be able to develop skills to be critical consumers of tax information and research.
  
AEM 4545 - Money and Finance in the Digital Age (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ECON 3545  
This course will provide an overview of new financial technologies (Fintech), cryptocurrencies, central bank digital currencies, and decentralized finance (DeFi). The implications of these novel technologies for the future of financial markets, central banking, and international finance will be examined. The course will also cover basic analytical models in open economy macroeconomics and international finance, focusing on capital flows and exchange rate dynamics.
Prerequisites: ECON 3040 and ECON 3120 or ECON 3140 or equivalent.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-ITL); (SAAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Demonstrate ability to formulate a research topic, conduct independent quantitative research, and write a substantive research paper.
  
AEM 4550 - Economics of Advertising (3 Credits)  
This is an analytical and quantitative course focusing on advertising strategy. How does advertising affect product demand and competitive responses from rival products? Why and how do consumers respond to advertising? What is their sensitivity to advertising expenditures, if any? Can we measure that sensitivity? These are some of the questions analyzed during this course.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100, one of the following: AEM 2600, ECON 3030 or PUBPOL 2000, and MATH 1110 or equivalents.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 4160, AEM 5550  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
AEM 4570 - Corporate Finance (3 Credits)  
This course is designed to advance the understanding of corporate financial decision making. The class will further the corporate finance topics taught in AEM 2240 such cost of capital, capital structure, mergers and acquisitions, and dividend policy. Some topics in international corporate finance topics will also be discussed.
Prerequisites: AEM 2240.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 4572 - Entrepreneurial Finance and Private Equity (3 Credits)  
This course studies entrepreneurial finance and, more broadly, private equity finance. Private equity (PE) includes primarily venture capital (VC), growth equity, and buyouts. The course is motivated by a substantial increase in supply and demand for private equity. The course's primary objective is to provide an understanding of the concepts and institutions involved in entrepreneurial finance and PE markets. We will explore these two markets: 1) Venture Capital 2) Buyout (narrow definition of Private Equity) from the perspective of three players: 1) Entrepreneurs and startup employees, buyout-backed company's management and employees 2) Venture capital and buyout fund managers (i.e., General Partners or GPs) 3) Investors in venture capital and buyout funds (i.e., Limited Partners or LPs).
Prerequisites: AEM 2240 or equivalent.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: juniors and seniors in Dyson.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify financing options for startup companies.
  • Define institutional features of venture capital and private markets in detail.
  • Evaluate business ideas both quantitatively and qualitatively.
  • Evaluate venture capital and private equity fund performances.
  • Persuade investors and clients based on professional written and oral communication skills.
  
AEM 4580 - The Economics and Psychology of Sustainable Business (1.5 Credits)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2018  
AEM 4585 - Sustainable Business (3 Credits)  
This course provides a survey of the rapidly evolving area of corporate sustainability for graduate students and advanced undergraduates. The focus of the course will be on understanding the ways in which growing concerns about human health and wellbeing and the environment may (or may not) affect corporate behavior. Through a combination of classroom presentations, discussion of case studies, assigned readings, and independent research, students will learn about the most important themes in corporate sustainability, including environmental and social risk management, sustainability initiatives and self-regulation in the corporate sector, stakeholder engagement and management, and the growth of sustainable finance and business, including green entrepreneurship and ESG investing.
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL, CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify the key trends in the broad field of corporate sustainability and the risks and opportunities that arise from a growing public awareness of the environmental, social, and other impacts of corporate activity.
  • Recognize sustainability risks associated with particular corporate activities and will be able to propose actions that mitigate these risks.
  • Examine the interactions between corporate entities and their competitors, regulators, the public, and their other stakeholders, and to put forward recommendations on how to improve the outcomes of these interactions.
  • Identify opportunities and propose ways in which the tools of finance can be leveraged to better manage natural resources and reach desirable social objectives.
  
AEM 4590 - Financial Markets and Institutions (3 Credits)  
This course examines financial markets and institutions from an asset owner's perspective. In particular, we study asset markets in stocks, bonds, real assets, illiquid assets, and impact investing. We discuss the roles of key financial institutions such as delegated investing intermediaries, mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity firms, and the Federal Reserve.
Prerequisites: AEM 2240 or AEM 2241.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2022, Fall 2019, Spring 2018  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to understand the functioning of financial markets from an asset owners' point of view.
  
AEM 4600 - Predictive Analytics for Business Strategy (3 Credits)  
This course teaches students how data analysis informs business strategy, using a framework of logical reasoning and practical communication. We will develop analytical skills and gather hands-on experience with data to understand how strategic decisions affect firm performance, for example in the context of economic consulting. The material will focus on a subdivision of predictive analytics called active prediction, and students will learn the basics of identification to determine what data are most useful when answering a given empirical question.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100 or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2022, Spring 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Perform and explain both deductive and inductive reasoning in the context of data analysis.
  • Distinguish data mining from causal analysis, as well as passive prediction from active prediction.
  • Use statistical software to perform data analysis.
  • Write clearly and concisely about data analysis to establish causal relationships among strategic variables and outcomes.
  • Explain to a non-technical audience the key components of data analysis establishing causality and its implications.
  
AEM 4615 - Digital Platform Strategy (3 Credits)  
Business platforms are a set of business and technology building blocks that serve to facilitate the creation of complementary products and services. They are an essential feature of modern economies, particularly among products and services created by software. The emphasis of this course is on how to create, grow, gain value and capture market share from platforms. Course content will draw concepts from network effects, information asymmetry, pricing, and game theory. Students will apply these concepts to make decisions on how to manage platforms in case studies drawing from social media, entrepreneurship, enterprise software, and mobile services, among others. The course will be useful for students interested in founding new businesses, managing technology ventures and investing.
Prerequisites: AEM 2200 or equivalent.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 4615, AEM 5615, NBA 5615  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2022, Spring 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Formulate and implement strategies to grow, maintain, and capture value from platforms.
  • Demonstrate competency in applying concepts from economics and strategic management that inform understanding of how and when platforms grow and decline.
  • Identify and analyze evidence of the impact of platforms on markets and broader society and communicate results.
  • Offer critical analysis of contemporary business events related to platforms.
  • Develop effective skills in communicating strategic decisions.
  
AEM 4620 - Digital Innovation in Media Markets & Creative Industries (3 Credits)  
In this course we will examine the market dynamics and technological innovations that have challenged the traditional foundations and created opportunities for content producers in media and creative industries. The goal of the course is to develop strategies to identify and exploit new opportunities arising from technological changes, and to motivate regulatory solutions to address emerging market failures. To integrate a market-based approach with practical implications for firms and entrepreneurs, the course will consist of three components: theoretical frameworks, insights from academic literature, and basic data analysis.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110, AEM 2010, or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2022, Fall 2020, Fall 2019  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Describe the ways in which advances in technology affected the costs of production and distribution of creative content.
  • Analyze the effects of the digital transformation on firm size and market structure in media industries.
  • Evaluate the consequences of (free) digital distribution for the profitability and sustainability of traditional content creators.
  • Formulate optimal strategies for entrepreneurs to extract value from creative content consumers and monetize digital platforms.
  • Estimate the welfare gains to creative content consumers from enhanced information and variety.
  
AEM 4630 - Asset Pricing and Portfolio Management (3 Credits)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2019  
AEM 4650 - Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation (3 Credits)  
This is a foundational strategy course for students who will work for firms where innovation and technology is important to the competitive advantage of the firm. This includes tech firms like Google, Facebook, and Amazon as well as traditional technology firms like GE, IBM, and Corning. Innovation is also increasingly important to financial firms such as Capital One, Citibank and Jane Street (a quantitative trading firm). This year we will have guest speakers from Jane Street, Capital One labs and Apple. This course is important for students interested in consulting because innovation is a common topic that consultants have to address. It is also relevant to students with interests in entrepreneurship and corporate venturing.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will work in a team to solve business and economic problems.
  • Students will demonstrate working knowledge of innovation techniques and ability to apply these to real world settings.
  • Students will identify unmet customer needs and work on teams to construct creative and innovation solutions to resolve these needs.
  • Students will attain analytical and functional competency in basic business.
  • Students will evaluate organizational innovation competencies and deficiencies and recommend a plan to address organizational deficiencies.
  
AEM 4660 - Business Simulation (1.5 Credits)  
Course is required for completing the Dyson Business Minor for Engineers, but is open to all majors. By participating in a business simulation, students get experience applying key business principles, such as finance, accounting, marketing, economics and management in dynamic marketing settings. Participants make team-based and individual decisions based on imperfect information and aggressive time constraints. Through analysis, coaching and facilitation, the experience leads to learning the ways specific business decisions influence firm performance in a dynamic marketplace.
Prerequisites: AEM 2210, AEM 2225, or equivalent. Corequisite: AEM 2240, AEM 2241, or equivalent.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 4660, AEM 4661, AEM 4665  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: juniors and seniors.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Providing practice for decision-making under uncertainty.
  • Understanding competitive markets and landscapes.
  • Working in diverse teams under time pressure.
  • Applying core business principles to a practical setting.
  • Integrating theory with practice in terms of business management education.
  
AEM 4661 - Business Simulation Capstone for Business Minors in Life Sciences (1.5 Credits)  
This course is a business simulation course in which each student works as part of a team to manage a multidisciplinary healthcare clinic. Each team is responsible for making semi-annual decisions in four broad areas: revenues, payer mix, employees, and services. Teams will start in the same position, competing with one another to gain market share, generate revenue, and increase profitability.
Prerequisites: AEM 1200 or AEM 2400, AEM 2210 and AEM 2241, or equivalents.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 4660, AEM 4661, AEM 4665  
Enrollment Information: Priority given to: students completing the Dyson Business Minor for Life Sciences majors.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to develop and implement a successful long-term business strategy.
  • Students will be able to adjust to market dynamics and industry evolution.
  • Students will be able to collaborate effectively across business functions.
  • Students will be able to allocate resources to meet strategic and operational goals.
  • Students will be able to develop effective team processes.
  • Students will be able to practice communication and interaction skills.
  
AEM 4665 - Business Management Simulation (1.5 Credits)  
The Business Management Simulation (BMS) is a course in which each student works as part of a team to manage a simulated manufacturing company. Each team is responsible for making yearly decisions in four broad areas: sales, marketing, operations, and finance. Depending on class size, there will be one or two different industries, each operating in its own competitive space, and there will be four or five companies in each industry. Your competition, therefore, is limited to the other three or four teams in your industry. You will all start in the same position, competing with one another to gain market share, generate revenue, and increase profitability. Performance is measured by the relative success of each firm in creating shareholder value by paying dividends and increasing share price.
Prerequisites: AEM 2225, AEM 2240, or equivalent.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 4660, AEM 4661, AEM 4665  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to develop and implement a successful long-term business strategy.
  • Students will be able to examine market dynamics and industry evolution.
  • Students will be able to collaborate effectively across functions.
  • Students will be able to allocate resources to meet strategic and operational goals.
  • Students will be able to develop effective team processes.
  
AEM 4670 - Investments (3 Credits)  
This course discusses a wide range of investments-related topics, both conceptually and analytically. We first study basic frameworks that provide investors guidance on how to value securities and make investment decisions; topics include basic concepts of return, risk, and prices, asset allocations, the capital asset pricing model, and performance evaluation. We then study empirical patterns of asset prices and discuss the implications of these patterns for investors' trading strategies; here, we introduce the important concept of market efficiency. Next, we discuss bond market investing and the yield curve, as well as derivative contracts such as futures and options. Finally, we discuss selected topics in behavioral finance, an active subfield within finance that tries to improve our understanding of financial markets and investor behavior using frameworks that are psychologically realistic; here, topics include a set of systematic mistakes real-world investors make, the underlying mechanisms that cause these mistakes, and ways to improve financial decision making.
Prerequisites: AEM 2240.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Course will deepen the students' understanding of the core principles behind investment and Portfolio Management.
  • Offers focus on the theoretical foundations of asset prices, with particular focus on the largest asset classes: Bonds, Equities, and Derivatives (Options).
  • Students will be able to manage portfolios across asset classes, and learn how assets are priced either through no arbitrage arguments or general equilibrium price theory.
  • Students will learn how these concepts are extended in an international framework, and how macroeconomic and global factors can affect investment decisions and asset prices.
  
AEM 4681 - Impact Finance (3 Credits)  
This course provides a detailed study on multiple financial markets including bonds, forwards, futures, swaps, and options and their role in addressing major issues facing humanity. In particular, we plan to study specific topics on the role of financial markets in addressing important issues like funding cancer cure, tackling climate change, and financing educational needs for the underserved. Relative to a traditional finance class, we take a broad approach and think of finance as a way to get things done and financial instruments as a way to solve problems. We explore topics related to diversification and purpose investing, including a highly innovative idea of a mega-fund developing cancer treatment. We examine how financial instruments can help solve or hedge some societal issues, particularly on climate change. As an example, we will be studying a financial solution to deal with California forest fire. We also examine the potential for social impact bonds for educating pre-school children and reducing prisoners' recidivism.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100, AEM 2240 or equivalents.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Interpret diversification and purpose investing.
  • Examine the relationship of how financial instruments can help solve or hedge some societal issues.
  • Articulate how financial innovation within the U.S. fiscal environment may be a way to help accomplish social goals.
  • Utilize the instrument of options, pricing of such options and social impact bonds.
  
AEM 4875 - Low-Income Taxpayer Law & Accounting Practicum (3 Credits)  
This is a one-semester experiential course where students learn about low-income taxpayer issues as well as prepare individual income tax returns and offer tax advice for low-income taxpayers in the Tompkins County community. In addition to providing a valuable service to the community, students develop their professional skills and client service skills as well as proficiency with a professional tax preparation software product and a deeper understanding of technical tax issues.
Prerequisites: AEM 2210 or AEM 2225 or equivalent or permission of instructor.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Connect and extend knowledge from prior courses and/or training to provide excellent tax law and tax accounting services to low-income taxpayers in the Tompkins County community.
  • Explain complex tax issues in an understandable way to clients.
  • Identify and carry out distinct roles in an inter-professional standard, reflect on personal progress, and identify lessons for future work.
  • Establish personal learning goals considering relevant professional standards, reflect on personal progress, and identify lessons for future work.
  • Elicit community partner and client experience in working with the clinic. Analyze success in meeting their goals.
  • Examine differences, seek to acquire cultural knowledge as appropriate, and practice appropriate interaction with community partners and clients.
  
AEM 4880 - Global Food, Energy, and Water Nexus – Engage the US, China, and India for Sustainable Future (3-4 Credits)  
This course is offered by six Departments at Cornell, in collaboration with five Universities in China and India. Video conferencing will be used to connect classrooms in the three countries in real time. Important issues related to the food, energy, and water nexus and its implications for nutrition security, one health, environmental sustainability,climate change, and economic development in the US, China, India, and other countries will be described. Challenges associated with these issues will be evaluated and strategies to address them will be proposed. Engagement of these countries with each other and the rest of the world will be explored. The course serves as a platform for students from Cornell, China, and India to learn from and interact with each other in the same class, and to share their thinking, creativity, and perspectives on these issues.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: juniors or seniors only.  
Distribution Requirements: (AFS-AG, D-AG, SCH-AG)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-ITL, CU-SBY); (SAAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify and compare the major food, nutrition and health, energy, water, and economic challenges facing the US, China, and India.
  • Describe barriers to food and nutrition security for all people in each of the three countries and globally and propose solutions for overcoming these barriers.
  • Identify and quantify the requirements of energy and water for producing, processing, transporting, and/or preparing food.
  • Evaluate various predictions of regional and global impacts of climate change on agricultural production and human health in the 21st century.
  • Collaborate as members of interdisciplinary teams composed of students from the US, China, and India to analyze and solve problems that affect food, water, and energy security.
  • Effectively and respectfully debate, with people of opposing views, issues related to food, water, and energy nexus.
  • Prepare and deliver focused, clear, impactful, and culturally sensitive presentations to an international audience of peers .
  
AEM 4940 - Undergraduate Special Topics in Applied Economics and Management (1-4 Credits)  
The department teaches trial courses under this number. Offerings vary by semester and are advertised by the department before the beginning of the semester.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 4960 - Applied Economics and Management Internship (1-2 Credits)  
Evaluation of internship experience requiring the following written submission at the end of the term. 1) Internship job description and copies of training materials provided. 2) Weekly diary including descriptions of job responsibilities and reflections/insights on those experiences. 3) Three to five page paper reflecting on how the internship related to the academic program. All internships must be approved by the internship coordinator before the work experience segment.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: Dyson students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • To practice effective communication skills in a workplace environment.
  • To perfect teamwork skills in an office environment.
  • To practice the skills needed to be critical consumers of business information and research.
  • To learn to find solutions for real business problems.
  
AEM 4961 - Perspectives in Global Development (1 Credit)  
Crosslisted with GDEV 4961, NTRES 4961  
A variety of speakers present seminars on international development topics relating to sustainable development throughout the world. Students attend each seminar and submit a five-page essay at the end of the semester reflecting on the speakers' presentations and analyzing connections between topics.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 4970 - Individual Study in Applied Economics and Management (0.5-6 Credits)  
Used for special projects designed by faculty members.
Exploratory Studies: (SAAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 4980 - Supervised Teaching Experience (1-4 Credits)  
Designed to give qualified undergraduates experience through actual involvement in planning and teaching courses under the supervision of department faculty. Students cannot receive both pay and credit for the same hours of preparation and teaching.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 4990 - Undergraduate Research (1-4 Credits)  
Permits outstanding undergraduates to carry out independent study of suitable problems under appropriate supervision. Students cannot receive both pay and credit for the same hours of work.
Prerequisites: GPA of at least 2.7.  
Exploratory Studies: (SAAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 4992 - Undergraduate Accounting and Tax Research (1-4 Credits)  
Permits outstanding undergraduates to carry out independent study of suitable problems under appropriate supervision. Students cannot receive both pay and credit for the same hours of work. This course meets one of the educational components of the New York state CPA exam.
Prerequisites: GPA of at least 2.7.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 5040 - Dairy Markets and Policy (3 Credits)  
This course is a survey of topics related to: 1) the structure and performance of U.S. dairy markets; and 2) federal and state policies that regulate market activities. This is not a course in how to market or sell farm milk or dairy products, although we will discuss some topics related to marketing and dairy demand analysis. Policy sections emphasize understanding why regulations were created and how they impact market activity, as well as describing what they do.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
AEM 5110 - Design and Innovation (3 Credits)  
This course introduces students to a design toolkit and mindset for creative problem solving that enables a shift from a 20th century, market-based perspective to a more sustainable, human-centered approach appropriate to this century's systemic challenges. Topics covered include: opportunity finding and innovation; the design thinking cycle of inspiration-interpretation-ideation-implementation; and visual communication. Students will learn to apply design strategies to their work to make it more integrated and collaborative. This course will require openness to new ways of (divergent) thinking.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate or professional students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop an empathic mindset.
  • Implement qualitative and ethnographic design research techniques.
  • Synthesize and communicate data and concepts through introduction to visualization and storytelling methods.
  • Generate, test, and refine ideas, products, business models, etc., to become familiar with the iterative process.
  • Explain how design strategies can augment and complement analytic and quantitative decision making.
  
AEM 5111 - Introduction to Econometrics (3 Credits)  
The course objective is to provide students with a solid introductory understanding of econometric theory and applications. Students completing this course willbe able to integrate economic theory with econometric methods to solve research problems ineconomics, business, finance or other social sciences. The course covers least squares estimation, inference, forecasting,and various estimation problems and topicsin econometrics. The course emphasizes application rather than theory, although proper application requires knowledge of the underlying theory.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
AEM 5115 - Evaluation of Green Energy Strategies and Markets (3 Credits)  
After an overview of the trends in renewable energy and the multitude of public policies and private initiatives, a conceptual framework to analyze the social costs and benefits will be developed and each policy compared in terms of achieving social goals. The perverse effects of combining policies like subsidies and mandates at both the state and federal levels will be emphasized, along with the interaction of renewable policies with regional cap and trade regimes, and regulations like fuel economy standards and EPA environmental regulations. The specific economic and technology issues facing renewable electricity versus biofuel markets will be addressed, providing students a detailed understanding of each market and the effects of public policies. The effects of biofuel policies on food commodity prices will be emphasized.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Analyze how the renewable energy industry got started, the technological and economic challenges it faces and the consequences of government policies.
  • Assess how well the broad spectrum of policies achieve GHGE reductions.
  • Identify the many perverse and contradictory effects of such policies as mandates, subsidies, import barriers, sustainability standards and indirect land use measures.
  • Explain how to revise current policies and recommend alternatives to best achieve a carbon neutral economy using renewable energy.
  • Detail how biofuel policies were the major driver of the tripling of grains/oilseed prices in 2008 and 2011 and to high food commodity prices to this day.
  
AEM 5150 - Price Analysis (3 Credits)  
Focuses on the analysis of supply and demand characteristics of commodities with particular attention to agricultural products. Pays special attention to empirical analysis. Includes institutional aspects of pricing, temporal and spatial price relationships, price forecasting, and the economic consequences of pricing decisions.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Examine the basic forces that influence agricultural prices in a spatial and temporal context.
  • Develop basic analytical techniques related to price analysis.
  • Identify how agricultural policy impacts prices.
  • Provide examples of empirical price analysis applied to real world problems.
  • Teach students how to read and understand journal articles on applied price analysis research.
  
AEM 5200 - Macroeconomics for Business and Finance (3 Credits)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2023  
AEM 5210 - Business and Economics of Food (3 Credits)  
This course will examine the food system from an economic and business perspective. In the first part of the course, students will study the key economic and regulatory elements that affect the production of food. The second section will focus on the business aspects of food and beverage processing, distribution and retailing, and the material in the final section will focus on a range of contemporary business and economic issues that are relevant to consumers of food and beverages.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to use and evaluate scientific and economic information to reach defensible conclusions.
  • Students will be able to identify the implications of business decisions on the supply of food.
  • Students will be able to describe the effects of information and policies in food and beverage markets.
  • Students will be able to develop skills to evaluate the consequences of consumer behavior for food products.
  
AEM 5220 - Digital Business Strategy (3 Credits)  
As digital innovations revolutionize industries, many companies struggle to figure out the changing terms of competition. We will examine earlier digital transformations of industries such as books, music, software, telecommunications, and newspapers to assess the potential impact of Internet of Things, 5G networks, and the fourth industrial revolution. Students will critically evaluate the nature of data and information as economic goods; the role of communication networks in the economy; the industrial impact of digitization, including data, analytics, and AI; the platformization of markets; and new business models and business opportunities.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to use analytical frameworks to craft digital business models and facilitate organizational design.
  • Students will be able to assess the effects of technological and societal change on competition in digital markets.
  • Students will be able to develop strategies for capturing economic benefits from innovation opportunities.
  
AEM 5225 - Systems and Analytics in Accounting (3 Credits)  
An investigation of the systems and software that capture and store accounting and economic information, and of the tools and techniques that support a robust use of that data for the benefit of individual enterprises and greater society. Topics include Big Data, Data Visualization, Optimization Tools and Accounting Support Systems and Databases. Students taking this course at the graduate level will have a semester project related to the extension of the utility of large data sets beyond their initial purposes.
Prerequisites: AEM 2210 or AEM 2225, AEM 2100.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Gain and demonstrate an understanding of the Systems and Software that support the financial functions of modern and complex business enterprises.
  • Engage these systems in support of the array of decisions that internal and external accountants encounter in the practice of their discipline.
  • Investigate and develop the analytical tools that support the use of Big Data to address questions that reach beyond the boundaries of individual enterprises.
  • Further explore the ethical framework within which accounting and assurance professionals and academics employ their skills, and discuss the risks of working with Big Data and the safeguards that are available to address those risks.
  • Refine the cooperative work and leadership skills that are critical to success in this field through the completion of high quality analysis and casework in analytical teams.
  
AEM 5230 - Behavioral Finance (3 Credits)  
The traditional framework for thinking about financial markets assumes that all market participants are fully rational. The past four decades have seen the emergence of an important new paradigm, behavioral finance, which argues that many financial phenomena are the result of less than fully rational thinking and which draws on psychology to understand the ways in which people are not fully rational. This course provides an introduction to the field. We revisit basic topics in finance from a behavioral finance perspective: topics related to markets (stock market fluctuations, popular investment strategies, bubbles); topics related to investor behavior (poor investment decisions by households); and topics related to corporate finance (security issuance, mergers and acquisitions). A running theme in the course is that knowledge of behavioral finance is essential for anyone who seeks a full understanding of modern financial markets.
Prerequisites: AEM 2240 or equivalent.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: MPS-AEM students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
AEM 5241 - Finance (3 Credits)  
This course is a survey of topics in finance. It focuses on the mathematics of finance, valuation, the economics of managerial decisions, corporate financial policy, risk management, investments, and personal finance.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100, AEM 2210 or equivalents.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Become familiar with the "Time Value of Money" and comfortable using that concept and formulas to solve problems in the areas of corporate finance, investments, and personal finance.
  • Become familiar with stock and bond markets and learn the economics and mathematics behind the valuation of bonds, stocks, and firms.
  • Become familiar with modern portfolio theory including the relationship between risk and return, the concept of diversification, the capital asset pricing model, and the arbitrage pricing theory.
  • Become familiar with corporate financial decisions such as whether to accept or reject a project ("Capital Budgeting"), how to finance operations ("Capital Structure"), if and how to make payouts to investors ("Distribution Policy"), and how to analyze potential acquisitions ("Mergers & Acquisitions").
  • Become familiar with using derivatives as investment and risk management tools. Derivatives covered include options, convertibles, forward and futures contracts, and swaps.
  • Become familiar with the concept of market efficiency and the data in support of the theory. Also become aware of tests suggesting the existence of market anomalies which run counter to the notion of market efficiency.
  • Become aware of some basic investment concepts and strategies.
  • Become aware of some basic personal financial decisions including the use of tax-advantaged retirement accounts such 401(k)'s and IRA's, asset allocation, saving for educational expenses, insurance decisions, and ways to pass assets on to one's heirs.
  • Become aware of current financial and economic events.
  
AEM 5255 - Creativity Sprint: An Entrepreneurship Hackathon (1.5 Credits)  
AEM 5260 - Cooperative Business Management (4 Credits)  
An evaluation of the fundamental principles, structure, finance, management, and governance associated with cooperatively structured businesses, with an emphasis on agricultural cooperatives. Analyses of the cooperative business organization within the modern economy are emphasized through a mix of lectures, case study discussions, and engaged learning projects. Additional industry engagement is expected of graduate students by developing cooperative business educational curricula and delivering to relevant stakeholder audiences in collaboration with Cornell's Cooperative Enterprise Program.
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify and illustrate alternative economic justifications for cooperatives as a business entity relative to other forms of business.
  • Distinguish the unique characteristics of the governance, finance, and management of cooperatives and hypothesize and evaluate how they support or hinder business performance.
  • Appraise and critique contemporary issues facing cooperatives, with an emphasis on the challenges and opportunities facing cooperatives that compete with investor-owned firms.
  • Cultivate business relationships with cooperative industry firms to appraise contemporary issues they face and to formulate, assemble, and recommend solutions and actions that address them.
  
AEM 5270 - Supply Chain Strategy and Supermarket Simulation (3 Credits)  
In Wisconsin and Ohio, farmers are dumping thousands of gallons of fresh milk into ponds and manure pits. In California, farmers are plowing under thousands of acres of lettuce and perfectly ripe strawberries. Months after concerns about shortages in grocery stores shoppers are still scrambling to find the last box of pasta or roll of toilet paper. It is Cyber Monday every day at retailers like Amazon.com, Walmart, Target, and Kroger as they struggle to meet the surge in demand. Could CoVID-19 be the black swan event that finally forces many companies, and entire industries, to rethink and transform their global supply chain model? The main objective of this course is to introduce students to the important concepts in supply chain management that any student of business (regardless of their current interests) should know to be an effective business manager in the future, and what students with interests other than business can benefit from knowing. Topics include design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply-chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand, and measuring performance globally. Effective supply chain management can enable companies to increase market shares, reduce costs, and improve customer service.Student teams will compete to affect a turnaround of an underperforming retail company. This competition allows students to use and practice skills, tools and knowledge acquired in other classes in a dynamic simulation of a company's operations in a competitive marketplace. Instruction will include review of concepts important to the simulation and the coaching of student teams as they management decisions and interpret the financial results of their (and competitors') decisions.
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to describe supply chain (network) components, processes, objectives, drivers and performance metrics.
  • Students will be able to discuss why SCM concepts are relevant to other business functional areas.
  • Students will undertake basis analyses of sourcing and purchasing of raw materials or finished goods for re-sale.
  • Students will be able to apply basic demand forecasting tools as one component of demand planning (demand management) to support decision-making in supply chains, and to evaluate forecast information provided to you by others.
  • Students will be able to develop and interpret basic Sales & Operations Plans (Aggregate Plans) used to determine production schedules in many organizations.
  • Students will develop and interpret basic business process analyses and related diagrams and use them for SCM process improvement.
  • Students will be able to describe lean manufacturing and sustainability issues and their importance in supply chains.
  
AEM 5275 - Introduction to Machine Learning in Business (3 Credits)  
This course aims to provide business majors with essential machine learning concepts and practical skills. Through a blend of theory and hands-on experiences, you'll learn how to utilize data-driven insights in the business world. The focus is on analyzing data effectively, improving prediction performance, and extracting valuable information for managerial decision-making. We'll apply machine learning to diverse business contexts, including predicting customer behavior, forecasting prices, and natural language processing. Each application involves specific machine learning tasks like classification, numeric prediction, and clustering. We'll tackle these tasks using various models, such as logistic regressions, support vector machines, decision-trees, ensemble learning (e.g., random forests and boosting), and neural networks.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify opportunities and challenges associated with machine learning in various business contexts.
  • Implement different machine learning models, and evaluate the model performance.
  • Interpret and visualize analytical conclusions and insights.
  • Design machine learning based solution to business context problems.
  
AEM 5280 - Valuation of Capital Investment (3 Credits)  
This course is about the analysis of financial information for making decisions to invest in businesses. The primary focus is on quantitative stock selection and equity (share) valuation. Various valuation models will be examined in detail and applied in cases and projects involving listed companies. First, the issue of market efficiency will be explored. Second, important quantitative stock selection methods will be examined. Third, discounted cash flow models will be examined. This include models of shareholder value, the analysis of profitability, growth and valuation generation in a firm, forecasting earnings and cash flows, pro-forma analysis for strategy and planning, analysis of risk, and the determination of price/earnings and market-to-book ratios. Advanced topics on valuation including valuation by multiples and earnings management will then be discussed.
Prerequisites: AEM 2240 or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will learn how to detect market efficiency, stock screening, and the relevance of cash-flows, dividends, earnings, and book values.
  • Students will be able to extract information from the financial statements for valuing equities.
  • Students will survey some of the most important quantitative techniques and profitable strategies in equity markets.
  • Students will identify the role of financial statements in calculating equity values.
  • Students will be able to perform ratio analysis on companies.
  • Students will determine whether a firm's P/E and price-to-book ratio are justified, and detect some common earning management tricks.
  
AEM 5290 - International Financial Management (3 Credits)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2022  
AEM 5300 - CEMS Block Seminar (1.5 Credits)  
Intensive, one-week, full-time immersion course in the area of sustainable business and finance, combining lectures, case study discussions, guest lectures, and team and individual exercises and presentations on the topic.
Enrollment Information: Required for and limited to: students in CEMS program.  
Course Fee: Course Fee, $300. For transportation and food for company visits and activities.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL, CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will recognize sustainability risks associated with particular corporate activities and will be able to propose actions that mitigate these risks.
  • Students will identify broadly how sustainability is understood across cultures, geographies, and income levels, and how that may impact decision-making in an international business organization.
  • Students will critically examine the interactions between corporate entities and their peers, regulators, the public, and their other stakeholders, and recognize situations in which business decisions informed by responsible citizenship may improve the outcomes of these interactions for all parties.
  • Students will identify, reflect on, and critically analyze social and environmental challenges in which the tools of finance may be successfully leveraged to improve both economic and sustainability outcomes.
  
AEM 5305 - Global Citizenship Seminar (1 Credit)  
Through this two-day immersion seminar as part of the broader CEMS curriculum, students will learn and gain skills related to participating in (and leading) teams of diverse individuals. The seminar-and our classroom time-will be approached as a partnership. Questions will be posed regularly and frequently throughout the course to support learning from each other. The main themes for the two-day sessions are: What is leadership? How do organizations (mis)identify leaders? What is the difference between ascribed and achieved leadership? What are the benefits of teamwork (and why is it increasing in the workplace? How do effective teams operate? What skills are most helpful for successful team participation?
Enrollment Information: Fall: Enrollment limited to MPS students. Spring: Enrollment limited to CEMS students.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will recognize how leadership and perceptions of leadership can impact organizations in both helpful and unhelpful ways.
  • Students will gain an appreciation for the skills and approaches that have been demonstrated to be most effective among successful teams.
  • Students will learn how to juxtapose lessons about how to lead in contemporary organizational settings alongside exemplars of leadership in pre-industrial communities.
  • Students will engage with the backstage of academic debates and learn how to process original scientific literature.
  
AEM 5310 - Global Strategy (3 Credits)  
This course analyzes the international business environment, defined as the economic, political, and social factors that shape firms' global strategies. We seek to explain the ways in which - and the reasons why - countries differ in policies and institutions relevant to the firm. The course places special emphasis on the political and institutional economy facing the business, which means we study how international and domestic politics as well as institutions influence continuity and change in the rules governing international economic transactions.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 3991, AEM 5310, NBA 5991  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to identify opportunity and risk in the global business environment with the use of theory and evidence.
  • Students will be able to analyze how political, institutional, and social forces influence economic and regulatory outcomes relevant to business.
  • Students will be able to develop a framework for explaining continuity and change in the international business environment.
  • Students will be able to examine the potential future directions of international business both globally and in terms of particular market areas.
  
AEM 5315 - Leadership and Management in Global Environments and Organizations (3 Credits)  
Business firms with global operations and activities present unique layers of managerial and leadership challenges on top of those already associated with running a successful business. This course identifies those challenges at the industry, organizational, team and individual levels and indicates available solutions and implementations of solutions to those challenges. The course emphasizes the organic nature of the growth of the global enterprise and the challenges it presents to organizational citizens and leaders; the difficulties associated with creating coherent organizational structures and cultures across national and regional borders; the potential and actual differences in institutional and cultural practices across national and regional borders; and finally the ethical challenges posed by both the large institutional and cultural distances across organizational units in a multinational enterprise as well as by the nature of cross-cultural and cross-institutional business contacts in an environment of global firms.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: students in CEMS program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to recognize the role of national and regional institutional environments in the conduct of business, in particular the roles of neoliberalism, capitalism and globalization in promoting convergence and the roles of history and political orientation in modulating styles of capitalism and other economic systems.
  • Students will be able to recognize the significant influence of culture in the conduct of business and organizational life, with emphasis on the application of Hofstede's five dimensions of culture.
  • Students will be able to discuss the effects of multinational transactions such as exports, licenses, and foreign direct investment on both the structure of organizations and the dynamics of organizational evolution.
  • Students will be able to distinguish between ethnocentric, polycentric and geocentric approaches to management and leadership.
  • Students will be able to examine ethical challenges characteristic of international business and organizations, such as corruption and bribery and difficulties in overseeing appropriate conduct in terms of human and economic rights across a formal or informal global organization.
  
AEM 5320 - CEMS Seminar Series (1.5 Credits)  
This course, designed for those poised to embark on their professional journeys, offers an exploration into the intersections of career development, decision-making, and dimensions of leadership pertaining to teams and dynamic environments. Over the span of seven intensive three-hour sessions, students will engage in a combination of discussions and group activities that foster collaborative learning and holistic personal growth. The curriculum covers a diverse range of topics, from aligning individual passions with career trajectories to delving into dynamic management considerations (such as those involving adaptation and emergent strategies). By its conclusion, participants will have acquired a broader worldview and a set of practical tools to effectively navigate the complexities of both their career and personal endeavors in dynamic situations.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students in CEMS program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify their personal interests and values and understand how they align with various career paths.
  • Apply critical thinking and evidence-based decision-making skills in analyzing case studies.
  • Analyze different decision-making processes and compare their effectiveness in various real-world scenarios.
  • Evaluate and critique different leadership and management styles, especially in dynamic and crisis situations, to determine their effectiveness.
  • Develop ideas in class that demonstrate effective team dynamics and collaborative learning.
  
AEM 5410 - Marketing Research (3 Credits)  
This course provides a fundamental understanding of marketing research methods typically employed by firms. It is primarily aimed towards the manager who must decide the direction of research activities and focuses on how one should design research, construct questionnaires, and collect and analyze data. The course will primarily focus on the interpretation and use of results rather than mathematical derivations. Students will be exposed to the practical side of marketing research through problem sets and projects.
Prerequisites: AEM 2400 or AEM 2420 or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
AEM 5415 - Field Research and Pre-Engagement with Social Enterprises in Emerging Markets (1.5 Credits)  
This course prepares students for engaged-learning opportunities that include working with diverse community partners e.g., small and medium enterprises [organizations], NGOs, universities, and public agencies in emerging markets. This course comprises two sections: 1. Field research methods, which provide students with a strong theoretical grounding on how to collect and report primary data in publishable works (e.g., case studies). 2. Development of field safety, research protocols and client pre-engagement opportunities for students who have successfully been selected to participate in the Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Teams (SMART) projects. For information on SMART, visit the Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Teams (SMART) Program website.
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL, CU-ITL, CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Describe the legal and ethical considerations for research dealing with human participants.
  • Identify global trends and issues that might promote social, economic, technological, and policy development within resource-poor counties, organizations, and communities.
  • Identify and employ various resources that will promote meaningful cross-cultural and multidisciplinary communication, learning, and working to solve an applied business problem.
  • Apply, use, and synthesize multiple environmental scanning frameworks in analyzing the macro and micro-environments of social enterprises in emerging markets.
  
AEM 5420 - Emerging Markets (3 Credits)  
Provides a framework for examining the effectiveness of marketing strategies in economies in transition and identifying the challenges and opportunities for firms in low-income economies to access industrial markets. Appraises the risk of entering markets in low-income economies and assesses the political, legal, cultural, and economic forces. Analyzes and discusses case studies of companies.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
AEM 5421 - Research and Strategy in Emerging Markets (3 Credits)  
This course complements the Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Teams (SMART) Program and is only open to students participating in the SMART Program. This course offers students unique research and strategy development opportunities with small and medium enterprises (SMEs), non-profit organizations, public agencies, and other disadvantaged communities in emerging markets. To achieve this, the course is divided into two parts: stakeholder engagement and field research, which takes place during the winter intermission (students travel to the field for data collection and client engagement) and in-class instruction and project development, which takes place during the spring semester. In this second phase, students analyze and report their collected field data through the development of case studies, policy briefs, technical reports, and research papers.
Prerequisites: AEM 4415 or AEM 5415.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students participating in the SMART Program.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL, CU-ITL, CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Increased understanding of the role private-public partnerships play in the promotion of economic development.
  • Improved problem-solving, decision-making, communication, and other soft skills development.
  • Increased appreciation of the unique role multidisciplinary teams play in solving complex socioeconomic problems.
  • Produce peer-reviewed publications (e.g., case studies, policy briefs, technical reports, and research papers) that can be adopted by the community partner and in classroom settings.
  
AEM 5435 - Data Driven Marketing (1.5 Credits)  
This course deals with the use of data to make marketing decisions. It introduces concepts, methods, and applications of analytics to products, markets, and marketing actions. Unlike marketing courses that focus on conceptual material, this course will provide skills to translate conceptual understanding into specific operational plans - a skill in increasing demand in organizations today.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop appreciation for the value of evidence-based decision making in marketing.
  • Use the vocabulary of marketing analytics.
  • Develop and apply common analytical tools in marketing.
  • Utilize the findings from analytical models to improve marketing decisions in business situations.
  
AEM 5480 - From Labels to Lab-Grown Meat: Consumer Behavior and the Food Industry (1.5 Credits)  
Through reading, writing, and discussion students will broaden their understanding of the food market and its components. The course will introduce students to current research on consumer perceptions and behavior with regard to food. Topics will be covered with an eye toward understanding the landscape of the food industry and how consumer behavior shapes opportunities within this space. Students will write short case studies relating to each of the course modules exploring the current trends in the industry. This will include assessing the market potential for novel and controversial foods or food services. It may also include researching food companies that have either successfully or unsuccessfully attempted to innovate, or policies that have attempted to change food behavior.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify and describe food consumer trends and describe how the challenges they pose to the food industry.
  • Address how consumer trends and behavior shape food industry strategy.
  • Creatively address rising challenges in the food industry using knowledge of consumer behavior and strategy.
  • Provide informed critique of food policy proposals.
  
AEM 5500 - Resource Economics (3 Credits)  
AEM 5500 introduces students to the economics of renewable and nonrenewable natural resources. Topics covered include the valuation and use of land; water economics, management, and conservation; the extraction and management of nonrenewable resources such as minerals, rare earth elements, and energy resources; renewable and nonrenewable sources of energy; forest management; fishery economics; groundwater; natural resource markets, demand, and supply; and sustainability. Students will learn how to use dynamic models to analyze decision-making over time, and to solve dynamic optimization problems analytically and numerically. Students will also learn how to analyze and explain the intuition and logic behind the theory and concepts. Students will apply the methods, quantitative tools, and concepts to analyze natural resource issues at global and local levels; to introspectively reflect on their own lives and future aspirations; and to draw lessons and implications for leadership, management, and policy. A solid background in calculus is required.
Prerequisites: MATH 1110 and ECON 3030 or AEM 2600 or AEM 5600.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023  
AEM 5510 - Environmental Economics (3 Credits)  
This class will focus on the role of the environment in the theory and practice of economics. It will make use of microeconomic analysis at the intermediate level and will incorporate real-world examples. It examines market failures, externalities, benefit-cost analysis, non-market valuation techniques, cost-effective policy instruments, and recent applied work on the economics of the environment.
Prerequisites: coursework in calculus and intermediate microeconomics.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
AEM 5515 - Business and Economics of Energy (3 Credits)  
This course will investigate energy issues from an economic and business perspective using a quantitative approach. In the first part of the course, students will learn how to think about energy through an economic and business lens. The second part of the course will focus on topical energy market issues such as imperfect competition, bidding in electricity markets, markets for oil and gas, and environmental regulation.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Use and evaluate scientific and economic information to reach defensible conclusions.
  • Describe the implications of using markets to supply and allocate energy.
  • Identify market failures that justify energy policy interventions.
  • Develop skills to evaluate the benefits and costs of different energy policies.
  
AEM 5550 - Marketing Strategy (1.5 Credits)  
AEM 5550 Marketing Strategy is a 7-week course that emphasizes the foundational principles of developing effective marketing approaches, grounded in key economic concepts. We will explore core ideas that help businesses establish and maintain competitive advantages, such as understanding price sensitivities of customers, economies of scale, network effects, switching costs, branding, etc. These concepts will serve as a guiding framework for our analysis of marketing decisions, particularly in pricing and advertising.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100, ECON 1110 or equivalent.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 4160, AEM 4550  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Explain the role and the importance of traditional and digital advertising in a rapidly changing business landscape.
  • Discuss and critically evaluate the key elements of a firm's advertising strategy.
  • Illustrate how the effectiveness of an advertising campaign can be measured.
  • Demonstrate advanced analytical skills in advertising data analysis and appropriate data visualization techniques to effectively communicate the insights from data analysis.
  
AEM 5570 - Corporate Finance (3 Credits)  
This course provides a rigorous treatment of the core concepts of corporate finance for finance majors. Topics studied in this course include, but are not limited to, capital budgeting, corporate governance, capital structure, payout policy, valuation, raising capital, risk management, and mergers and acquisitions.
Prerequisites: coursework in introductory finance.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 5585 - Sustainable Business (3 Credits)  
This course provides a survey of the rapidly evolving area of corporate sustainability for graduate students and advanced undergraduates. The focus of the course will be on understanding the ways in which growing concerns about human health and wellbeing and the environment may (or may not) affect corporate behavior. Through a combination of classroom presentations, discussion of case studies, assigned readings, and independent research, students will learn about the most important themes in corporate sustainability, including environmental and social risk management, sustainability initiatives and self-regulation in the corporate sector, stakeholder engagement and management, and the growth of sustainable finance and business, including green entrepreneurship and ESG investing.
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify the key trends in the broad field of corporate sustainability and the risks and opportunities that arise from a growing public awareness of the environmental, social, and other impacts of corporate activity.
  • Recognize sustainability risks associated with particular corporate activities and will be able to propose actions that mitigate these risks.
  • Examine the interactions between corporate entities and their competitors, regulators, the public, and their other stakeholders, and to put forward recommendations on how to improve the outcomes of these interactions.
  • Identify opportunities and propose ways in which the tools of finance can be leveraged to better manage natural resources and reach desirable social objectives.
  
AEM 5600 - Managerial Economics (3 Credits)  
This course covers topics in microeconomics that inform managerial decisions, including intermediate principles of microeconomics. Examples will be drawn from recent business cases.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110, ECON 1120, MATH 1110 or equivalents.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 2600, AEM 5600, ECON 3030, PUBPOL 2000  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: MPS students in Applied Economics and Management.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Know and be able to use economic models of production and consumption to make predictions about behavior.
  • Apply economic models to business cases for the purpose of evaluating decisions.
  • Use economic models of risky choice and time discounting to evaluate decisions.
  • Use economic models of monopolistic competition to make predictions about behavior.
  • Use basic concepts of game theory in simple games to make behavioral predictions.
  
AEM 5605 - Predictive Analytics for Business Strategy (3 Credits)  
This course teaches students how data analysis informs business strategy, using a framework of logical reasoning and practical communication. We will develop analytical skills and gather hands-on experience with data to understand how strategic decisions affect firm performance, for example in the context of economic consulting. The material will focus on a subdivision of predictive analytics called active prediction, and students will learn the basics of identification to determine what data are most useful when answering a given empirical question.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Perform and explain both deductive and inductive reasoning in the context of data analysis.
  • Distinguish data mining from causal analysis, as well as passive prediction from active prediction.
  • Use statistical software to perform data analysis.
  • Write clearly and concisely about data analysis to establish causal relationships among strategic variables and outcomes.
  • Explain to a non-technical audience the key components of data analysis establishing causality and its implications.
  
AEM 5615 - Digital Platform Strategy (3 Credits)  
Business platforms are a set of business and technology building blocks that serve to facilitate the creation of complementary products and services. They are an essential feature of modern economies, particularly among products and services created by software. The emphasis of this course is on how to create, grow, gain value, and capture market share from platforms. Course content will draw concepts from network effects, information asymmetry, pricing, and game theory. Students will apply these concepts to make decisions on how to manage platforms in case studies drawing from social media, entrepreneurship, enterprise software, and mobile services, among others. The course will be useful for students interested in founding new businesses, managing technology ventures, and investing.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 4615, AEM 5615, NBA 5615  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Formulate and implement strategies to grow, maintain, and capture value from platforms.
  • Demonstrate competency in applying concepts from economics and strategic management that inform understanding of how and when platforms grow and decline.
  • Identify and analyze evidence of the impact of platforms on markets and broader society and communicate results.
  • Offer critical analyses of contemporary business events related to platforms.
  • Develop effective skills in communicating strategic decisions.
  
AEM 5620 - Digital Innovation in Media Markets & Creative Industries (3 Credits)  
In this course we will examine the market dynamics and technological innovations that have challenged the traditional foundations and created opportunities for content producers in media and creative industries. The goal of the course is to develop strategies to identify and exploit new opportunities arising from technological changes, and to motivate regulatory solutions to address emerging market failures. To integrate a market-based approach with practical implications for firms and entrepreneurs, the course will consist of three components: theoretical frameworks, insights from academic literature, and basic data analysis.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110, AEM 2010 or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Describe the ways in which advances in technology affected the costs of production and distribution of creative content.
  • Analyze the effects of the digital transformation on firm size and market structure in media industries.
  • Evaluate the consequences of (free) digital distribution for the profitability and sustainability of traditional content creators.
  • Formulate optimal strategies for entrepreneurs to extract value from creative content consumers and monetize digital platforms.
  • Estimate the welfare gains to creative content consumers from enhanced information and variety.
  
AEM 5650 - Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation (3 Credits)  
This is a foundational strategy course for students who will work for firms where innovation and technology is important to the competitive advantage of the firm. This includes tech firms like Google, Facebook, and Amazon as well as traditional technology firms like GE, IBM, and Corning. Innovation is also increasingly important to financial firms such as Capital One, Citibank and Jane Street (a quantitative trading firm). This year we will have guest speakers from Jane Street, Capital One labs and Apple. This course is important for students interested in consulting because innovation is a common topic that consultants have to address. It is also relevant to students with interests in entrepreneurship and corporate venturing.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will work in a team to solve business and economic problems.
  • Students will demonstrate working knowledge of innovation techniques and ability to apply these to real world settings.
  • Students will identify unmet customer needs and work on teams to construct creative and innovation solutions to resolve these needs.
  • Students will attain analytical and functional competency in basic business.
  • Students will evaluate organizational innovation competencies and deficiencies and recommend a plan to address organizational deficiencies.
  
AEM 5670 - Investments (3 Credits)  
The course provides a broad overview of investment management, focusing on the application of finance theory to the issues faced by portfolio managers and investors in general. Topics include asset allocation, asset pricing models such as the capital asset pricing model and arbitrage pricing theory, active portfolio management, and performance evaluation. These tools provide a disciplined way of thinking about investment decisions, while simultaneously framing how we think about the historical performance of markets. While particular attention will be given to equity markets, we will also touch on implications for fixed income and derivative securities. Finally, we will spend time looking at alternative asset classes such as hedge funds and private equity.
Prerequisites: coursework in introductory finance.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 5700 - MPS Management Communication (1.5 Credits)  
Communication is perhaps the most complex thing humans do. It is arguably the most critical skill for thriving and surviving in almost any situation in the business world. This course is designed to improve your oral communication and presentation skills in the business environment. Course content includes hands-on lessons in effective design along with individual team, and virtual presentations. Public speaking, interpersonal skills, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills are emphasized. Development of these skills is integrated with the use of technology.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: MPS-AEM students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to create appropriate structure, content, and format for business presentations.
  • Students will be able to analyze and adapt to specific audience needs as well as to the requirements of various oral communication scenarios.
  • Students will be able to develop effective oral delivery styles and clear use of visual media in order to present research and recommendations to a large group.
  • Students will be able to collaborate successfully with others, in small group team settings, and in presentations with multiple speakers and ongoing audience interaction.
  
AEM 5710 - Interpersonal Influence and Impact (1.5 Credits)  
Mastering interpersonal influence is crucial for personal and professional success. This course focuses on navigating interpersonal communications to build credibility, inspire trust, and ethically create the desired impacts personally and professionally. You will practice your communication and leadership skills through a variety of immersive exercises and simulations designed to help you learn to manage conflict, navigate office politics, inspire others, and advocate for your ideas. Theory from empirical research and business press will complement practical learning, allowing you to apply insights directly to your professional life. You will gain a deeper understanding of interpersonal communication dynamics and enhance your ability to influence others effectively in various situations to create the impact you desire.
Prerequisites: HADM 1650, AEM 2700 or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Explain social influence process in group decision making.
  • Demonstrate effective communication skills for interpersonal influence such as managing conflict, navigating office politics, inspiring change, and advocating for themselves and others.
  • Critically evaluate empirical research on interpersonal communication and behavior.
  • Synthesize across multiple theories of interpersonal communication and behavior.
  • Apply theoretical knowledge to real-world experiences, demonstrating their understanding of social influence processes in interpersonal settings.
  
AEM 5840 - Python Programming for Data Analysis and Business Modeling (3 Credits)  
Data-driven decision making and the use of analytical approaches are critical skills for success in business. Analytics skills are increasing in demand and in many cases, are required for business professionals. The new technologies and development such as personal electrical devices, social media, online shopping, ... resulted in exponential growth in the amount of data we generate and collect on a daily basis. Companies are highly interested in extracting knowledge from these sources. To be able to manipulate and analyze a large structured and unstructured dataset, you need to learn how to code. In this course, by learning Python, one of the most popular programming languages, you are taking a significant step in data analysis. You will learn how to design and code an algorithm and manipulate datasets.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 2840, AEM 2841, AEM 5840, CS 1133, HADM 3710  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: MPS-AEM students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Program Python, a strong and popular open source programming language.
  • Develop algorithmic thinking.
  • Utilize and understand Basic Data Structures.
  • Utilize and understand Conditional Branching and Looping.
  • Create functions in Python.
  • Utilize Python libraries that can be used for business analytics.
  • Develop skills in building models to solve real-world business problems.
  • Produce a Python solution for a business application.
  
AEM 5850 - R Programming for Business Analytics and Data Visualization (3 Credits)  
This course provides business students with an introduction to the most important tools in R for programming and data visualization. Students will learn the basics of R syntax, data structures, data wrangling, and data visualization using the grammar of graphics. After taking this course, students will have the tools to complete basic tasks in R and interface effectively with statisticians and data scientists in business settings. This course also provides a foundation for future coursework to implement more advanced statistical methods in R.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop basic proficiency in R programming.
  • Understand data structures and manipulation.
  • Describe effective techniques for data visualization and communication.
  • Construct effective data visualizations.
  • Utilize course concepts and tools for business applications.
  
AEM 5990 - Applied Economics and Management Exchange Program (15 Credits)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 6010 - Writing Competitive Research Proposals (1.5 Credits)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019  
AEM 6030 - Contemporary Issues in Agricultural Finance (1.5 Credits)  
This course is a half-semester course course in mathematical programming designed to deepen an understanding of the role of risk in a portfolio choice framework. As a complement to AEM 6050, Agricultural Finance and Development, this course should be of particular interest to students in, agricultural finance, agricultural economics, development economics, financial economics, or any other related discipline. The focus of the course is in the design and structure of mathematical programming models that include risk. Core to this is the understanding of primal and dual structures and the importance of Kuhn-Tucker conditions in the economic interpretation of mathematical programming solutions. Topics may include, but are not limited to 1. An introduction to linear programming and model structure 2. Portfolio choice and quadratic programming in investments and agriculture. 3. Direct Expected Utility Maximization 4. Semi-variance and non-convex models of risk.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Explain the use and application of mathematical programming techniques to problems of portfolio selection and risk optimization.
  • Explain the mathematical and economic relationships of dual structures in nonlinear optimization models.
  • Develop linear and nonlinear risk models to a variety of economic problems in finance and agriculture.
  
AEM 6050 - Agricultural Finance and Development (1.5 Credits)  
This course is a seminar course dedicated to understanding the role of agricultural finance in developed and developing economies. Weekly instruction will include lectures on key issues as needed and discussion of scholarly research. Topics may include, but are not limited to: the role of credit in agricultural productivity, financial inclusion and rural transformation, the role of microcredit in agricultural development, agricultural credit policies, risk and credit.
Prerequisites: AEM 2240 or AEM 4050, or equivalent.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students with an interest in finance and development.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Interpret the role of financial services in to agricultural production and related businesses.
  • Explain the role of inclusive finance in agricultural development.
  • Explain the relationship between business and financial risks and risk balancing.
  • Interpret methods of investigation into the access and use of financial services in agricultural development.
  
AEM 6061 - Risk Simulation and Monte Carlo Methods (3 Credits)  
Risk Simulation and Monte Carlo Methods deals with the concepts of randomness and risk in financial management, project analysis, capital budgeting, stock valuations, derivatives, and investment portfolios. The focus of the course is on applying realistic probability models through Monte Carlo simulation and optimization to a wide variety of relevant problems in investment, agriculture and other applications. In a addition to lectures, weekly seminars will This seminar will explore the development of Monte Carlo simulation from a historical point of view, examine in greater detail stochastic processes, and understand the basic structure of Ito processes and the stochastic calculus and how to employ these techniques in Monte Carlo simulations.
Prerequisites: students should have a basic understanding of agricultural, corporate, or managerial finance.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students from any field.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Explain the development of Monte Carlo simulation from a historical point of view.
  • Use simulation in experimental mathematics.
  • Use the basic structure of Ito processes and the stochastic calculus to employ these techniques in Monte Carlo simulations.
  • Apply Monte Carlo techniques to problems of cash flow management, pro-forma financial projections, stock valuation, NPV project valuation, financial options, and real options to problems in financial economics and agriculture.
  
AEM 6080 - Production Economics (1.5 Credits)  
Studies the theory of production economics with emphasis on applications to agriculture and natural resources. Topics include the derivation, estimation, and use of production, cost, profit, revenue, demand, and supply functions. Discusses the concepts of efficiency and productivity. Introduces production response over time and under risk.
Prerequisites: ECON 3030, MATH 1110 or equivalents.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
AEM 6090 - Environmental Finance and Markets (3 Credits)  
This course provides an overview of environmental finance and markets, with particular emphasis on the development and use of financial instruments and investment strategies that seek to further the long-term sustainability of ecosystems. The course will explore the uses of such products as debt-for-nature swaps, environmental impact bonds, structured notes, and green bonds, and seek to illustrate both their potential and their limitations through a review of market transactions. The course will also explore how investment decisions can influence environmental outcomes, and the role that sustainable asset management strategies can have in achieving desired conservation objectives.
Prerequisites: AEM 2240 or equivalent.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL, CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Describe how the tools of finance can be used to address societal challenges such as ensuring the long-term sustainability of ecosystems.
  • Identify opportunities to leverage the power of the investment markets to achieve particular outcomes by identifying potential cash flows inherent to preserved or sustainably-managed ecosystems.
  • Examine proposed investment blueprints and assess their potential to achieve desired conservation outcomes.
  • Propose ways in which financial products and services may be used to better manage environmental risks and deliver both financial and environmental returns.
  
AEM 6120 - Applied Econometrics (4 Credits)  
The objective is to provide students with a set of theoretical, econometric, and practical skills to test predictions from economic theory in data and to estimate the causal impacts of a policy or program. Modules 1-5 of the course will cover underlying tools and concepts, including mathematical statistics, linear models for cross-sectional and panel data, non-linear models, and hypothesis testing. In modules 6-7 we cover topics related to causal inference, instrumental variables, coefficient stability, and difference-in-difference estimators. Throughout the course, students will be evaluated on both theoretical and empirical applications.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100, MATH 1110 or equivalent.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 4110, AEM 6120, PUBPOL 3100  
Enrollment Information: Primarily for: masters students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Estimate a variety of linear and non-linear models of microeconomic data.
  • Explain how departures from the classical model have implications for the estimated coefficients and variance-covariance matrix in a linear model.
  • Derive maximum likelihood estimators.
  • Test simple and composite hypotheses.
  • Understand and apply difference-in-differences estimators for causal inference.
  • Replicate the findings of a published paper using existing data.
  
AEM 6125 - Impact Evaluation in Developing Countries (3 Credits)  
Significant resources are regularly dedicated to programs and policies aimed at improving the well-being of the world's poor. With what degree of confidence can observed changes in an outcome be attributed to a given intervention, program or policy? What are the characteristics of evaluation designs, quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, and analyses that allow plausible cause and effect attributions to be made? The purpose of the class in impact evaluation is to explore how questions of this kind are framed and empirically investigated. Students will learn about impact evaluation by examining evaluation designs and causal modeling techniques and by performing fundamental evaluation tasks. As an application activity, the class will work directly with individuals in agencies who administer and evaluate programs in developing countries.
Prerequisites: graduate level statistics or econometrics.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Understand and be able to explain the basic aims of evaluation and recognize the specific objectives served by impact evaluation.
  • Understand and be able to explain way in which impact evaluation is based on a set of theoretical propositions on the nature and demands of causal inference.
  • Understand and critically assess different types of designs that are used to produce plausible counterfactuals.
  • Develop and demonstrate the ability to apply knowledge of impact evaluation to design an evaluation proposal for an actual intervention.
  
AEM 6140 - Behavioral Economics and Managerial Decisions (3 Credits)  
Behavioral economics integrates psychology and economics by identifying systematic anomalies in decision making. These are now recognized to be an important source of error in business decisions, and they provide the foundation for both behavioral marketing and finance. The course compares rational choice theory with behavior both in lecture and through a series of economics experiments in which students face situations that are likely to lead to anomalies such as the winner's curse, the status quo bias, hyperbolic discounting, and bias in assessing risks. Students have the opportunity to evaluate their own decision making.
Prerequisites: AEM 2600 or ECON 3030 or PUBPOL 2000 or equivalent.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: MPS students in Applied Economics and Management.  
Course Fee: Course Fee, $40. To be used for experimental behavioral economics simulations.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to explain the major decision making anomalies that constitute the core of behavioral economics.
  • Apply lessons from behavioral economics to actual business decision making.
  • Design laboratory experiments testing hypotheses from economics and psychology that relate to economic decision making.
  • Explain IRB requirements and procedures regarding human subjects and confidentiality.
  • Administer experiments and analyze the data.
  
AEM 6145 - Business and Management Fundamentals for STEM Graduate Students (1.5 Credits)  
Basic business and management skills are necessary to advance your career no matter what area of STEM discipline you plan to pursue. The purpose of this course is to provide the skills necessary to present a strong business case for any new biomedical or life science technology. Like any foreign language, business eeze has its own vocabulary, grammar principles and culture. The course will be presented in a similar fashion utilizing STEM case studies to emphasize and immerse the student in business and managerial principles.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students enrolled in a STEM discipline.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Discuss the components and importance of a financial statement. Calculate the cost and benefit of new equipment.
  • Differentiate between marketing and advertising. Recognize his/her own personal strengths and weaknesses.
  • Converse confidently with those involved in the technology business.
  • Determine the value of new biomedical technology from a business perspective.
  • Prepare a strong business case for any new biomedical device or technology.
  • Explain the difficulties in getting new technology into the healthcare marketplace.
  
AEM 6150 - Applied Behavioral Economics in Finance and Marketing (1.5 Credits)  
Behavioral economics has been popularized in people's mindsets through books like Nudge (Thaler and Sunstein, 2008) and Thinking, Fast and Slow (Kahneman, 2013). However, it is only more recently that businesses have started to apply behavioral economics in business applications and corporate initiatives. This proposed course will focus on developing students' knowledge and abilities in applying behavioral economics to consumer financial decision making and marketing contexts within companies. The course will be designed to be interactive with cases (e.g., in-class discussion) and project assignments (e.g., behavioral audits, A/B test design, behavioral solution proposals).
Prerequisites: AEM 6140 or permission of instructor.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Apply behavioral economics in business settings.
  • Evaluate consumer financial and marketing experiences using a behavioral lens.
  • Design A/B testing strategies that can address goals and behavioral obstacles that people face.
  • Apply concepts of personalization and individual behavioral differences to solution design.
  • Integrate the concept of reflective thinking into behavioral designs.
  • Debate organizational approaches and methods for implementing behavioral economics.
  
AEM 6245 - Organizational Behavior (3 Credits)  
This course examines evidence-based principles of individual and group behavior in relation to leadership and management. Topics include the nature and design of groups, the factors that improve team performance, and the importance of skills including dispute resolution, persuasion, and negotiations, Assignments provide opportunities for the engagement and application of analytical skills relating to real-world organizations. Graduate students are required to complete more detailed written assignments (e.g., more pages, deeper analyses; and integration of more research) in addition to all assignments required of the undergraduates.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 3245, AEM 6245, HADM 1150, ILROB 1220, ILROB 5200  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to juxtapose and consider organizational dynamics that involve individuals and groups across a wide array of model domains.
  • Students will closely and directly engage an array of research/analytic methodologies that have applicability across industries.
  • Students will leverage lessons that are available from their past organizational experiences for the purposes of leadership development as well as organizational analysis and management.
  
AEM 6300 - Policy Analysis: Welfare Theory, Agriculture, and Trade (4 Credits)  
The first half of the course surveys the theory of welfare economics as a foundation for public policy analysis. Major issues addressed include the problem of social welfare measurement, the choice of welfare criteria, and the choice of market or nonmarket allocation. Basic concepts covered include measurement of welfare change, including the compensation principle, consumer and producer surplus, willingness-to-pay measures, externalities, and the general theory of second-best optima. The second half focuses on public policy analysis as applied to domestic agricultural policy and international trade. The domestic policy component examines major U.S. farm commodity programs and related food and macroeconomic policies and analyzes their effects on producers, consumers, and other groups. The international trade component examines the structure of world agricultural trade, analytical concepts of trade policy analysis, and the principal trade policies employed by countries in international markets.
Prerequisites: AEM 6080, ECON 3030, or equivalent intermediate microeconomic theory course incorporating calculus.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY); (EUAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
AEM 6325 - Leadership and Management in Sports (3 Credits)  
This course draws upon the study of sports for the purpose of understanding and studying evidence-based principles of individual and organizational behavior. Topics include the nature of motivation, momentum, and coaching as well as the challenges of talent identification, team-level coordination, and strategy development. Assignments provide opportunities for the development and application of analytic skills relating to leadership and management.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to consider and juxtapose organizational dynamics that involve individuals and teams across and beyond the domain of sports.
  • Students will closely and directly engage an array of research/analytic methodologies that applicability inside and outside of sports-focused organizations.
  • Students will leverage lessons that are available from the study of sports for the purposes of leadership development as well as organizational analysis and management.
  
AEM 6400 - Analysis of Agricultural Markets (3 Credits)  
Focuses on the unique features of agricultural commodity markets. Emphasizes government and private institutions that affect these markets, as well as on models of price behavior including marketing margins and imperfect competition. Also covers empirical tools to evaluate market characteristics.
Prerequisites: AEM 4110 and AEM 4150 or equivalents.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2020, Fall 2018  
AEM 6401 - Field Research Methods in International Developmnt (1.5 Credits)  
AEM 6410 - Commodity Futures and Options (3 Credits)  
This course focuses on markets for agricultural futures and options contracts. Lectures address hedging and risk management with futures and options as well as the structure of risk and random walks.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Explain the role of futures, options, and other derivatives in the pricing of agricultural products.
  • Price forwards and options (pricing models).
  • Explain the fundamental probabilities and dynamics describing asset risk.
  • Develop and understand hedging and trading strategies with derivatives.
  • Use derivatives to reallocate risk.
  • Use derivatives for corporate risk management.
  • Explain the financial crisis arose and how to prevent it.
  • Explain how to design and value financially engineered products including exotic options and weather derivatives.
  
AEM 6440 - Consumer Behavior (3 Credits)  
Develops a useful, conceptual understanding of the problem and strategies associated with the psychology behind consumer behavior. In doing so, the course provides frameworks that enable students to address these issues responsibly, systematically, and creatively.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Fall 2021  
AEM 6455 - Toward a Sustainable Global Food System: Food Policy for Developing Countries (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with GDEV 6455, NS 6455  
Comprehensive presentation and discussion of policy options for a sustainable global food system, with focus on developing countries. Topics include: economic policy related to nutrition, health, consumption, production, natural resource management, trade, markets, gender roles, armed conflict, and ethics. A social entrepreneurship approach based on case studies and active participation by students will be used.
Distribution Requirements: (D-HE, KCM-HE, SBA-HE)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-ITL, CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Ability to analyze a specific food and nutrition policy problem, identify the related policy issues, suggest one or more policy options to solve the problem, and estimate how each option would affect relevant stakeholder groups and their expected response.
  • Ability to undertake the above with limited information and within a short time frame.
  • Motivation to engage in the design and implementation of innovative solutions to existing and expected future problems related to the global, national and local food systems, i.e. to be a social or policy entrepreneur within or outside the public sector.
  • Graduate students will be required to lead/mentor their case study group of undergraduate students and be provided with an opportunity to identify an area of future graduate research for his/her own thesis.
  
AEM 6480 - Food and Consumer Packaged Goods Industry Dynamics (3 Credits)  
Covers merchandising principles and practices as they apply to food industry situations. Examines the various elements of merchandising such as buying, pricing, advertising, promotion, display, store layout, profit planning and control, and merchandising strategy. Considers the consequences of food industry trends and initiatives for other industry members, public policy makers, and consumers. A 3-4 page (max) report on each of the Guest Speaker presentations focusing on identifying links to behavioral economics principles and solutions to problems/issues raised by the speaker is required. Students will also meet outside class to discuss guest speaker presentations in the context of their own ongoing projects.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will explore the dynamics of food distribution systems and the economic principles that underlie food industry dynamics.
  • Student assignments and exams will require finding, evaluating, and ethically using information.
  • Student assignments will require integration of quantitative and qualitative information to propose solutions.
  • Student assignments will be graded for clarity and composition.
  • Students will complete both individual and team assignments.
  
AEM 6485 - Economics of Food and Malnutrition (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with NS 6480  
This course focused on the economics of food and malnutrition from the perspective of individuals and households; that is, a micro-economic approach. Topics include characteristics and constraints associated with food production in both developed and developing countries; the determinants of household food security; the social and economic causes and consequences of undernutrition; the social and economic causes and consequences of obesity; intervention design to reduce food insecurity, undernutrition and obesity.
Prerequisites: ECON 1110, AEM 2100, or equivalent, and 9 additional credits in economics, applied economics, or nutrition. Recommended prerequisite: ECON 3140, NS 3600, or equivalents.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students.  
Distribution Requirements: (SBA-HE)  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-ITL, CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Ability to analyze problems of food security and nutrition using perspectives and tools drawn from both economics and nutrition; critically assess studies of the determinants of these; understand the strengths and limitations of interventions designed to ameliorate these.
  • Integrate knowledge from the biological and social sciences to address nutrition problems facing individuals, societies, and governments.
  • Ability to understand and analyze quantitative data on food security and nutrition.
  • Ability to access and critically evaluate scientific information from the primary research literature to investigate the causal effects of nutrition.
  • Motivation to engage in debates surrounding the design and implementation of innovative solutions to current existing and future problems related to food, hunger, and nutrition.
  
AEM 6490 - Financial Markets and Sustainability (3 Credits)  
This course provides a broad overview of the financial markets, including the structure and function of these markets, the financial products that are transacted on them, and the institutions that operate within them, while addressing how financial markets are evolving in response to the challenges of sustainability. Through the use of case studies, lectures, readings, and project work, students learn how the leading actors in the financial services industry operate, what motivates them, and how they facilitate the flow of capital between those who can provide financing and those who need it. In parallel with this, the course explores how the tools of finance can be used to generate social and environmental returns in addition to financial returns.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Describe the structure of the financial markets, explain the role of key market actors, and discuss the attributes of the main products and services transacted on the financial markets.
  • Recognize and assess the negative externalities likely to result from particular financial transactions.
  • Illustrate how financial products and services are utilized by sustainable finance practitioners to generate social and environmental co-benefits such as ecosystem conservation, poverty reduction, and improved education.
  • Evaluate proposed sustainable finance transactions and weigh their potential to generate both financial returns and nonfinancial returns.
  • Identify sources of unused natural or social capital and propose strategies to unlock cash flows currently locked within such sources.
  
AEM 6510 - Environmental and Resource Economics (3 Credits)  
Review of welfare economics, environmental externalities, and common property resources, and a survey of current environmental and natural resource policy. Covers techniques for measuring benefits and costs-including property value and wage hedonic approaches, travel cost models, and contingent evaluation. Describes survey/data collection methods in detail. Explores innovative market mechanisms for resolving public good, common property, and externality problems. Students are required to complete a paper describing their own formal economic analysis of a natural resource or environmental problem.
Prerequisites: MATH 1110, ECON 3030 or their equivalents.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Fall 2021  
AEM 6533 - Federal Income Taxation of Low Income Taxpayers (2 Credits)  
This course covers the present structure of tax law in the United States, including the measurement of taxable income, tax compliance fundamentals, and other related Federal and state tax issues facing low-income taxpayers, with some emphasis on immigrant taxpayers. Participants also discuss various tax research and compliance tools that may be used by practitioners and/or volunteer low-income taxpayer assistance programs. Guest lecturers will focus on specific topics such as the rules surrounding ITIN preparation and other tax issues unique to low-income taxpayers.
Prerequisites: AEM 4531 or LAW 6441.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-CEL)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop effective communication skills when dealing with low-income taxpayers, including immigrant taxpayers.
  • Attain analytical and functional competency in various areas of Federal and state tax law.
  • Demonstrate working knowledge of ethics and ability to apply to real-world settings.
  • Demonstrate the ability to solve practical tax problems that surround low-income taxpayers.
  • Develop skills to be critical consumers of tax information and research.
  
AEM 6580 - The Economics and Psychology of Sustainable Business (1.5 Credits)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2018  
AEM 6600 - Natural Resources and Economic Development (3 Credits)  
Exploratory Studies: (AFAREA, LAAREA, SAAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2019  
AEM 6620 - Development Economics (3 Credits)  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2021  
AEM 6681 - Impact Finance (3 Credits)  
This course provides a detailed study on multiple financial markets including bonds, forwards, futures, swaps, and options and their role in addressing major issues facing humanity. In particular, we plan to study specific topics on the role of financial markets in addressing important issues like funding cancer cure, tackling climate change, and financing educational needs for the underserved. Relative to a traditional finance class, we take a broad approach and think of finance as a way to get things done and financial instruments as a way to solve problems. We explore topics related to diversification and purpose investing, including a highly innovative idea of a mega-fund developing cancer treatment. We examine how financial instruments can help solve or hedge some societal issues, particularly on climate change. As an example, we will be studying a financial solution to deal with California forest fire. We also examine the potential for social impact bonds for educating pre-school children and reducing prisoners' recidivism.
Prerequisites: AEM 2100, AEM 2240 or equivalents.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Interpret diversification and purpose investing.
  • Examine the relationship of how financial instruments can help solve or hedge some societal issues.
  • Articulate how financial innovation within the U.S. fiscal environment may be a way to help accomplish social goals.
  • Utilize the instrument of options, pricing of such options and social impact bonds.
  
AEM 6700 - Economics of Consumer Demand (1.5 Credits)  
This is a course based in economic theory and its empirical applications, focusing on consumer demand. We will study the core of consumer theory and essential mathematical economics to understand how researchers, private businesses and policymakers use models of consumer behavior and demand response to support decision-making. We will identify relevant consumer demand related problems/issues; analyze how economic theory can help us shed light on these problems/issues; employ basic quantitative models to understand how to use and analyze data to understand consumer demand and behavior; and discuss how theory and empirical models can support decision-making in the real world.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Describe the theories and the types of data available to analyze consumer demand.
  • Identify a variety of applied models that address fundamental problems in consumer demand.
  • Implement framing, solving and communicating solutions to demand.
  • Demonstrate preparedness for advanced courses in microeconomics.
  
AEM 6850 - Empirical Methods for Applied Economists (3 Credits)  
The course introduces students to various empirical methods and practices necessary to conduct applied research and analysis in microeconomics in a data-rich world. The course format is hands-on and students will conduct most of their work on computers in Python. Students will be graded on 1- participation, 2- weekly empirical exercises and 3- final project (chosen by the student). Topics covered include: 1- basics of Python programming 2- efficient coding practices for replication, teamwork and debugging 3- data gathering and manipulation (APIs and scraping) 4- effective data visualization 5- basic analysis of spatial data and networks 6- numerical methods (Monte Carlo simulations, bootstrapping techniques).
Prerequisites: AEM 6120 or higher.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will become proficient in basic programming in a statistical software.
  • Students will be capable of gathering, manipulating and visualizing various types of data.
  • Students will employ numerical methods in applied research.
  • Students will apply techniques for analyzing original economic questions.
  
AEM 6880 - Global Food, Energy, and Water Nexus – Engage the US, China, and India for Sustainable Future (3-4 Credits)  
This course is offered by six Departments at Cornell, in collaboration with five Universities in China and one India. Video conferencing will be used to connect classrooms in the three countries in real time. Important issues related to the food, energy, and water nexus and its implications for nutrition security, one health, environmental sustainability, climate change, and economic development in the US and these two countries will be described. Challenges associated with these issues will be evaluated and strategies to address them will be proposed. Engagement of these countries with each other and the rest of the world will be explored. The course serves as a platform for students from Cornell, China, and India to learn from and interact with each other in the same class, and to share their thinking, creativity, and perspectives on these issues.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate student status, or permission of the instructors.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify and compare the major food, nutrition and health, energy, water, and economic challenges facing the US, China, and India.
  • Describe barriers to food and nutrition security for all people in each of the three countries and globally and propose solutions for overcoming these barriers.
  • Identify and quantify the requirements of energy and water for producing, processing, transporting, and/or preparing food.
  • Evaluate various predictions of regional and global impacts of climate change on agricultural production and human health in the 21st century.
  • Collaborate as members of interdisciplinary teams composed of students from the US, China, and India to analyze and solve problems that affect food, water, and energy security.
  • Effectively and respectfully debate, with people of opposing views, issues related to food, water, and energy nexus.
  • Prepare and deliver focused, clear, impactful, and culturally sensitive presentations to an international audience of peers.
  
AEM 6940 - Graduate Special Topics in Applied Economics and Management (1-4 Credits)  
The department teaches trial courses under this number. Offerings vary by semester and are advertised by the department before the beginning of the semester.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023  
AEM 6960 - Perspectives in Global Development (1 Credit)  
Crosslisted with GDEV 6960, NTRES 6960  
A variety of speakers present seminars on international development topics relating to sustainable development throughout the world. Students attend each seminar and submit a five-page essay at the end of the semester reflecting on the speakers' presentations and analyzing connections between topics.
Exploratory Studies: (LAAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 6980 - Supervised Graduate Teaching Experience (1-4 Credits)  
Designed to give graduate students teaching experience through involvement in planning and teaching courses under the supervision of departmental faculty members. The experience may include leading discussion sections, preparing, assisting in, or teaching lectures and laboratories, and tutoring. Students are expected to actually teach at least one hour per week for each credit awarded. Students may not receive both pay and credit for the same hours of preparation and teaching.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 6990 - M.P.S. Research (0.5-6 Credits)  
Students complete a problem solving project addressing practical issues in applied economics and/or management.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: MPS students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 6991 - MPS Research Seminar I (3 Credits)  
This course is for students to understand how different research questions can be addressed with empirical methods. Students will also work on their own MPS project research and regularly present their progress.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 6991, AEM 6992, AEM 6993  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: MPS students in Applied Economics and Management.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Create a research design.
  • Collect data, independent research.
  • Explain analytical techniques.
  • Report on the results, including visualization.
  
AEM 6992 - MPS Research Seminar II (3 Credits)  
Applying economic concepts to managerial decisions addressing substantive issues requires operationalization of concepts, finding appropriate samples of a population from which to generalize, and determining the causal inferences that can be draw from any relationships observed. This core course for MPS students mentors students through the execution of practical research projects. Students will work in teams and focus will be given to effective research strategies and effective communication of results and progress.
Prerequisites: AEM 6991.  
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 6991, AEM 6992, AEM 6993  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: MPS students in Applied Economics and Management.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to demonstrate command of existing knowledge within their research topic.
  • Students will be able to use existing knowledge to explore the issue of interest, formulate researchable questions and construct hypotheses, where appropriate.
  • Students will be able to identify relevant data sources, either existing data sources or through a plan to collect their own data and understand the methods used to compile and analyze the data.
  • Students will be able to identify appropriate methods to analyze the data to answer the research questions and/or test their hypotheses.
  
AEM 6993 - CEMS Masters in International Management Project (6 Credits)  
The CEMS Masters in International Management Project requires students to work in culturally and functionally diverse teams to solve real international business strategy and management problems for actual organizations engaged in activities that span national borders. Student teams are matched with corporate and social partners and given a consulting assignment, which the teams resolve with interaction with their corporate and social partners and supervision from the professor. In addition to the actual consulting work, the course includes a set of skill building and debriefing meetings referring to information acquisition and analysis, critical thinking in an organizational environment, consulting practice, project management, and processes of team formation and management. The result of the project is a comprehensive report and formal presentation to the corporate or social partner.
Forbidden Overlaps: AEM 6991, AEM 6992, AEM 6993  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students in the CEMS program.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to develop a substantiated and implementable solution to a present business and/or organizational problem that encompasses national borders.
  • Students will be able to present in written and oral form the substantiated and implementable solution described above.
  • Students will be able to demonstrate healthy team formation and maintenance dynamics; with emphasis on psychological safety.
  • Students will be able to develop and execute a project plan.
  • Students will be able to apply sound critical thinking and problem solving methodologies for business and organizational problems.
  • Students will be able to recognize the complexities of decision making in conditions of organizational inertia and of high levels of risk and uncertainty.
  • Students will be able to practice the tools and behaviors to plan and execute a consulting intervention.
  
AEM 7000 - Individual Study in Applied Economics and Management (0.5-9 Credits)  
Used for special projects designed by faculty members. More than one topic may be given each semester in different sections. Student must register in section appropriate to topic being covered; section number is provided by instructor.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: graduate students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 7005 - Urban and Real Estate Economics (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with REAL 7010, ECON 7010  
This course explores links between urbanization and real estate markets. High downtown rents reflect the benefits of proximity to other companies and natural features like port facilities. High housing costs reflect proximity to jobs and the lure of urban amenities. At the same time, segregation and congestion are often exacerbated by urbanization, the costs of which are seen in inequality, crime, pollution, and traffic jams. Urban real estate markets are also affected by local government policy, including enforcement of property rights, zoning, tax and subsidy programs. Shrinking rust belt cities and work from home threaten to undermine urban real estate markets, while volatility and uncertainty contributes to mispricing. These and related ideas will be explored drawing on context from countries around the world.
Enrollment Information: Primarily for: Ph.D. students beyond the first year in the Ph.D. programs for AEM, Economics, and Regional Science, or equivalent.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024  
AEM 7010 - Doing Applied Economics Research: Practical Skills (3 Credits)  
This course provides exposure to a wide variety of basic skills necessary for conducting high-quality research in applied economics. This includes defining a research question, primary and secondary data collection, principles of academic writing and presentation, research ethics, basic coding and data management, as well as project management. This course is meant to help students transition from coursework to the independent research they undertake starting at the end of the first year of the Ph.D. program. Some of the topics (e.g., coding) are only covered at an overview level with the expectation that those requiring a deeper knowledge will take further coursework.
Corequisites: ECON 6090.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: Ph.D. students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Provide economic models and empirical applications in consumer demand and production economics.
  
AEM 7020 - Applied Microeconomics I: Applied Game Theory (3 Credits)  
This course teaches the fundamentals of non-cooperative game theory and classic applications used in applied work in economics and related fields such as finance, marketing, operations, and accounting. The course begins with a brief primer on non-cooperative game theory that covers pure versus mixed strategies, Nash equilibrium, and various equilibrium refinements. Coverage then turns to basic frameworks that utilize game theory to model a wide range of settings in economics and related fields. These include agency analysis, classic asymmetric information models such as adverse selection and signaling, time inconsistency, and repeated games and reputation.
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to read and interpret applied game theory models that appear in the economics literature.
  • Students will be able to construct and solve game theory models that frequently appear in applied theory papers and empirical papers.
  • Students will be able to explain basic economic concepts such as signaling, adverse selection, time inconsistency, competitive equilibrium, etc.
  
AEM 7021 - Applied Microeconomics II: General Equilibrium (3 Credits)  
This is a semester-long course on general equilibrium theory and its applications, in- tended for doctoral students who plan to conduct research using the tools of microe- conomics and general equilibrium. The objectives of this course are three-fold: (i) to provide students with a systematic grounding in the fundamentals of general equilibrium modeling, (ii) to prepare students to use these tools in their own research, and (iii) to expose students to a broad (though necessarily selective) array of topical areas in which general equilibrium modeling is at the research frontier.
Enrollment Information: Primarily for: doctoral students in the Dyson graduate PhD program. Qualified master's students in the Dyson graduate program, or doctoral students in other related disciplines are welcome to attend the course with instructor's permission.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-ITL, CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will gain a systematic grounding in the fundamentals of general equilibrium modeling.
  • Students will utilize the tools of general equilibrium modeling in their own research.
  • Students will be exposed to a broad (though necessarily selective) array of topical areas in which general equilibrium modeling is at the research frontier.
  
AEM 7030 - Graduate Seminar (1 Credit)  
Students are exposed to the cutting edge research by visiting lecturers in applied economics and management. Additional lectures cover important skills for success in graduate study in applied economics and management.
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022  
Learning Outcomes:
  • To provide graduate students an understanding of the state of the art in research in the fields of applied economics. Students should be able to assess the quality and level of innovation of research manuscripts upon completion of this course.
  
AEM 7100 - Econometrics I (3 Credits)  
This is an applied econometrics course with an extensive hands-on approach. Covers linear and discrete choice models and estimation methods such as GMM and MLE. Programming using Stata or Matlab is expected.
Prerequisites: matrix algebra and statistical methods courses at level of ECON 6190.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Solidify students' econometric foundation and prepare them for empirical work in various fields.
  
AEM 7130 - Dynamic Optimization (3 Credits)  
This is an applied course in computation for economists. The course covers an introduction to coding, version control, rootfinding, optimization, function approximation, high dimensional estimation problems, and methods for approximating and estimating dynamic models. Programming in Julia, Python, or R is expected.
Prerequisites: ECON 6090 and ECON 6170.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2019  
AEM 7150 - Applied Microeconomic Research (1.5 Credits)  
This course consists of an applied microeconomic research project. Students are required to select a mentor for the project.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: AEM PhD students.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021  
AEM 7151 - Applied Microeconomic Research II (1.5 Credits)  
Consists of an applied microeconomic research project. Students are required to select a mentor for the project.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: Ph.D. students in Applied Economics and Management.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
AEM 7350 - Public Finance: Resource Allocation and Fiscal Policy (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ECON 7350  
Develops a mathematical and highly analytical understanding of the role of government in market economies and the fundamentals of public economics and related issues. Topics include generalizations and extensions of the fundamental theorems of welfare economics, in-depth analysis of social choice theory and the theory on implementation in economic environments, public goods and externalities and other forms of market failure associated with asymmetric information. The theoretical foundation for optimal direct and indirect taxation is also introduced along with the development of various consumer surplus measures and an application to benefit cost analysis. Topics of an applied nature vary from semester to semester depending on faculty research interests.
Prerequisites: ECON 6090.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2019, Spring 2018, Spring 2016  
AEM 7500 - Resource Economics (3 Credits)  
This course covers analytic methods for analyzing optimal control theory problems; analytic and numerical methods for solving dynamic programming problems; numerical methods for solving stochastic dynamic programming problems; structural econometric models of static games of incomplete information; structural econometric models of single-agent dynamic optimization problems; and structural econometric models of multi-agent dynamic games. The course also covers economic applications of these methods that are relevant to the environment, energy, natural resources, agriculture, development, management, finance, marketing, industrial organization, and business economics. These applications include firm investment, nonrenewable resource extraction, optimal economic growth, fisheries, subsistence agriculture, investment under uncertainty, optimal stopping, (S,s) policies, q-theory, petroleum production, water management, environmental policy, engine replacement, land use, rural labor supply, incentive schemes, health, and education. The methods covered in the course enable one to analyze the strategic and dynamic decision-making behavior of individuals, households, organizations, firms, and countries; to analyze how different institutions and policies (and changes in these institutions and policies) affect this behavior and its outcome; and to design institutions and policies so that the decision-making behavior and outcome that are realized increase net benefits to society.
Prerequisites: graduate-level microeconomics at least at the level of AEM 6700; and graduate-level econometrics at least at the level of AEM 6120.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022  
AEM 7510 - Environmental Economics (3 Credits)  
The objective of this course is to provide a graduate-level survey of energy and environmental economics to prepare students to conduct original empirical research in the field. The course surveys two prevailing contemporary themes in environmental economics: (1) the design of incentive-based, cost-effective policy instruments to address environmental externalities; and (2) the measurement of the demand for environmental amenities as input into policy design. The course format combines lectures to learn theoretical and methodological concepts with discussion of papers to understand how these concepts are applied in empirical research.
Prerequisites: graduate-level microeconomic theory and econometrics.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2021, Spring 2021  
AEM 7515 - Food and Agricultural Economics II (3 Credits)  
This course provides a PhD level introduction to food and agricultural economics. Topics include: food supply chain modeling, risk and risk management, the interplay between agriculture, energy and the environment, and the economics of agricultural R&D.
Prerequisites: AEM 7020, AEM 7021, ECON 6090.  
Enrollment Information: Enrollment preference given to: AEM PhD students concentrating in food and agricultural economics.  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Use modern modeling techniques to analyze agricultural supply chains.
  • Use models of risky choice to analyze producer behavior.
  • Analyze potential impacts of climate change on agricultural production using empirical and theoretical approaches.
  • Identify approaches to quantify the returns to agricultural research and development.
  
AEM 7620 - Microeconomics of International Development (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ECON 7660  
This course introduces students to the key theories, canonical papers, and current frontiers in the microeconomics of international development. We cover topics related to agricultural household models, consumption smoothing, labor markets, trade and search, relational contracts, and public finance. Paired with AEM 7621 to form a graduate sequence in development economics.
Prerequisites: completion of first-year Ph.D. course sequence in AEM or ECON or permission of instructor.  
Exploratory Studies: (SAAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Explain, use, and critically assess the findings of frontier research papers in the economics of developing countries.
  • Understand and apply core models of consumer-producer households, consumption smoothing, labor markets, sectoral change, and domestic trade to problems of growth, poverty, and resource allocation in developing countries.
  • Interpret and evaluate empirical research on the economic and social impacts of policies and programs.
  • Formulate succinct, informed arguments on a specific research area of the student's choosing related to the economics of developing countries.
  
AEM 7621 - Microeconomics of International Development II (3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ECON 7661  
This course is an extension of AEM 7620/ECON 7660 and will cover current microeconomic issues of developing countries including but not limited to factors influencing human capital accumulation (e.g. health, education), contracting and firm structure, credit and saving, and behavioral economics and development. Most lectures will begin with applied theory and then discuss leading papers on that topic. The course is also designed with a focus on empirical methods and testing theories with data. Finally, the course contains classes on how to prepare for field work in order to provide a foundation for many of the practical skills needed to move a project forward.
Prerequisites: AEM 7620/ECON 7660 and graduate level econometrics.  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Develop technical skills on econometric approaches to identify causal relationships.
  • Design field or lab-in-the-field experiments and relate empirical design to economic theory.
  • Produce research and assess how a paper contributes to the literature and what makes it valuable.
  • Identify opportunities for natural experiments.
  • Write a referee report and give a short presentation and engage in discussion about it.
  
AEM 7650 - Development Microeconomics Graduate Research Seminar (1-3 Credits)  
Crosslisted with ECON 7650  
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022  
AEM 7852 - Sustainable Environment, Energy and Resource Economics Research Seminar (1.5 Credits)  
The goal of this weekly seminar is to provide a formal and organized venue for PhD students and faculty to interact and discuss research on environmental, energy and resource economics and the economics of sustainability, and to be exposed to the frontier in the area.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: Ph.D. students or written permission of instructor.  
Exploratory Studies: (CU-SBY)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
Learning Outcomes:
  • Present original research in sustainable environment, energy and resource economics.
  • Effectively communicate research ideas through writing and speech.
  • Use and evaluate scientific and economic information to reach defensible conclusions.
  • Be able to specify the original contribution of the research to the existing literature.
  
AEM 7900 - Graduate-Level Thesis Research (1-12 Credits)  
Thesis research for Ph.D. students only before A exam has been passed.
Exploratory Studies: (SAAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 8900 - Master's Level Thesis Research (1-12 Credits)  
Thesis research for master's students.
Enrollment Information: Enrollment limited to: students admitted specifically to a master's program.  
Exploratory Studies: (SAAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023  
AEM 9900 - Doctoral-Level Thesis Research (1-12 Credits)  
Thesis research for Ph.D. students only after A exam has been passed.
Exploratory Studies: (SAAREA)
Last Four Terms Offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023