ECON 265 - Race and Economic Opportunity (4)

Economics and policy course on race and economic opportunity in the United States. Course is oriented around an examination of how de facto and de jure institutions shape economic opportunity in the United States and how current opportunities and economic outcomes are the result of extractive and exclusionary policies, programs, and markets layered throughout American history. Course begins with a critical examination of the social construction of race and its role in developing and spreading capitalism across the globe, followed by study of exclusionary institutional arrangements enacted during key periods in American history. We trace the impacts of these policy decisions to the present. In addition to learning about contemporary racial disparities, we analyze policy solutions for fighting racial inequality and achieving true equality of opportunity in the United States. Fall.