PUBPOL 3410 - Economics of Consumer Protection and the Law

(crosslisted) ECON 3830
(HA-HE, KCM-HE, SBA-HE) (CU-SBY)

Fall. 3 credits. Student option grading.

Prerequisite: coursework in introductory microeconomics and intermediate microeconomics.

A. Mathios.

The course will focus on how legal rules and regulations impact consumers in the marketplace. A significant portion of this course will focus on how developments in tort law, contract law, property law, and regulatory law influence social welfare and serve to protect consumers in their interactions with the marketplace. The course will also focus on how the federal regulatory agencies function and analyze the effectiveness of these agencies in protecting consumers. The course will focus specifically on the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission. In addition to students interested in public policy and economics, the course can be helpful to students who are interested in attending law school as students will get exposed to many of the concepts they will address in a first year law school curriculum.

Outcome 1: Students will acquire the skills necessary to assess, analyze and explain the key roles that lawyers play in society.

Outcome 2: Students will acquire the skills necessary to assess, analyze, and explain how the legal and regulatory system influences product safety and consumer outcomes.

Outcome 3: Students will acquire the skills necessary to identify and evaluate the unintended consequences of many of the regulations that exist in our economic system.

Outcome 4: Students will acquire the skills necessary to analyze and evaluate how the FDA and FTC function with respect to protecting consumers in the marketplace.