The focus of the course is to ascertain how public policy makers decide to either regulate or legislate how an industry/firm will operate in society. We will examine the process from three different vantage points: ethics, economics, and policy. The first part of the course will be spent examining the role (or lack thereof!) that ethical thinking plays in motivating public policy makers to take action. The second part of the course examines how economic pressure comes into play as policy makers try to establish bounds on an industry or a firm. Finally, we explore the role that social pressures such as the media and various interest groups play in influencing how public policy makers react to various issues that confront an industry or a firm.
Pre-requisite: ADEC 7201 Applied Microeconomic Theory, ADEC 731001 Data Analysis, and ADEC 7320 Econometrics, or department approval.