Objectives: The course is designed to accomplish these goals:

• Students will learn fundamental concepts in economics, e.g., scarcity, growth, incentives, efficiency, markets, market failure, and productivity.

• Students will be able to understand the importance of empirical evidence in positive economics and to distinguish causation & correlation.

• Students will reflect on the pitfalls of approaching economics in a naive or ideological way, rather than an informed and thoughtful way.

• Students will critically assess the problems associated with a purely economic approach that ignores the role of ethics and the insights of the Catholic faith and Catholic social principles.

• Students will learn to apply and synthesize this newfound knowledge to assess practical problems in their work life and the life of the Church.

Contents: This course will introduce key concepts in economics, emphasizing the topics most relevant to those in leadership positions in the Church and considering these topics in light of Catholic social principles. The first part of the course (the Fall semester) will introduce foundations: the basic framework of the discipline and necessary background in Catholic social thought. The second part (the Spring semester) will cover simple applications of these principles and how they guide insight into topics of relevance and interest to Church leadership: climate change and stewardship, employment and compensation, evaluating charitable and policy programs, and religious behavior.

Methodology: The course will consist of a series of seven intensive sessions, each with a different focus. Each session will be taught by different faculty and will require a short reading and thought on motivating questions in preparation for the session. This preparation should take no more than an hour. Each intensive session will follow the same format: a brief quiz on the reading, a first lecture providing groundwork, a second, complementary lecture that extends the analysis, and finally, a concluding discussion that brings ideas together and discusses their relevance to leadership lives and decisions.

Means of evaluation: Students will be assessed on the basis of quizzes administered at the beginning of classes, participation during the class, and papers written following each class. Participation will be graded on a three-point scale. There is no quota for comments, but every student should be an active participant in order to share their insights and perspective. Every person actively and productively engaged in the discussions will receive full credit. The sum of these seven quizzes will constitute the participation grade (with the opportunity to 21% for one point of extra credit). The final components will be determined in consultation with the instructor and may vary based on the course delivery format .