Written proposal must be approved by Department Chair. Seminars for the group study of selected topics, which will vary from year to year. Topics may be initiated by students.

The purpose of this course is to inform students how they can “do good” in as effective a way as possible with their careers, especially within economics and related fields (including, but not limited to CS, applied math, epidemiology, political science, and neuroscience). The course combines practical lessons from economics with theoretical concepts from the philosophy of ethics to equip students with introductory skills that can help them identify and work toward solving some of the world’s most pressing problems. To help students identify the “roots” of these problems, global issues are framed not only as market failures but as moral blind spots such as exhibited in the efficiency-equity tradeoff and McNamara Fallacy (Spotlight Effect). “Effective altruism” is a growing, interdisciplinary movement centered around the question of how we can help others as much as possible given the resources available. Applying the economic concepts of efficiency to the domain of morality, effective altruists aim not just to make the world better, but to make it as good as possible. What that means in practice is a very difficult question to answer.

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