Meet the First Year Economics Teaching Team
The first-year teaching team includes faculty who are not only successful educators but are scholars at the forefront of their research areas.
Principles of Microeconomics: James Best
Principles courses are rewarding to teach because the students' understanding of the subject moves in leaps and bounds. I also think it is a great privilege to be laying the foundations for their future learning.
Principles of Microeconomics: John Gasper
In terms of why I enjoy teaching the first-years. ... Getting first-years to think about a topic or a problem in a new way is a lot of fun! We're helping them develop a new toolkit to understand the world. They're inherently curious, and seeing that spark take hold is great.
Principles of Microeconomics: Margarita Portnykh
Helping someone to embark on a successful career is always an exciting and rewarding opportunity.
Even though not all of our students might choose to pursue economics as their main field in the future, this course gives them an essential tool for understanding current social, political, environmental issues, which would then allow them to make optimal decisions in their lives.
Principles of Macroeconomics: Chris Sleet
Principles of Macroeconomics provides students with an introduction to the economic analysis of large populations of firms and people using CMU's unique data-infused approach. Students consider the sources of business cycles, the role of the Federal Reserve, the emergence of Bitcoin, the value of tariffs, the impact of the Black Death on the economy of 14th century Europe, and the future growth potential of China, along with many other topics. The course is a gateway to our intermediate macroeconomics course and more advanced macro electives.
Principles of Macroeconomics: Ariel Zetlin-Jones
I can think of at least two reasons I find teaching Principles of Macroeconomics at Carnegie Mellon so rewarding. First, it's fun to share with students how the same economic principles that underlie the decisions individuals make in their own lives are also critical for understanding large scale economies and macroeconomic policy tradeoffs. And second, we have fantastic students who are thoughtful, curious, and eager to learn and I get to share in their enthusiasm for macroeconomics throughout the semester.