PUBPOL 3410

Economics of Consumer Protection and the Law

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2026-2027 Catalog.

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.

Prerequisites PUBPOL 2000 or PUBPOL 5210 or ECON 3030.

Distribution Requirements (SSC-AS), (HA-HE, KCM-HE, SBA-HE), (OCE-IL, QP-IL)

Exploratory Studies (CU-SBY)

Last 4 Terms Offered 2023FA, 2022FA, 2021FA, 2020FA

Learning Outcomes

• Understand one of the key roles that lawyers play in society.
• Understand how the legal system influences product safety and consumer outcomes.
• Understand the intended consequences of many of the regulations that exist in our economic system.
• Understand how the FDA and FTC function and their approach to protecting consumers in the marketplace.
• Understand how tort law, contract law, and property law influence market outcomes.

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