ECON 4310

This class is extremely interesting for any Econ major who has a passion for economic policy and government intervention in the economy. The material is fascinating and Professor Mackay makes it easy to learn. HOWEVER, I have two strong cautions for anyone interested in taking ECON 4210 with Mackay. First: Mackay does not post any of the lecture material or homework assignments on Collab. If you miss class, you will miss the material and the homework assignment. As Mackay doesn't mandate that you get the textbook (he treats it as supplemental material instead of following it in lecture), there is no way for you to get this lost information unless you go to office hours or have a friend in the class. Second: the tests are very challenging. Mackay makes this clear from the first day of class, so it's no surprise. 80% of the exam is from lecture, and 20% is applications. Have a strong foundation in the material and know the concepts cold, and you should be okay. Also know that he grades pretty leniently with the exams - I left 2 questions blank on one of the midterms and still got a B on the exam.
Overall, I would definitely recommend the class, but anyone interested should know what they're getting into with Professor Mackay.

This class was absolutely atrocious. I just finished my econ major with this class, and this was by far the worst econ class I have taken at UVA. A few reasons why I have such a strong opinion on the matter...

1. The tests were surprisingly challenging, especially compared to the cupcake homework assignments.

2. While MacKay is a nice guy, he is quite boring in lecture and focuses half the class on reviewing the homework from the night before, which is a complete waste of time, because they are so easy.

3. The material in this class is utterly irrelevant. Half the stuff you learn about has never been used in real life, and the other half is about ridiculous theories that have absurd assumptions. Take the Tiebout model for example which holds nine non-insignificant assumptions (Please look it up on wikipedia and go to the assumption section). How can you draw any sort of conclusion about real life economics and policy by doing this?

4. As someone who is very interested in public sector economics, I felt like I came away with nothing valuable, aside from some synthetic theories.

I can't speak to how this course would be taught be another professor, but I'd recommend avoiding it with MacKay. There are significantly better electives in the econ department.