ECON 4080

Wow this class is a waste of time. The first half of the class you just go over basic economic principles like prisoner's dilemma and nash equilibrium. The second half you just memorize court cases. There's really no in-depth analysis of the economics implications of law - it's just a brief overview of stuff that's kinda just common sense. It's not hard and the problem sets are straight forward, but if you're actually trying to learn a lot I'd avoid Westerfield.

Also, for the essay - it doesn't matter if you write a good essay, just check all her boxes and restate the easy bs she says in class and you'll get an A. I read essays that were super well written and thought-out that got 80s and read ones that were total garbage but repeated Westerfield's exact words that got 96s.

I really enjoyed this class, mostly because I found the information really interesting. It's basically applying micro to a lot of topics in legal disputes, and the economic analysis behind it is actually interesting and not always completely intuitive. Westfield is a really nice and straightforward professor, her notes outlines are really good for organization and she clearly seems interested in the the material (she gives so many anecdotes about living in Texas and all the weird legal stuff that goes on there). Homeworks and tests were very fair and not too difficult, though she can be a little nitpicky with graph and short answer questions. On-call is not stressful if you do the readings and Question of the Days are always super easy. I actually really enjoyed writing the paper-- she leaves it pretty open ended but using some of her suggestions really helped structure it. Overall, take this class for a relatively low stress but super interesting 4000 elective, it's totally worthwhile.

This class was ok. I'm not a big fan of Westerfield's notes outlines she has you write on during class that are supposed to help you stay organized but I think that's really just an excuse for her to go more quickly through the material since most of the notes are already written so it makes it harder to learn and stay engaged. It was interesting and not nearly as math-based as other Econ class so if you're looking for a more reading-based Econ class, I would go with this one for a 4000-level elective. Westerfield definitely knows what she's talking about and does try to set you up for success; I just found the course a little dry and fast-paced at some points.

This is an amazing class if you're at all interested in real world application of economics. I've taken many econ classes in the department, the vast majority of them being useless if I'm being honest, but this class is not that. What you learn is actually applicable. Westerfield is also an excellent lecturer and grades very fairly. The exam and papers are relatively easy as well. She pretty much gives you everything you need to succeed beforehand, and she's more so just interested in making sure you have a good time learning in class, rather than the grade. I would definitely recommend this class.

If you took Westerfield for Intermediate Macro, the class structure is the same for 4080 with "On Call" days and notes outlines. A few group homeworks, midterm, paper, and final. None of them are particularly challenging and the toughest part of the course is staying focused during the lectures that are mostly 75 minutes of reading the outlines.

Some very basic game theory and reading of legal opinions that created important precedents, but nothing that in-depth and only a negligible amount of math. It's a relatively low-stress class with a fair amount of interesting content and no surprises -- overall would definitely recommend.