Jesse T. Wright, Ph.D.
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Instructor with Full Responsibilities

Principles of Macroeconomics
ECO2013 - Summer 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, Spring 2017, 2018
, 2019, Fall 2018.

Description:
Introduction of Economics as the study of how people make choices due to scarcity of resources, with a focus on the market system of economic choice.  The course includes the study of how individuals, large groups of individuals, and countries involved in the market system make choices and how society's economic activities are organized.  Importantly, the class covers how government policy impacts the overall economy, and what public choice economics can teach us about the incentive structure behind policy choices.


Principles of Microeconomics
ECO2023 - Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018.

Description:
The course focuses on presenting the incentive and choice structures of individuals and small groups. As with the macroeconomic class, the impact of government policy on firms behavior is important to understand when examining how the micro economy makes choices under scarcity. Key goals include introducing students to opportunity costs, efficiency, elasticity, and externalities, while examining the four major types of industrial market structures: pure competition, oligopolies, monopolistic competition, and monopolies.

Common Sense Economics
ECO2000 - Spring 2017 (Online Only)

Description:
This course includes 16 core learning modules that cover both economics and personal finance. It incorporates readings, videos, discussion questions, and assignments designed to make economics both understandable and exciting. It is divided into four major parts. Part 1 focuses on the basic concepts of economics, including incentives, scarcity, opportunity cost, marginalism, gains from trade, demand, supply, the pricing mechanism, and secondary effects. Part 2 focuses on the key elements of an environment for growth and prosperity. Potential sources of growth, including property rights, the competitive process, allocation of capital, monetary stability, low taxes, and international trade are examined. Part 3 focuses on the role of government and the operation of the political process. Both market failure and government failure are explained and analyzed. As in the case of markets, the tools of economics are used to address how the political process works, why it sometimes works poorly, and what might be done to improve the process. Part 4 applies the tools of economics to personal finance. Choosing a career, entrepreneurship, budgeting, saving, investing, credit, insurance, and tax considerations are examined in this section. This course will improve your understanding of key elements of economics and personal finance, and help you make better choices and live a more fulfilling life. A bonus learning module is available to those individuals interested in applying economic reasoning to investigating the causes and consequences of the Great Depression and Great Recession.

Intermediate Price Theory (Intermediate Microeconomics)
ECO3101 - Spring 2019

Description:
​Microeconomic theory is the primary foundation for all other neoclassical economic theory including most of macroeconomics. Microeconomic theory provides insights into the behavior of both individual and collective actors (firms) in markets. This course provides insight into how economists analyze practical problems that present themselves to policy makers in the real world.


Teaching Assistant

Growth of the American Economy - Spring 2015
The Economics of Art and Culture (Online) - Spring 2014
Free to Choose - Fall 2014
Applied Microeconomic Analysis - Fall 2013
Financial Markets, the Banking System, and Monetary Policy - Summer 2011, Spring 2012
Introductory Microeconomics - Fall 2010, Fall 2012, Fall 2014 Spring 2015
Introductory Macroeconomics - Fall 2011, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2015


Teaching Interests

Economic Growth and Institutions
Political Economy
Principles of Macroeconomics and Microeconomics
Intermediate Microeconomics


Teaching Method

I enjoy teaching, and my class will typically include a mix of lecture, news articles of real-world applications, videos and classroom experiments on the topics. Student participation is strongly encouraged (and incentivized) in the experiments. Other tools include in-class electronic quizzing by posing questions within the flow of the lecture and online activities through blackboard. This helps gage students' grasp of the material, and encourages them to thing critically about the material being presented. Employing electronic questions a number of times during the lecture provides both the students and me with timely feedback, allowing them to understand where they need clarification on the material. My passion is to introduce students to the economic way of thinking, and to leave them with a lasting and practical understanding of the topic.


Other Teaching Information

Individual Teaching Assessments:
  •  Summer 2015
  •  Summer 2014
  •  Summer 2013
  •  Summer 2012

Phone

(239) 745-4492

Address

Department of Economics & Finance
Florida Gulf Coast University
Lutgert College of Business
10501 FGCU Boulevard South
Fort Myers, FL 33965

Email

jwright@fgcu.edu
Last Update: September, 2019
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