ECO 436 - Industry Studies Seminar in Electricity, Natural Gas and Telecommunications - is designed to be the "capstone" course for the M.S. program in Electricity, Natural Gas and Telecommunications Economics sequence. The student will use the theoretical and analytical tools from other courses to make sound economic judgements regarding public policy and managerial decision making.

The course is taught by Dr. David Loomis, Associate Professor of Economics at Illinois State University. Before coming to Illinois State in 1996, Dr. Loomis worked as a research economist at Bell Atlantic Corporation.

There are two primary goals of this course. First, the student is to have a comprehensive understanding of the electricity, natural gas, and telecommunications industries including their history, regulation, and current issues. Second, the course is designed to simulate "real world" situations that the student may face in the workplace. This will include: writing and presenting testimony as an expert witness; writing and presenting a paper to professional colleagues; writing and presenting a report to the vice president of a corporation; evaluating and reporting on others' work.

Since most, if not all, of the students in this course will have done an internship in a particular industry, there will be some bias on the students' part towards one particular industry. The course will try to show the similarities between the economic problems facing each of the industries while recognizing their differences. The student should grow to appreciate the complexities of problems faced by all of the industries.

Associated with this course is ECO 495, an Applied Research Project.

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