Professor Costa is clearly passionate about this subject. She offers extra credit and is almost always available for questions. The class was recorded and consisted of a midterm, final, group project, and some problem sets (the midterm was dropped if your final was better + it was open note). Additionally, for lab, all you had to do was attend them. Her exams were extremely fair, especially since you could bring any number of notes you wanted. If you pay attention and take notes, you should be more than okay. Additionally, this class is very interesting and by far, one of the best econ classes I've taken at UCLA. She isn't like most econ professors, who usually don't care about their students at all. Overall, I would highly recommend this class!!!

I took this class the first quarter it was offered (W24), and lets just say it was clear that it was a brand new class. If you can, avoid this class. It is definitely one of the worst Econ electives you can take. First of all, Costa is not a good lecturer, and her slides are pretty hard to understand. The structure of the class was pretty disorganized: the lectures covers a TON of information, and it's difficult to tell what the important/key points are. A lot of the information will be irrelevant to the homeworks/exams. There were 2 problem sets, 1 group presentation, 1 midterm, and a final. The problem sets and exams were graded pretty harsh and the lectures do not do a great job of preparing you for them. The exams consisted of short answers and essay questions, and Costa looks for very specific answers, so even if you write good essays with correct information don't expect to do well. Overall, not a great experience.