While debt is one of the oldest social institutions, arguably predating money, within the last hundred years, credit and debt has exploded. Whether it is individuals, companies, hospitals, universities, city governments, or countries, seemingly everything acquired or constructed is done so through some form of borrowing. Why and what are the implications for social inequality?

This course introduces students to the array of ways in which credit and debt animate the world around them. Beyond developing theoretical tools and empirical understandings of debt, the class leverages wide ranging data to refine students’ analytic capabilities enabling them to answer
complex and pressing social questions. For example, is student loan forgiveness progressive or regressive? What are the tradeoffs between individual borrowing versus government borrowing? How do credit markets influence urban politics? Does the use of big data technology in consumer credit scoring increase or decrease inequality?

We will grapple with these questions and more to understand American Inequality through credit and debt. In the process, students will sharpen their critical eye for specifying problems and evaluating evidence to ultimately imagine alternative possibilities for our social and economic
institutions.