Teaching
I have taught seven courses at the University of Oregon as the Instructor of record. I received the 2023 Economics Department Graduate Employee Teaching Award for my Public Economics and Intermediate Microeconomics courses. My classes ranged in size from 20 to 90.
In the sections below, you will find graphical summaries of my teaching evaluations, syllabi and course descriptions, and selected student comments from teaching evaluations. For a report of all of my course evaluations, please reach out via tbivins7@uoregon.edu
Course Descriptions
The second course in the core microeconomics series. Topics include consumer and firm behavior, market structures, general equilibrium theory, welfare economics, collective choice, rules for evaluation economics policy.
Topics include principles and problems of government financing. Topics include market efficiency, provision of public goods, production by government versus production by the private sector, tax measures to control externalities, public economy, and the cost of health care.
This course primarily focuses on market power and antitrust. Topics include the theory of the firm, different models of market power, history of antitrust laws, collusion, horizontal mergers, price discrimination, and vertical integration.
This course builds on material from Intermediate Microeconomics courses to cover topics such as supply and demand for labor, wage determination under various market structures, human capital Investments, labor market signaling and sorting, discrimination, job matching, and unemployment.
This course covers the same content as EC 450, with the addition of an econometrics project for graduate-level students.
Student Comments
"Cannot say nice enough things about Tanner and how he has helped me with this class and understanding better. I have been very stressed with it being a 4 week class as my final class in undergrad, but Tanner has been understanding and went out of his way to meet with me and help progress my learning and understanding."
EC 450/550 - Summer 2023
"Tanner is very supportive and understanding when it comes to learning about this content. He knows it's hard and is very supportive and open to helping."
EC 311 - Spring 2023
"I have had some mental health struggles this term, and the support from the instructor was very helpful for me during that time."
EC 311 - Spring 2023
"Instructor Bivins did an excellent job at keeping me engaged. Out of all my professors this term, Tanner Bivins showed the most enthusiasm and interest in the topics when teaching. I am someone that finds it hard to pay attention in class but he did a fantastic job at keeping me engaged simply off personality and energy. If his goal is to keep teaching, then he should be seeing great success in the future. Just wanted to say thanks for being a great teacher."
EC 340 - Fall 2022
"Tanner was able to take tough concepts in econ and use real world examples to make them a lot easier to understand."
EC 340 - Spring 2022
"The instructor was very willing to help with any questions student may have and made himself very accessible outside of the classroom. When asked questions he will give a clear and concise response."
EC 360 - Fall 2021