Spring 2027

Markets with Frictions

An advanced course on Markets with Frictions that uses search theory to develop theoretical tools for studying monetary, public, and financial economics, focusing on frictions in formal models and applied scenarios.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Randall Wright

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=54 letter grades); Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=54 letter grades); Spring 2026: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=54 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Examine new issues related to frictional markets by looking at old issues in new ways.

  • Demonstrate economic reasoning about the economy at a micro and macro level by applying the foundations of mainstream economics.

  • Explain credit market rationing and its impact on markets for housing, small business loans and other investments.

  • Articulate the contributing factors of bubbles and crashes in asset prices.

  • Articulate the role of money and banking in the inter-temporal allocation of resources.

  • Articulate your perspectives on fundamental questions like: Why we use money? What is a bank? How do organizations (like firms or families) form?

  • Construct and analyze the three generations of money search models and apply this framework appropriately to real-world economic and financial issues.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

(FINANCE 305, 325, and ECON/​FINANCE 320), (ECON 301, 302, 311, or 312), or graduate/professional standing

ECON/FINANCE 503

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=54 letter grades); Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=54 letter grades); Spring 2026: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=54 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

RANDALL WRIGHT is recorded teaching in Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 600
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 600

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=54 letter grades); Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=54 letter grades); Spring 2026: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=54 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Search theory as a framework for understanding markets in monetary, public, and financial economics.
  • Credit market rationing and its impact on housing, small business loans, and other investments.
  • Contributing factors of bubbles and crashes in asset prices.
  • The role of money and banking in the inter-temporal allocation of resources.
  • Three generations of money search models and their application to real-world issues.

Skills

  • Apply search theory frameworks and economic reasoning to analyze markets with frictions at both micro and macro levels.
  • Construct and analyze money search models to address real-world economic and financial issues.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
ECON/FINANCE 503 · Spring 2027

Markets with Frictions

Recorded 2026-10-14
ECON/FINANCE 503 · Spring 2027

Markets with Frictions

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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    "title": "Markets with Frictions",
    "credits_min": 3,
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    "credits_min": 3,
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    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
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  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "769013951299f413718cb78cd968faf54ceef09160ffc50e14643286a4162975",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
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