France

This course introduces students to a number of case studies concerning past financial crises. It begins by discussing economic theories regarding the occurrence of crises. The course studies how the financial system functions and how it interacts with the broader economy. Students then learn what the principal actors of financial crisis management–central banks–do and how and their mandates evolved in response to crises. Among others, the course studies the Great Depression, Japan's Lost Decade, Zimbabwe's hyperinflation, the 2007-2009 subprime crisis, and the European sovereign debt crisis. This offers an opportunity to discuss issues regarding the regulation of the financial system and the welfare costs of financial crises.

The class draws on literacy, painting, cinema, and other artistic sources to examine the political and social past of France from the French Revolution to the present. By the end of the course, students have gained a familiarity with France that allows them to appreciate the richness and depth of its history.

This course helps students develop an advanced perspective on how firms make investment and financing decisions. It covers the three main aspects of modern corporate finance: capital budgeting, financing, and capital structure. Capital budgeting concerns how a firm makes investment decisions to increase its value. The course applies the fundamental concept of time value of money to capital budgeting decisions. The course introduces different investment decision criteria and illustrates the calculation of free cash flow. The course then studies firm's financing options, equity and debt. For equity market, several stock valuation methods are discussed in detail. For debt market, general bond valuation method and corporate bonds are covered. The last part of the course combines equity and debt together to develop the concept of weighted average cost of capital, which links a firm's capital budgeting decision with its financing decision.

During the Arab springs, Algeria gave the impression of remaining impervious to regional dynamics. Algerians however claimed they recognized in the Tunisian and Egyptian revolts, democratization, rise of Islamism, and later threat of the return of dictatorship, their own experiences. An outlier to current events in the Maghreb, and perhaps a precursor, Algeria is an excellent case study for students to acquire a deeper historical understanding of the region. Based on texts, images, and film sources, and with constant comparison to other Maghribi countries, this course begins with the enthusiasm of independence in 1962, Third Worldism, and socialist utopia, and then moves on to the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, the rise of Djihadi Islam, and the first of its kind civil war between the army and the armed Islamists in the 1990, and its aftermath.

This French language workshop seminar supplements the primary French language lectures. Here, students work on oral presentations and written productions. Students are required to take both the Fre nch lecture and the French workshop.

Comic books in the reporting style is a genre that is growing, with several major works already published. The success of the REVUE DESSINEE shows this, as well as the large selection of comic books in the reporting style that cover topics from gastronomy to geo-strategy, rurality, feminism, and the Dayak Indians. This type of structure, based on the long form lets the author be subjective, as he shows his work style. Using the City as a theme, its transformations and its innovations, students work in pairs and create a reporting style comic strip, choosing the subject and the angle of attack. They complete two or three storyboards and each pair creates a documentary, a script, and a storyboard drawn in pencil or ink.

This course provides an overview of Islamized constitutions and covers the differences and similarities between countries which adopted the Sharia guarantee clause in their constitutions and its relationship with the practice of human rights. This course examines Islamized constitutions and Human rights starting from a historical background and moving towards three different perspectives. First, from an Islamic law perspective, the course covers Islamic law and human rights in Islam. Second, from a legal perspective, it describes the legal framework, and legal practice of human rights under Islamized constitutions. Finally, it highlights the judicial adjudication on the international human rights within an Islamized constitution, based on the teacher's experience as a Judge. For such purpose, the course covers the following: the origin of the Sharia supremacy; how the Sharia supremacy became part of the constitution and its impacts of the legal system; how it is affecting the practice of international human rights; the contradictions between Sharia rights and international treaties; differences between Sharia Guarantee clauses wording and the consequences of these differences.

This class surveys the challenges faced by emerging economies, with the purpose of covering the main areas at the center of the debate in development economics. It discusses the questions raised, the academic research on these questions, and the possible policy responses. This class covers topics at the individual level (consumption, health and education) as well as at the firm level (contracts, technology, entrepreneurship). The class covers both the empirical studies and the theoretical framework that relate to these topics. By the end of this class, students are expected to be able to understand, evaluate, and design interventions in developing countries. In addition, a discussion over the ethical concerns of these interventions takes place in class.

This course is about economic dimensions of current challenges facing the European Union. Topics covered include: the consequences of 2007-2008 on the EU; Brexit and new forms of unilateralism in the USA; multinational corporations and technical change; EU and European governments' capacity to regulate and to tax; ecological crises, citizens' health, and the future of mankind on earth. The course selects a number of issues that appear salient in current debates about the EU, its relationship with the rest of the world, and its future. It mobilizes the economist's analytical tool box to shed light on policy decision-making and pending issues.