London School of Economics

This course is concerned with positive political economy and public choice theory applied to the study of political conflicts, democratic institutions, and public policy. The course covers the main tools for the study of public choice (rational decision-making theory, game theory, social choice theory) and a number of both theoretical and applied topics, including the empirical study of institutions. This course covers the main topics in positive political economy and institutional public choice. These include the aggregation of preferences; voting paradoxes and cycles; electoral competition and voting behavior; the problems of and solutions to collective action; welfare state and redistribution; the impact of information and mass media on voting behavior and public policy; the theory of coalitions, the behavior of committees and legislatures including agenda-setting and veto-player power; principal-agent problems in politics; models of bureaucracy.

Often the study of Economics begins with the Industrial Revolution, but recent work across the social sciences makes it increasingly clear that the important antecedents are found further in the past. The course takes students from the Neolithic Revolution to the present day. It will focus on the deep roots of divergence, considering economic and social structures before industrialization, exploring arguments about how and why living standards and economic performance have improved markedly, while at the same time, looking at how development has diverged between different societies and across societies at the same point in time. The course endeavors not just to describe these processes, but also to suggest and consider explanations for them.

The course examines the causes and effects of power, status, and conflict within organizations. The course focuses on understanding the bright and dark sides of power and status within hierarchies, from perspectives in psychology, sociology, and economics. The  course examines how these factors relate to conflict, rivalry, and competition within organizations. The course uses real world case studies to develop an understanding of management theory and its application to a range of business scenarios. 

The course equips students with the skills to be able to design, carry out, report, read, and evaluate qualitative research projects. It is taught by qualitative research experts who have experience of using the methods they teach. It covers the full cycle of a qualitative research project: design, data collection, analysis, reporting, and dissemination. Students gain a conceptual understanding of current academic debates regarding different methods, and the practical skills to put those methods into practice.

Using publicly available information and real-world case studies including Marks & Spencer, Carrefour and Coca-Cola, the course introduces a framework for business analysis and valuation grounded in academic research. Taking students through key analysis components such as business strategy analysis, accounting analysis, financial analysis and prospective analysis in a variety of decision contexts, the course then proceeds to focus on equity valuation. The objective of this second half of the course is to provide students with a detailed, applied knowledge of contemporary valuation methodologies. This includes technical sessions, exploration of the practices in the field and numerous cases and technical exercises.

Have financial crises become more frequent and more severe over time? What can early bubbles tell us about the state of different stock markets? Was fiscal policy as important as monetary policy in helping recovery in Britain and the US after the Great Depression? Exploring these topics informs our understanding of current global financial markets. During this course, students are asked to engage with these important topics and more, participating in lively discussion.

This course is an introduction to the theoretical and practical functioning of urban real estate markets using concepts from urban economics, finance, and real estate economics. A major component of the course is the case study in which students value a mixed-use commercial real estate property using the knowledge and techniques they have learned.