Economics

This course explores Chinese economic reforms and development since the end of the 1970s, and introduces many of the elements of China's emergence and its potential role in the world economy. It uses China as a case study placing Chinese economic development in a historical and comparative context, exploring the contradiction between the unprecedented economic growth of the past century and the persistence of poverty in rich countries. The course begins with theories of economic growth and poverty and studies economic and social institutions and public policy debates on ways to achieve rising incomes while improving living standards and promoting equality. The first part is on economic development and the most commonly used models of development. The second part covers contracts and development. 

This course provides theoretical foundations and conceptual tools for understanding optimal financial decisions of corporations in terms of economics. Topics include stylized facts in corporate financing; capital structure in the theoretical framework of economics; conceptual framework of capital structures; detailed implications of debt and equity instruments; financing decision of corporations; payout policy; how economic concepts of agency-principal issues and mechanism design can be applied in the field of optimal financial decisions of corporations; the economic implications of internal capital markets and the market for corporate control; and the issues associated with corporate ownership and governance.

This course provides the basic knowledge of econometrics that is essential equipment for any serious economist or social scientist, to a level where the participant would be competent to continue with the study of the subject in a graduate program. 

The course provides a comprehensive introduction to modern labor economics. After providing some basic information about characteristics and trends in actual labor markets, the course analyses in some detail the supply side and the demand side of the labor market. These building blocks enable further analysis of special topics such as human capital, labor market discrimination, and unemployment. Emphasis is also given to the empirical evidence on those topics.