Economics

This course utilizes an inter-disciplinary approach by using different analytical lenses when examining the intersections between different fields. The course begins with examination of key theoretical and ideological underpinnings related to natural resource management, synthesizing different academic fields beyond just economics and politics. This foundation is utilized to examine some of the most pressing contemporary global issues, with country and regional specific examples including from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.

This course brings students up to date with modern theories of money and banking and recent developments in the analysis of monetary policy. What are the causes of inflation and deflation? What tools do central banks have, and how does monetary policy affect the economy? How do financial markets work, and why are financial intermediaries needed? In order to answer these and related questions, this course provides a set of tools to analyze monetary policy and the financial sector. The course combines a study of the relevant theory with applications to recent events and policy debates.

This course looks at different ways of analyzing economic situations at a micro-level by building on microeconomic concepts learned from an introductory level Economics course. Familiar concepts are discussed in more depth and in a more mathematical way, while new concepts, such as the Slutsky equation, compensating, and equivalent variation are introduced. Game theory, the study of multi-person decision problems, and behavioral economics are also introduced. Behavioral economics adds insights from the field of psychology to the traditional economic rational-choice and equilibrium models. The course emphasis is on behavioral economics, for which students are required to carry out independent research.

This course is a study of capital markets and financial asset valuation. Topics include: instruments and markets; arbitration and fixed income assets; interest rate term structure; asset valuation under uncertainty; evaluation of derivatives; portfolio selection under uncertainty; mean-variance portfolio selection; and the capital asset pricing model (CAPM).

This course gives students the conceptual basis and the necessary tools for understanding modern microeconomics at an intermediate level. Students learn about the application of consumer theory, the theory of the firm, general equilibrium and welfare, game theory, oligopolistic markets, and information economics. By applying these theoretical frameworks students tackle important questions such as how firms respond to market stimuli, both in the short and the long run, as well as how game theory can be used to study strategic interactions between decision makers.

This course introduces concepts of economic analysis and provides an overview of the economic system. It examines how individual agents (consumers and producers) relate to each other and how their interactions in the market give rise to economic aggregates at the macro level (production of goods and services, price levels, distribution of income). Emphasis is placed on consumer choice (demand) and producer supply in an institutional framework (laws and governments) conditioning their decisions and facilitating exchange relations.