Economics

This course examines the process of Korea’s growth and development from the macroeconomic and institutional perspectives. The transformation of the Republic of Korea from one of the most devastated nations to an advanced one is a rare success story in the world development. However, the underlying causes and mechanisms of the success are not well understood, although its surface level performance is well recognized. This course seeks the fundamental understandings about the causes and mechanisms of Korea’s growth and development in order to make Korea’s experience helpful for other developing countries. Furthermore, we draw useful lessons and insights for the future process of Korea’s growth and development from such understandings. This course provides a series of quantitative empirical analyses of Korea’s long-run process of growth and development at both aggregate and sectoral levels, together with theories of growth and development which are be used in interpreting the empirical analysis. We also discuss the issues of policy design and implementation methods that were used to materialize specific development goals. Historical data as well as current issues are explored together, relating the past and the present with each other, so that we pursue an evolutionary understanding.

This course introduces the core methods in econometrics, which can be applied to answer a variety of quantitative questions from the real world of business and government policy. It discusses the fundamentals of least square models, linear and nonlinear regression with multiple regressors, fixed effect models, longitudinal/panel data models, instrumental variable methods, analysis of random experiments, and time series data regression. Applications of Software such as STATA and R are demonstrated.

The course focuses on the role of banks and other financial institutions. The course discusses (1) the main types of financial institutions and the risks they face; (2) banks’ liquidity management and systemic risk; (3) the regulatory framework, with particular emphasis on capital requirements and the resolution framework, and the relationship with accounting; (4) executive compensation; and (5) the challenges for the financial industry due to the low interest rate environment and the Covid-19 crisis. Particular attention is devoted to the European banking industry throughout the course. The course discusses topics including commercial and investment banks: Activities and challenges; financial risks; liquidity and systemic risk; interconnectedness between banks and mutual funds and hedge funds: implications for systemic risk; executive compensation; capital, liquidity, and macro-prudential regulation; the relationship between accounting and prudential regulation; bank resolution framework and state aid; low interest rate environment (LIRE); and post Covid-19: main events and the future of banking.

This course covers a method to establish causal relationships in non-experimental data, called “Instrumental Variables”. The course covers panel data, that is, data which tracks individuals over time. It also covers situations when outcome data is discrete in nature, such as “subject I chose option A (and not B)”. A range of simple machine learning methods are discussed which are helpful for classification and prediction tasks. Crucially, the course has a maximum focus on hands-on practice, minimal importance to the derivation of formal results.

Dynamics in the Chinese financial markets has attracted much international attention. This course provides an understanding of how the Chinese financial markets originated and developed, what reforms have been done, the difficulties in future reforms, and possible steps the government would take in the next five years. Starting with a comprehensive introduction, the course covers the major financial markets in China, including the central bank and the banking system, the stock market, the bond market and the foreign exchange market. Each market is an individual topic, for which the course first reviews the fundamental concepts and theories, explains the history and facts in China, presents examples and cases, and talks about the future reforms. 

This course focuses on economic policy and the welfare state in Denmark through international comparison and examples from other developed countries. It covers classic welfare state topics as well as more recent themes and challenges to modern welfare states, focusing especially on the expenditure side of government. The course has an emphasis on recent empirical research on policy issues, and a focus on how to take theory to the data, critically evaluate the validity of empirical designs, and account for policy implications of research results. Each topic looks at economic facts and status quo policies in Denmark and elsewhere, works with the theoretical framework and economic reasoning behind these policies, discusses empirical evidence and evaluations of “what works” in terms of policy in that area, and covers views from the public debate. The course provides an academic foundation for thinking about different policy questions; an understanding of policy in an applied context and as part of the political system and the public debate; an overview of contemporary economic issues related to the welfare state and public sector in Denmark and other developed countries; and an opportunity for students to think as economists about these issues and account for potential challenges, trade-offs, and solutions in an academic way.

Industrialization from the 1880s not only accelerated productivity growth but also transformed Japanese society into a more market-oriented system, the entire process of which is called the industrial revolution. The modern sectors in Japanese society composed a classical market economy from the 1880s to the 1910s. The development in the period was supported by the well-integrated international market and was at least partially accommodated by the pool of slack labor in the traditional sector. 

Those favorable environments were impaired from the 1920s, especially in the 1930s. Without a stable international financial market, the macroeconomic stability of a national economy had to be sustained by individual states. Such an international condition instead exacerbated the difficulty of managing society as the labor market became tighter and the growing modern sector absorbed slack labor in rural regions. In the end, Japan chose a state-coordinated market economy after the experiment of a command economy during the Second World War. 

Then, from the 1980s, the economy gradually returned to the standard, rule-based market economy. This course provides an overview of institutional changes in the Japanese economy from the 1920s to the 2000s and to understand how institutional and organizational factors work in a changing society. 

 

The first part of the course focuses on history and culture, starting with a brief historical view of Danish society since 1800. It then analyzes culture from two perspectives: the history of ideas in Danish society and Danish cultural value systems. This entails a brief introduction to key Danish thinkers and cultural movements and their political impact, and an introduction to Danish cultural values and the development and changes of such values over the last 30 to 40 years. The second part of the course takes an institutional approach to the Danish political system, including its labor market structures and education system, by descriptions of specific societal sectors, drawing on theory about institutional orders and business regimes. Continuing with the institutional approach, the third part of the course focuses more specifically on the business sector leading to a discussion of key industries and types of firms in the Danish economy.