Economics

This course examines imperfectly competitive markets as well as the behavior of firms in these markets. The course looks at the effects of various business decisions and of various forms of policy intervention on the way firms compete and on the outcome of oligopolistic markets. Prominent recent antitrust cases are also discussed. Topics discussed include game theory, the determinants of market power in static oligopolistic models, strategic positioning and advertising, consumer inertia, collusive agreements, horizontal mergers, strategic and non-strategic barriers to entry, exclusionary practices, and anti-trust intervention. Prerequisites: familiarity with basic microeconomics concepts, in particular with the notion of Nash Equilibrium and Subgame Perfect Nash Equilibrium, with basic oligopolistic models (such as Bertrand and Cournot models of static competition) and with the fundamentals of unconstrained and constrained optimization problems.

This course introduces the general method and use of cost-benefit analysis with a particular emphasis on applications to resource and environmental economics. The course therefore deals with many crucial aspects of environmental cost-benefit analysis to provide the necessary background to assess the validity of practical environmental cost-benefit analyses, as well as to formulate how current guidelines can be improved based on the latest economic research. The course consists of a lecture block that provides an overview and introduces students to key concepts. Assessment is based on a presentation and written assignment on a topic of the student’s choosing. 

This course examines public-policy making, its characteristics, determinants, and consequences in liberal democracies. The course first provides theoretical foundations from both economics and political science and then examines a number of topics from both theoretical and applied areas of political economy: collective action, electoral competition, fiscal policy and redistribution, bureaucracy, rent-seeking, regulation, information and accountability, and constitutional reforms.

This course examines the main economic aspects of the current development of the European Union (EU) and its policies. The course covers the process of European Integration and its economic impacts on individuals, firms, and regions. Special attention is devoted to the analysis of the economic opportunities and challenges generated by economic integration, and to the assessment of the policies designed to support this process and mitigate its potential side-effects. The course touches on the institutional, political, and historical background of European integration, though its main focus is on the economic analysis of the policies and prospects for the European Union. 

This course provides critical viewpoints on innovation at three different levels. On the individual level, information technology developments enable super-large firms (e.g., Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook) to provide service to their paying customers. At the societal level, the course shows that information technology platforms (such as Uber, Airbnb, TaskRabbit) allow for evading taxes, laws, and stakeholder protections and could erode the societal achievements of the past 150 years. At the global level, the course demonstrates that technological innovation in industrialized countries impacts the economy in developing countries. 

This course introduces the basic methods of economic reasoning. Topics covered in the course include supply and demand, gains from trade, market efficiency, externality, public goods, and theories of firm and market structure. The course uses a wide range of real-world examples to demonstrate the economic way of thinking. Students analyze economic phenomena and conduct policy analyses. The course focuses on the role of price in allocating scarce resources and the circumstances under which a market economy allocates resources efficiently. It also covers when the market fails to work efficiently and discusses the common policy tools to improve efficiency.

Organizations increasingly face diverse types of crises, such as natural disasters, accidents, scandals, employee discrimination, or cyber-attacks. Crises have negative, long-term consequences for organizations’ functioning, profitability, legal system, reputation, and human resource management systems. Managing organizational crises is, therefore, complicated and challenging, as it is difficult for organizations, leaders, and individuals to perform under urgent, ambiguous, stressful, and emotional situations. This course offers a framework to help understand how organizational crises arise and insight into the complexity of crisis management. The course consists of two main parts: (1) conditions that affect the vulnerability to an organizational crisis; and (2) crisis management. The first part concentrates on the factors that make an organization crisis-prone, such as human, social-cultural, and organizational-technological causes. The second part discusses crisis management, including what organizations can do to prevent crises and how to contain and resolve organizational crises.

This course covers important topics in economic growth and development. It focuses on two distinct but related questions: why does income per capita differ so much across countries? And why have some countries experienced rapid and sustained economic growth and caught up with advanced economies, while others have not?