Economics

This course focusses on how economic and finance principles learned in the classroom can be, and have been, applied to answer real-life questions and address problems faced by individuals, corporations and governments with extensive use of real-world case studies. Covering macroeconomic, microeconomic and finance topics, we will discuss the role and goals of central banks in developed economies and the challenges they face in controlling inflation, encouraging economic growth, ensuring the safety and soundness of the banking system and dealing with asset price bubbles and credit crunches. Case studies will focus on central bank failures in these areas.

We will examine how financial markets have developed (often differently) around the world to address the core problems of asymmetric information, moral hazard and transactions costs that must be addressed in transferring funds from investors to firms. We will also focus on a number of current hot topics in economics and finance: i) the growth of cryptocurrencies, ii) the rise of the internet giants (Google, Facebook, Amazon), iii) the increasing importance of intellectual property for firms and economies and iv) the economics of free trade in a world of rising trade barriers. For each topic we will discuss what economics and finance has to say about the causes of these phenomena and what their effects are on individuals, firms and the economy as a whole.  

This course provides an introduction to microeconomics and macroeconomics together at the beginner level, which attempt to understand the behavior of individual entities such as markets, firms, households, and the economy as a whole. It focuses on a core set of fundamental concepts that help understand a broad range of macroeconomic and macroeconomic issues: scarcity, trade-offs, opportunity cost, incentive, marginal thinking, exchange, efficiency, information, etc. (microeconomics), the determination of output, employment, unemployment, interest rates, and inflation, monetary and fiscal policies, etc. (macroeconomics).

This course provides students with a sound knowledge and understanding of the major results of environmental economics. It delivers the fundamentals of rigorous economic analysis for continued undergraduate studies at a higher level, or graduate studies of environmental economics. 

This course studies the design of institutions that optimally cope with fundamental, longstanding economic questions (allocation of private goods, public good provision, externalities). It begins from a simple, institution-free description of each question to understand the basic tensions at work and derive institutions that optimally address these tensions. In the process, it introduces the important ideas of social choice, game theory, and market design and highlights the theoretical concepts using empirical applications and in-class games. Topics include social choice, efficiency, and welfare; game theory and incentives; institutions as mechanisms; and limits to efficiency.

Prerequisite: It is strongly encouraged that students to take the statistics/econometrics classes in the same semester if they have not yet done so.
 

This course provides an opportunity for students to conduct academic research in the field of economics; summarize research outcomes in a paper effectively, and present their research outcomes in an engaging manner. Given the increasing demand for data analysis skills in industry and academia, this course is designed to help students learn empirical skills and apply them in academic research.
 

This course explores the history of economic thought beginning with Adam Smith’s defense of market society at the start of the industrial revolution and Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism. It includes debates over socialist and development planning, the rise of development economics in the colonial and post-colonial context, and debates over the role of finance in shaping growth and inequality. The relationship between state, market, and society is a central theme – as is the contemporary relevance of economic thought for Africa. Additional lenses are also given to theories developed around African economic development and their linkages with other continents and development theories. Assessment: coursework (50%) and a final exam (50%).