Economics

The lecture develops a theoretical framework that is useful to think about a wide variety of topics in international macroeconomics (along the lines of “INTERNATIONAL MACROECONOMICS” by Schmitt-Grohé, Uribe, and Woodford.). The tutorial helps understand the material of the lecture in different ways. First, some additional derivations of theoretical and empirical results are provided. Second, applications of the theory are illustrated.

Ethics is characterized by a discourse on moral values, norms and standards, and the decision-making on the basis of sound argumentation. This ethics course confronts students with ethical and responsibility dilemmas which they study, reflect on, and discuss in small groups. Students who complete this course master the core insights of business ethics theory and corporate responsibility. All participants should have a basic understanding of the functioning of organizations, management of and co-ordination within organizations, organizational ecology, co-ordination mechanisms in industries, and of economic order.

This course covers the most important areas of financial economics and investments. The course explores how financial markets work and how they price financial securities and assets. As witnessed in the recent 2008-2009 financial crisis, financial market risks can have spillovers to the whole macroeconomy. Therefore, to understand macroeconomic risks, it is important to have a solid understanding of how financial markets work. The course discusses topics including portfolio selection, equilibrium asset pricing, arbitrage, fixed income securities, and derivatives. Students are required to have completed courses in calculus and statistics as a prerequisite for this course.

Economic development affects the living standards and options of people. The question of why some countries grow much faster than others is perhaps the central question in the study of development. This course approaches this question by reviewing and explaining the logic behind the most important arguments that have been advanced to account for differences across countries in rates and levels of economic development. The emphasis is on the studies of growth (both theoretical models and empirical work), population structure, inequality, poverty, fiscal policies, financial development and trade.