Economics

This is an advanced course considering the economic forces that govern the geographic distribution of economic activity and its implications for economic outcomes and public policy issues. The course is divided in two parts. The first part develops a simple theory of cities as the result of the interaction between agglomeration and congestion forces. It proceeds to study in detail the agglomeration forces that attract firms, consumers, and workers to cities, as well as the congestion forces that limit the size of cities and how to overcome them through transportation networks and housing markets. The second part of the course extends the basic model to study a system of many locations, the dynamics of city growth and decline, and to conclude, the role of cities and geography for climate change.

This course covers intermediate mathematical methods presented in contexts relevant for economists and students of connected subject fields. It equips students with operational skills in applying intermediate, applied-mathematical methods to problems taken from various contexts in economics and social sciences; and to train students in planning and systematically executing lengthy calculations both on paper as well as using software aids such as Mathematica/Matlab/Python.

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.