Economics

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 introduces the main principles of marketing and customer relationship management, and their impact on the current economic, social and technological environment. Topics include: marketing strategy; product marketing (strategic planning, the “4Ps”, product life cycle management); customer marketing (buying behaviors, customer life cycle, segmentation, targeting, positioning); qualitative, quantitative surveys; CRM principles; digital marketing, impact of Artificial intelligence on Marketing and CRM. These subjects are studied based on appropriate case studies such as L'Oréal (Marketing Strategy), Apple (new product launch), Procter & Gamble (how to promote non “differentiated” products), and Facebook.

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.

This is a course in both theoretical and applied portfolio analysis. Topics covered include problems related to mean-variance theory, index models, equilibrium and arbitrage pricing models, theories about efficient markets, valuation and evaluation of portfolio management, and investment analysis. The course aims at training students in using software in order to identify optimal portfolios under different market conditions.

Full course description

The long-run economic development of countries, as well as inequality within countries are the major topics of this course. The long-run growth part deals with topics such as basic growth theories, including institutions, population, education, health, and migration. The inequality part relates to how the distribution of income, access to education, health services, or infrastructure can be highly uneven and become a major obstacle for economic development. Throuhout the course, policy implications and potential actions related to these topics are taken into consideration and discussed.

Course objectives

• To provide participants with an overview of major economic concepts and policies in development issues, such as growth and population dynamics, education, aid, trade and debt. 
• To deliver the skills needed to consider development problems and approach them in a rigorous and critical way, using both economic theories and policy analysis. 

Prerequisites

SSC1027 Principles of Economics. Knowledge of basic quantitative concepts such as reading and working with graphs and simple equations is also a prerequisite.