Economics

Covid-19 is an infectious disease caused by a type of virus, manifesting itself in individual human beings; but the covid-19 pandemic is not just a health issue, but a social and economic phenomenon. This course explores the economics and politics of the covid-19 pandemic and the policy response (health-related, economic and social) in the UK and other countries. It does not cover specific medical or scientific aspects of covid-19 as a disease, but beyond that discusses a wide range of topics relating both to the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic. There is a particular focus on how and why policy decisions were taken; and on the longer-term implications. 

This courses introduces students to the basic concepts of financial economics. Topics covered include how to value assets that generate a sequence of cash flows over time for their owners; guidelines for capital budgeting decisions by firms; how firms raise money from equity markets and bond markets; the trade-off between risk and return in financial assets; basic principles for investing wealth in a portfolio; and the theory and practice of corporate financial structure.

The purpose of this course is to provide learners with an overview of asset pricing and asset allocation—how economic actors (individuals, organizations) allocate their limited wealth or resources to diversified financial assets such as stocks, bonds, and derivatives, in order to obtain a reasonable cash flow and risk-return characteristics. The course is divided into four parts. The first part covers fundamentals of investment, which focuses on the research object, meaning, process, markets, and instruments of the investment. Part two covers the capital market equilibrium theory and includes the mean-variance theory, capital asset pricing model (CAPM), exponential model and the arbitrage pricing theory (APT), the efficient market hypothesis (EMH), and behavioral finance theory. Part three consists of the analysis and valuation of securities. This section introduces the valuation and analysis of three categories of financial instruments, fixed-income securities, equity securities, and derivative securities. Part four covers fund investment management and performance evaluation. After the valuation of investment instruments, the next procedures are assets allocation according to the risk appetite of different investors, investment funds management, portfolio management, and investment performance evaluation.

This course teaches the theoretical foundations of behavioral economics and its application to international economics. It discusses new analytical methods and theories proposed by behavioral economics based on empirical analysis to understand economic behavior between countries and differences in various economic phenomena.

This course offers the foundation of modern macroeconomics. It introduces both models and empirics of economic growth; cross-country income differences, and productivity. The class familiarizes one with key concepts and issues in macroeconomics and enables them to shape their own analyses using models and data.