Economics

This course offers an intensive introduction into the field of economic psychology. After a review of basic principles of rational decision-making under uncertainty, the first part of the course gives an overview of psychological research related to judgment and decision-making. Examples include insights from psychology on how decision-makers assess probabilities and how they evaluate the outcomes resulting from their decisions. Actual patterns of judgment and decision-making are compared to basic principles of rational decision-making in order to detect systematic behavioral regularities and biases of real decision-makers. The second part of the course deals with examples of how psychological regularities influence economic decision-making in the field and the importance of these regularities for law and policy. Finally, the course gives an introduction to the field of neuroeconomics.

The course examines the issues of intercultural competence, cultural identity, and cultural diversity in European business context. Various case studies are considered from strategic, organizational, and marketing perspectives. The course enhances understanding of the high variety of European business cultures and explores the corresponding variety of management and marketing styles. Special attention is paid to the present burning economic issues of the European Union, business ethics, and the standards of corporate social responsibility as well as to the challenging aspects of managing diversity and multicultural team development. Ethnically diverse markets are viewed as rich opportunities which ethnic communities offer. Companies in different parts of Europe are subject to analysis, including their efforts to work successfully across borders. Students are involved in a process of self-reflection through learning about the different stages of cultural assimilation in a European business environment.

The course introduces the basic concepts of corporate finance both in practice and theory. It focuses on how firm raise money, how to evaluate a firm’s value, and how firms make investment decisions. Specific topics addressed in the course are the valuation of companies, the operating capital of company, the costs of capital, the ways of raising money both equity and bonds, the rules of evaluating investment and liquidity management.