Economics

The course introduces the basic principles and methods of investment decisions, financing decisions and asset management to familiarize students with possible theoretical explanations of these practices. It emphasizes the present value theory, capital structure theory, dividend policy, corporate governance, corporate control theory and other major corporate finance theories and the possible theoretical explanations of corporate financial decisions.

Public economics (or public finance) is the study of the role of government in the economy. It deals with the formulation, execution, and effects of government policy, or more generally with non-market mediated policies. This study involves answering the following four broad questions: When should the government intervene in the economy? How might the government intervene? What is the effect of those interventions on economic outcomes? Why do governments choose to intervene in the way that they do? The government differs from other organizations because it can use legal instruments to enact policies and may also have different goals than other actors in the economy. The typical allocation mechanism for scarce resources in markets is the price mechanism, which – under particular circumstances – aggregates information and preferences of many different individuals in an efficient way. If these assumptions are not met or Pareto efficiency alone is not a sufficient criterion since a particular allocation is "unfair", there might be room for intervention by the public sector. We will discuss arguments for when government intervention is warranted and whether such intervention is beneficial. This course provides basic knowledge of the functioning and the relevance of the public sector. The topics include (i) market failures such as incomplete information, public goods, and externalities, (ii) issues with fairness, inequality, poverty, redistribution, and taxation, and (iii) political decision-making and elections. These topics will be analyzed from a normative (welfare economic) as well as from a positive (explanatory) perspective, with emphasis on the relevance and limitation of traditional economic theory. After the course, you should be able to reflect and recognize the strength but also some of the limitations of traditional economic theory and interpret some basic empirical evidence. You should also be able to critically assess political and economic discussions pertaining to the public sector.

This course introduces the principles of microeconomics. It serves as an introduction of economics to an audience that is not familiar with calculus. (Those who have taken calculus should consider taking microeconomics instead). There are various classroom experiments throughout the semester, and students are expected to participate actively in them. Topics: production possibility frontier and gains from trade; supply and demand; elasticity and intervening the market; markets and welfare; classical market failure; competitive markets; monopoly; monopolistic competition; oligopoly; factor market, wage differentials, and discrimination; asymmetric information, political economy, and behavioral economics. Text: Mankiw, PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS. Assessment: final exam, midterm exam, homework and quiz, classroom experiment participation.

This course covers the economic history of the 20th century focusing primarily on Asia. It thus continues where the first semester left off, but this semester can be taken as an independent course. The first half of the semester gives an overview of the history of individual economies. Then the second half of the semester looks at different topics in 20th-century economic history. Topics include the West, the Soviet Union, japan, China, Korea, India, Thailand, Indonesia, agriculture, demography, manufacturing, international trade, war and imperialism, economic crises, and economic policy. Assessment: participation, group projects, final exam, midterm quiz.

This course provides an introduction to classical and recent models of international trade and their predictions of trade patterns, with some consideration of empirical studies and policy issues. More precisely, it introduces students to the remarkable growth of international trade in recent decades; the Gravity model, classic models of trade theory, such as the theory of comparative advantage; the Specific Factor model and the Heckscher–Ohlin model, always focusing on the empirical relevance and usefulness of the theories. It also covers new trade theory, i.e. trade models incorporating economies of scale, imperfect competition, and product differentiation. Finally, it provides tools to analyze the economic effects of various trade policies.