Economics

This course discusses consumer behavior and the variables affecting the decision-making process of purchases. It reviews the characteristics of consumer behavior, including internal variables such as motivations of buying behavior and the perception of marketing stimuli, as well as external socio-cultural, demographic variables.

This course studies industrial policy and management through case studies. Topics include the significance and issues of industrial policy, the global value chain that affects industrial policy, the digital economy following the 4th industrial revolution, the low-carbon economy due to climate change, and the circular economy perspective in consideration of the earth's limitations in natural raw material mining. The present status and future implications of Korea's industrial policy through comparative review with domestic and foreign industrial policies are checked through case studies of major industrial policies.

The course explores debates and approaches to the study of economic history in Africa, placing South Africa's economic history within the context of the continent as a whole. It examines the economic legacies of colonialism, and the place of institutions in the growth and development of the continent. Using comparisons between different regions and countries, this course investigates why countries which are resource rich have not been able to use these resources to improve living standards and encourage broad-based economic development. It also examines the roles international business and labor have played in the economic history of individual countries. Finally, the course tracks the changing place of Africa in the global economy. Course entry requirements: At least two courses in historical, social science or cultural studies offered by the Faculty of Humanities.

The course explores the principles of financial analysis and provides a framework to understand how businesses’ values and risks are captured in financial statements and price them correctly. At the end of the course, students are able to understand various techniques in financial statement analysis; apply techniques to assess and compare firms’ financial position, performance, and credit risk; understand the limitations of financial statement numbers; extract accounting information to make forecasts and valuations; and select the most appropriate valuation model depending on the company analyzed. This course is relevant for students who want to pursue careers in investment banking (particularly in equity research), security analysis, private equity analysis, consulting firms, or corporate finance.

This course begins with the emergence of capitalism and industrialization in Europe, particularly in England, as opposed to countries like China. The first part of the course reviews and discusses the main theses that relates to given chapters in the theory of economic growth: trade and market integration, property rights and wage labor, institutions and state-building, finance, and colonialism. The second part of the course analyzes Western capitalism at its height and how it structured a new, integrated, global economy. This course also covers the issue of late industrialization and economic catch-up in the emerging economies at that time, such as Germany, before moving into the global goods and capital markets, colonization and imperialism, and the underlying fault-lines at work during the First Global Era that surfaced in the years immediately before and after World War I.

The course has four distinctive aspects. The first is a coverage of methodology and history of economic thought, which are not usually part of standard micro and macro courses. The purpose of this section is not to provide a narrative of what came before "current" economics and when, but to situate current economics historically so as to understand the context in which it emerged and its scope of application, and the institutional and political reasons for its persistence. The second aspect is a critical analysis of orthodox micro and macro theories. The purpose of this section is to examine central features of these theories, reveal their possible deficiencies, and bring out the sorts of considerations that could enhance our understanding of the economy. The third and fourth aspects of the course introduce students to two schools of thought alternative to the current orthodoxy, namely, Marxist economics and post-Keynesian economics.