Economics

The course offers a panoramic view of the evolution of economic ideas from classical political economy to the recent developments in macroeconomic and microeconomic theory. The first part of the course reviews the Great Crisis and classical political economy and the early history of microeconomics such as the Marginal Revolution, the Ordinal Revolution, and the birth of game theory. The second part of the course reviews Keynesianism, monetarism, and new classical macroeconomics and beyond with a focus on macroeconomics before Keynes, the Great Depression and Keynesianism, the Great Inflation, and the Great Crisis and clashing approaches. The third part of the course reviews the recent history of microeconomics, the axiomatization of utility theory, the theory of risky decisions, and the rise of behavioral economics. Previous exposure to first-year undergraduate macroeconomic and microeconomic courses is necessary and compulsory as a prerequisite.

This course provides an economic perspective on the environment and discusses the reasons behind why environmental problems exist, why unregulated markets sometimes fail in this context, and potential economic solutions to these problems, which include regulations, taxes, subsidies, and pollution permit trading schemes. Students investigate methods for determining the benefits and costs of environmental preservation.

Experiments in economics have generated new insights into how people behave. Together with earlier psychological work, they have spawned a new field in economics: behavioral economics. This course is concerned with how the insights from this new field contribute to some key debates and issues in political economy. 

This is an advanced course in macroeconomic theory. It examines macroeconomic and monetary issues, studies various models, and focuses on the role of policymakers in shaping macroeconomic outcomes. The final part of the course takes a close look at the recent financial crisis and the Great Recession. Topics include: reasons for economic growth and the policies for economic growth; the large differences in economic performance across different countries at different times; reasons for booms and recessions; government stabilization of the economy against business-cycle fluctuations; unemployment and policies to reduce unemployment; how central banks affect interest rates, and how interest rates affect the economy; role of central banks during a recession; financial crises; and how central banks should react to financial crises.