Economics

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.

The objective of the course is to explain the core debates in International Development, and to review potential policy interventions at global, national, and sub-national levels. The approach adopted in the course draws from political science and international relations, with a focus on political economy. 

This course uses concepts and tools in microeconomics. The purpose of the course is to clarify phenomena and problems that are inherent in the market economy by an examination of the laws and economic systems that support the internal and contractual structure of the market. In particular, the course focuses on Coase Theorem and its application to nuisance law, sales law, and tort law. This is a lecture course, but students are expected to work on "legal cases" in three groups (plaintiff, defendant, and judge or jury) in each class, and are expected to participate in the deliberations of the cases among the three groups.
 

This course provides an introduction to Market Finance, with both an empirical and theoretical content. The objective is twofold: first, to give students an overview of how financial markets behave, and their main empirical features; second, to provide them with conceptual tools to understand these stylized facts via economic notions: the definition of risk, the quantity of risk, and the price of risk. The course starts with the introduction of these concepts. Via interactive games and experiments, students learn why the definition of risk, and how taking risk should be compensated for, may be complex, individual specific, and time varying. Various financial assets are covered in light of the definitions and concepts studied. In the second part of the course, the empirical evidence observed in financial markets over the past 100 years is studied. Students learn the main facts on financial market behaviors and how the evidence informs our understanding of investors' risk expectations and risk valuations. The pricing of SRI (Socially Responsible Investing) assets is discussed, as well as market behaviors since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis.