Economics

This course seeks to immerse students in a professional work environment. Students have the opportunity to observe and interact with co-workers, and learn how to recognize and respond to cultural differences. Students compare concepts of teamwork and interpersonal interactions in different cultures as experienced on the job. Seminar work helps students apply academic knowledge in a business setting and identify opportunities to create value within the company. Students research a specific topic related to their work placement and present their findings in a final research report.

This course provides an overview of world and East Asian economic history from the late 19th century to the present and cultivates a historical approach essential to understanding economics by introducing major research topics pertaining to each era and from diverse fields. 

This course builds independent research ability by introducing students to reading key historic documents, conducting research on modern economic history, and writing research papers. The course encourages a comparative historical perspective by juxtaposing European economic history with that of China, Japan, and Korea. 

This course introduces students to some major growth models (both traditional and contemporary) and cross-cutting issues such as gender and sustainable development, poverty, and inequality. The course also exposes issues such as the relationship between Aid debt and growth and trade and growth.

This course examines the causes and correlates of global poverty, and investigates the policies used to address it. The approach of the course is microeconomic, meaning that it focuses on individual and household behaviors, as well as market failures which lead to sub-optimal choices by these individuals. It covers measurement of poverty and inequality, the role of health and education in poverty, problems in credit, savings, and insurance markets, the causes and effects of migration, environmental degradation, and child labor. 

This introductory course in macroeconomics teaches the insights of macroeconomic theory from a real-world perspective. The course combines chapters from the Blanchard textbook and units from the textbook The Economy to present a picture of contemporary macroeconomic problems and theories.  The course starts with an introduction to key macroeconomic concepts, the use of models, the general equilibrium, and emerging properties. The second session focuses on economic fluctuations and the importance of multiplier effects. The next step is to analyze the importance and effects of fiscal policy. To provide a tool for analyzing the effects of policies, the wage and price setting model, and the Phillips curve are introduced. Special attention is given to the origins of inflation and the difference between supply and demand shocks. Next to fiscal policy, attention to monetary policy is given, after the role of the banking system in the economy is defined. The final session focuses on the specific problems that are related to the Eurozone countries; fixed exchange rates, the (non)optimal currency area, sovereign debt problems, and structural imbalances.

This service-learning course combines a structured curriculum and extensive partnership with a local community-based organization to offer tangible community service. Here, student community service includes direct
engagement as well as a research-based action plan addressing a specific challenge or goal identified by a community-based organization. Students begin by exploring key community-based organizations: examining their
mission, vision and goals, and the place of the organization in the local community. Each student then works with an assigned partner organization and invests at least 90 hours partnering with the organization, working with them
and investigating ways to solve a challenge or issue the organization has identified. Student service-learning includes exploring the proximate and ultimate drivers of the organization's chosen challenge, and the organization's
infrastructure, resources, limitations and possibilities for reducing barriers to achieving the organization's self-identified goals. In concert, coursework probes the role of community-based organizations in both local and global
contexts, common challenges of community-based organizations in defining and implementing their goals, the role of service-learning in addressing these issues, and effective ways for students to help them achieve their mission,
vision, and goals. Coursework also guides the student's service-learning experience by helping students develop sound international service ethics, provide tools to investigate solutions to common development issues, aid in
data analysis and presentation, and provide best practices to illustrate findings and deliver approved joint recommendations orally and in writing. Throughout, students use service-learning as a means to expand their global awareness and understanding, explore shared aspirations for social justice, and develop skills to work with others to effect positive change.

Public Economics is about how the public sectors that represent ‘the State’ promote the public interest. This course is situated in the context of democratic countries that rely mostly on free markets. It deals with practical or real-life aspects of public economics in confrontation with micro- and macro-economic theory. Over time, economic theories and models have become more specific and rigorous whereas social, political, and economic reality has become more multifaceted. The passing of time brings complexity to the world, both for the private market and that of the public sector. Part of this growing real-life complexity is due to the more ambitious role that governments tried to play since the last century, while part is due to choices made by governments themselves. Complexity has increased opportunities for abuses, rent-seeking, and for mistakes in policies. This complex reality with its ‘wicked problems’ makes it much more difficult for governments to (a) allocate resources, (b) redistribute income, (c) protect some incomes and influence, in various ways, the level of production, employment, prices, and economic activity appropriately to the economic theoretical standards. The goal of this course is to engage in this complex issue from the perspective of public economics, and from there to design a public finance solution to some wicked problem. Entry Requirements include courses in Micro or Macro Economics and Statistics.

This course primarily focuses on economic analysis in terms of welfare. Topics include how to evaluate market allocations based on efficiency, how to achieve efficient allocations through the market, and when the market fails in achieving efficient allocations.  

Students will study market structures besides the competitive market such as standard monopoly (uniform pricing), monopoly behavior (price discrimination) and oligopoly (basic concepts in game theory are also covered).  

Additionally, the course will consider exchange, production, welfare, social choice (e.g., an investigation of voting rules), and externalities (If time allows).  

This course emphasizes the development of microeconomic models to analyze economic decision-making of agents and provides students with the basic toolkit of microeconomic theory in preparation for advanced further coursework.  

Prerequisites: Principles of Microeconomics, Basic calculus 

The extensive independent study field research paper produced by the student is both the centerpiece of the intern's professional engagement and the culmination of the academic achievements of the semester. During the preparatory session, IFE teaches the methodological guidelines and principles to which students are expected to adhere in the development of their written research. Students work individually with a research advisor from their field. The first task is to identify a topic, following guidelines established by IFE for research topic choice. The subject must be tied in a useful and complementary way to the student-intern's responsibilities, as well as to the core concerns of the host organization. The research question should be designed to draw as much as possible on resources available to the intern via the internship (data, documents, interviews, observations, seminars and the like). Students begin to focus on this project after the first 2-3 weeks on the internship. Each internship agreement signed with an organization makes explicit mention of this program requirement, and this is the culminating element of their semester. Once the topic is identified, students meet individually, as regularly as they wish, with their IFE research advisor to generate a research question from the topic, develop an outline, identify sources and research methods, and discuss drafts submitted by the student. The research advisor also helps students prepare for the oral defense of their work which takes place a month before the end of the program and the due date of the paper. The purpose of this exercise is to help students evaluate their progress and diagnose the weak points in their outline and arguments. Rather than an extraneous burden added to the intern's other duties, the field research project grows out of the internship through a useful and rewarding synergy of internship and research. The Field Study and Internship model results in well-trained student-interns fully engaged in mission-driven internships in their field, while exploring a critical problem guided by an experienced research advisor.

This course explores the complex interactions between international politics and the global economy, encompassing subjects ranging from geopolitics, security, climate change, global financial systems, and the impact of technology on international trade. 

Students will examine the evolving dynamics of international political economies to navigate the complexities of global economic policymaking process, through a thorough engagement with current case studies to understand the impact of economic decisions on global political structures and vice versa.