Economics

This course provides an intermediate-level study of international financial markets and open economy macroeconomics. Topics include the foreign exchange market, theory of exchange rate determination, open economy macroeconomics, and international macroeconomic policy. Theory, empirical analysis and policy frameworks are studied to analyze current issues and topical problems of international financial economics. 

This course introduces foundations of microeconomic theory, including how individual consumers and producers make decisions and how different market mechanisms operate to allocate resources. The course emphasizes problem solving using calculus (rather than graphs and tables in introductory courses). Therefore, students are expected to have some background in multivariable calculus. 

Economic science was built around the debate over the existence or otherwise of a harmonious, spontaneous order, ensuring the coordination of decentralized individual actions. The notions of order and disorder are understood by economists through the concepts of equilibrium, disequilibrium, optimum, crisis and regulation, as well as rationality and self-control. Equilibrium refers to a situation in which the plans of agents are compatible with each other, and in which the rational decisions of individuals are optimal and coherent. Imbalance, whether in the market or during individual decision-making, refers to the opposite situation. An equilibrium can be optimal, i.e. efficient, or sub-optimal; it can be stable or unstable, i.e. it can reproduce itself or not. This course examines how economic theories have historically tried to answer the question of whether the economy tends spontaneously towards a harmonious or optimal "natural" equilibrium or order, or whether it tends towards imbalance, disorder, crisis or the irrationality of individual decision-making. This questioning implies an inter-disciplinary reading of the discipline of economics, which itself draws on concepts of equilibrium and rationality from the natural and life sciences (such as physics, biology, neuroscience, etc.), as well as from other social and human sciences such as psychology, sociology, philosophy and anthropology.

This course is structured around the organizational content of general mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities. Beginning with the institutional environment of M&A, it systematically elaborates on the strategic choices, procedural steps, valuation modeling, transaction structure design, and financing strategies involved in M&A, all supported by specific case studies. Additionally, the course provides a comprehensive introduction to restructuring activities such as corporate alliances, exit and restructuring strategies, and the dissolution of failing enterprises, as well as cross-border M&A activities. Through this approach, the course aims to thoroughly and systematically present and teach the processes, tools, and solutions related to acquisitions, mergers, and corporate restructuring.

The course shall provide an overview of modern financial technology. Topics include digital banking, trading, artificial intelligence applications, big data, textual analysis, blockchain and regulatory challenges.

This course focuses on the fundamental financial theories and applications that explain how investors, managers, corporations and other market participants interact and behave in the financial markets and what affects and drives their decisions, as well as the implication of those decisions and interactions. It also considers how corporate financial managers make financing decisions and manage financial risks. The course covers several major aspects of financial analysis and decision making that are important to modern corporations, including the valuation of projects and securities, capital structure choice, working capital management, and the management of international risks. While many of the theories and tools in financial management assume well-functioning capital markets with rational economic agents, the course also covers alternative perspectives based on key insights from the field of Behavioral Finance.

The course introduces students to the origins of modern economic thought; the development of the main traditions and the differences and controversies between them, and demonstrates their contemporary relevance. It examines the history of economic ideas and the evolution of the main schools of economic thought from the 18th century to the present day. 

This course covers econometrics techniques for analyzing data to answer various economic and financial questions. The course introduces the nature of econometrics and economic data, then examines various types of regression analysis.

This course explores the quantitative instruments needed to pose and analyze economic problems with the aid of a formal model. Topics include: concepts of matrices and algebra of matrices; analysis of dynamic economic models; differential and difference equations and systems; examination of the qualitative behavior of solutions.