Economics

This course introduces students to the main political economy issues that have driven the process of European integration from the aftermath of WWII to an uncertain present. Students investigate the European economic integration by revealing the interactions between economic efficiency and socio-political interests. To do so, the course first provides a historical and institutional background on the early formation and later evolution of the European Union. It then covers in more details specific EU policies and areas of interest related to both macroeconomics (monetary and fiscal policy, with a focus on crisis times) and microeconomics (trade and competition in the single market, distributive issues, labor market, and welfare policies). Students apply theoretical knowledge from alternative schools of thought (neoclassical economics versus critical political economy) to explore different angles and appreciate the complexity of EU economic policy-making.

This course introduces the principles of investments and major issues currently of interest to all investors. It focuses on stock markets, portfolio theory and practice, equilibrium in capital markets, efficient market hypothesis, and behavior and portfolio performance evaluations. The course explores intuition and practical applications of investment theory and analytical analysis. 

This course provides an introduction to the major economic issues of our time in order to master conceptual and empirical tools. The teaching style reverses the way economics is traditionally taught; instead of starting with the derivation of models, this course starts with a historical or current question or issue and sheds light on it through the use of economic models and concepts. It covers both the benefits of modeling and the inevitable shortcomings of the models used. The course provides a better understanding of major contemporary debates and issues with a strong political and social dimension, such as inequality, climate change, the sources of prosperity and innovation, economic instability and crises, and economic and public policy. It offers a rigorous theoretical introduction informed by recent empirical research and incorporates recent advances in economics, including strategic interactions, contract and information theory, behavioral economics, and new experimental methods. Microeconomics and macroeconomics are treated jointly.

This course introduces the basic economic rationale of major innovation policy measures as well as the principles and methods used for their evaluation. It covers simple treatments of the key economic problems addressed by the most important among such policies, coupled with data and examples on how they are implemented and evaluated. Topics include: key vocabulary, market-failure versus systemic policies, supply- versus demand-side policies, knowledge as a public good, supply-side policies; R&D policies: public science, public support to private R&D; intellectual property rights: classic model (dynamic versus static welfare trade-off), advanced topics (cumulative innovation), demand-side policies; and diffusion of innovations.

This course provides an overview of modern financial markets and instruments and introduces the fundamentals of valuation and financial theories that help understand asset prices and investments.  The course covers money markets; capital markets; fixed income securities; derivatives; portfolio theory; the Capital Asset Pricing model; the Arbitrage Pricing Model, and market efficiency. 

This course gives an overview of quantitative finance and introduces mathematical concepts and data analytic tools used in finance. The topics include interest rate mathematics, bonds, mean-variance portfolio theory, risk diversification and hedging, forwards, futures and options, hedging strategies using futures, and trading strategies involving options.

The motivation behind this course ensures that students, regardless of their background, can comprehend economic knowledge through real-life examples they have directly experienced or encountered in the media. Additionally, the course aids students in formulating rigorous logic and enhancing communication skills through the analysis of various case studies, both individually and in groups. The opportunity to share thoughts with peers further contributes to their development. Overall, the course provides principles and frameworks that assist in making better decisions in various aspects of life.  

This course approaches the economics of refugees as a theme in its own right within the economics of migration. It provides a comprehensive overview of the contemporary issues involved in receiving people who are forced to move to developed countries. It considers subjects that the tools of economics can decipher and interconnect to inform public decision-making, such as international law, public policy, the behavior of populations in host countries, the impact on the labor market, and climate change, as well as NGOs, international institutions, and companies in the social economy. 

This course introduces topics relevant for understanding the modern framework for evaluating investment opportunities. It combines key elements of managerial accounting and finance, as well as modern portfolio and asset pricing theory. The course discusses how to apply the core tool of analytic finance to assess the value of company projects, including those undertaken by start‐ups, and how to analyze financial market conditions to recommend investment strategies. The course discusses topics including key accounting metrics and applying these metrics to evaluate the performance of a company; identity and interpretation techniques to value cash flows from investing in firm projects; developing equity valuation frameworks that link stock prices to firm cash flows and risk; deriving optimal allocation rules for investing in portfolios with one or two risky assets; identifying optimal portfolio allocation rules for many risky assets, such as stocks, commodities, real estate, and bonds; combining the optimal allocation rules with index models to identify the degree of diversification in an optimal portfolio; hypothesizing and deriving a linear relation between risk and expected returns; define factors that determine bond prices; and synthesizing bond pricing relations with no‐arbitrage equilibrium models of spot and forward rates.

This course provides an overview of the main thematic areas in international political economy. The course combines mainstream and critical approaches, addressing topics from State-level politics to those at the economic and cultural levels. The course provides the opportunity to engage and interpret international events using the field’s theoretical tools. It discusses various approaches to ongoing events and underlying political, economic, and cultural reasons for them and identifies the main issues in international political economy and analyzes them critically.