Economics

This course delves into psychology and behavior when faced with risk, cognitive biases, and decision making. It discusses emotions and their relevance to economic phenomena and examines the works of Smith, Kahneman and Tversky, John Locke, Jeremy Bentham, and other names in psychological and behavioral economics.

This course provides students with an overview of the dynamics of the global financial and international monetary systems. Students develop knowledge of the fundamental concepts needed to understand foreign direct investment, financial flows, international trade and investment deals. As political risk and economic exposure to global events have become more immediate, special attention is given to the 2007-2012 world banking crisis, the role of central banks in the stabilization of national economies, national debts, and the specific economic challenges to which individual countries have been exposed in varying ways. Alternative views and policy measures to help struggling economies overcome the economic and financial crisis like contracting (or expanding) government spending are assessed and critically analyzed.

This course examines conceptual and mathematical models used to understand the spatial distribution of economic activity. It analyzes a variety of policy issues related to cities, such as urban transportation, pollution, housing, poverty, and crime.

This course expands on what constitutes real estate business in the modern society. The course provides knowledge and skills relevant to the multidimensional real estate business field, which includes asset management, property management, facility management, and real estate development. Focus is on different financing and management models, from the perspective of a business. A central theme is corporate governance, including corporate real estate management (CREM), and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The course also introduces futures studies and gives insight into managing and financing innovation in real estate.

This course examines economic analysis applied to law. Topics may include: efficiency of law, rules of liability, tort rights and remedies, criminal sanction, legislative processes as resource allocating and income distributing mechanisms. 

This course introduces the track on innovative and sustainable regions and sets the ground for the next course on themes. A broad perspective on innovation and sustainability is adopted. Innovation goes beyond creating economic opportunities only and addresses broader issues including quality of life and job opportunities for different types of workers; environmental sustainability and greening of firms and industries; the ability of regions to renew their profiles in response to major crises and to secure their economic development in the long run. Sustainability captures the ability of regions to innovate and renew itself and respond to major shocks (economically sustainable), to be socially inclusive (socially sustainable), and to green their economies (environmentally sustainable).

This seminar provides students with a greater understanding of the scientific study of the politics of international economic relations, in particular the politics of trade. The course emphasizes seminal as well as cutting-edge academic scholarship on a number of substantive topics, incl. the distributional consequences of trade and domestic sources of trade policy, the design and evolution of global trade governance under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and World Trade Organization, the politics of preferential trade agreements, as well as the relationship between trade, conflict, international investment, migration, and the global environment.

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.