Economics

This course introduces financial economics. It develops a theoretical foundation for choice under uncertainty, portfolio analysis, and equilibrium asset pricing models. A considerable portion of the course is devoted to fixed-income and derivative securities. 

This course examines the economic techniques used by policymakers to address environmental issues. These techniques include: Pigovian taxes and subsidies; regulation with asymmetric information; marketable permits; pricing contributions for public goods; optimal damages; and the allocation of property-rights and market failures.

This course examines economy-wide issues in economic development. It covers topics such as social welfare, education, institutions, corruption, microfinance, foreign aid, the geography of economic development, and theories of economic growth and development. Special emphasis will be placed on drawing policy lessons from the latest research and country experience of growth and development.

This is an advanced course in corporate finance; prior coursework in financial accounting, statistics, and corporate finance is preferred.

The aim of the course is to bring students to the frontier of knowledge so that they can start doing their own research in this field.  This course focuses on the following topics in applied corporate finance: 

1) Topics related to the issues of climate and corporate governance; 

2) Topics related to climate change risk and opportunities exposures; 

3) Topics related to the issues of pollution on investor behavioral bias, and on corporate policies;

4) Topics related to climate change risk on government policies;

5) Topics related to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies;

6) Topics related to ESG equity; 

7) Topics related to ESG lending, and 

8) Other upcoming trending topics, including water quality. 

Economic activity is highly unevenly distributed across space, as reflected by the existence of cities. In 2018, about 831 million Chinese people crowded together in the urban part, accounting for 1 percent of the country’s land. Cities have been engines of growth. Cities are also filled with things to see, buy, taste, and learn. However, density also means congestion, makes living and commuting costly, and concentrates exposure to pollution and disease. This course aims to teach students how to apply the latest thinking and research in urban economics to analyze a series of topics related to urbanization in China and other urban-related issues worldwide. Students will learn how economists think about cities. We will explore why cities exist as they do, the natures, determinants, and impacts of geographic organization of economic activities, and a variety of urban policy issues such as the household registration system (hukou), the reforms in land and housing markets, urban land-use policies, transportation infrastructure investment, city and environment, spatial arrangements of educational resources, neighborhood transitions, and place-based policies. Students will learn about urban economic theory and analysis of empirical data sets in the context of addressing important urban-related questions. Empirical examples will be taken primarily from China, the United States, and some European countries. After taking this course, students will comprehensively understand the standard urban theory and empirical evidence on various important applied urban topics. This course will prepare students with many of the necessary tools to undertake their research in urban economics and related fields.

1. Understanding entrepreneur mindset;
2. Understand relevant literature and methodologies that promote innovation, creativity and disruption;
3. Identify potential problems and formulate solutions that may can be transformed in business opportunities;
4. Understand that its possible to become an entrepreneur despite limit available resources;
5. Identify opportunities with economic, social or environmental impact and be able to empathize with clients or market needs;
6. Develop abilities towards creative process and the capacity of approaching and solving problems in a different way.
7. Learn how to structure a customer map experience;
8. Understand how to communicate ideas and connect with potential customers;
9. Understand China innovation environment and the opportunities for entrepreneurs within this context
10.Identify growing trends in Chinese economy and how can these impact economic development cross boarders;
11. Interact with entrepreneurs carrying out business in China

Students need to be prepared for a world that has an unprecedented rate of change, specially, in countries such as China, with unparalleled levels of development, competition and digitalization. Traditional pedagogy is focused to create logical, sequential learning that is purposefully aimed at building competency or perspectives. Simulating experiences and a fully experiential entrepreneurship allows this course to complement those skills mentioned. This course applies design thinking, creative thinking, story telling and other entrepreneurial development creative theories.

Entrepreneurial development is aimed at providing students a set of tools and methodologies that will help them identify and develop business opportunities.

This course covers the theory and applications/empirical analyses of labor economics. It examines economic tools for analyzing the behavior of employers and employees and the inter-relationship of the major forces at work shaping demand and supply in labor markets. 

This course explores key concepts and recent advances in environmental economics with the view to addressing environmental policy questions. It is concerned with studying the interaction between human activity and the natural environment. Students capture work both on how economic growth can be made cleaner but also on how to mitigate the damages from this growth. The course illustrates how frontier theory and empirics from economics can be brought to bear on the key climate, environmental and energy challenges that face mankind. 

Public economics nestles economic activity in the government and the public sector. This course deals with assessing the government's role in the context of the broader economy. The course deals with understanding taxation, inequality, analysis of government policies, and the response of individuals to those policies. The course also discusses competition policy (why & when governments intervene in the functioning of markets), as well as government procurement.
 

The course offers the opportunities to:
- Understand the role of the government in the economy
- Analyze government policies, such as taxation, regulation, competition policy, and environmental policy
- Explore the empirical literature on public policy and its implications for policy design

Basic microeconomics (for example, ECO102) is a recommended prerequisite or corequisite of this course since many of the topics covered will presuppose an understanding of consumer theory, market equilibrium, elasticities, etc. 

This is an advanced class on industrial organization which presents various topics using practical examples. It examines the the way practical application of public policies (such as rules on competition, state aid) affects the functioning of economic markets. Prior coursework in applied economics and industrial organization is recommended.