Economics

This course is a professional basic course that must be offered by undergraduate students of economics and management and expounds the basic theory of modern microeconomy. Microeconomics takes micro individuals as the research object, revolves around the allocation of scarce resources, and its central theory is price theory. Specifically, it studies consumer preferences and demand, manufacturer production and supply, competitive supply and market power in commodity markets, general equilibrium theory and externalities, etc. Through the study of the above theories, microeconomics provides explanations and guidance for the production behavior and consumption behavior of market subjects. Through the study of this course, students should understand the research object, research paradigm and framework system of microeconomics, know how micro individuals allocate resources and maximize returns under the action of market mechanism, and understand the internal laws and limitations of micro market economy operation. The teaching of this course should implement the principle of linking theory with practice, focus on explaining the basic theories, basic knowledge and basic skills of economics, cultivate students' initial ability to analyze and explain economic phenomena, and be able to apply the learned theories to the analysis of real economic management problems.

This course explores the concept of circular economy and sustainable development through the prism of private business including three primary subcategories: sustainable public purchases, sustainable corporate conduct under renewed corporate law rules, and sustainable consumption and support of environmental legislation at the international level. It discusses the newest developments in EU law for each subcategory. 

The first part of the course focuses on the foundations of public economics. The course introduces classical theories concerning equity, efficiency, and the rationales for government intervention in the economy. Students discuss market failure in the context of public goods and externalities, including environmental policy. They also discuss problems of public choice and political economics, and the implications of recent research in behavioral economics for policymaking. Students also study modern empirical methods that are used to evaluate the causal effects of public policies. The second part of the fall term considers social insurance policies, including unemployment insurance, disability insurance, retirement pensions, and public health insurance. Students study the economic rationale for government intervention in social insurance and the optimal type and extent of interventions, and they relate this to empirical evidence on the causal effects of changes in social insurance policies. In the spring term, the course is devoted to tax and transfer programs. The course begins by examining the incentive effects of taxes and transfers on labor supply, and then goes on to consider migration, tax avoidance, and tax evasion. As inequality is a key input to tax and transfer policy, we critically examine the measurement of and trends over time in income and wealth inequality in various countries. We look at the effect of taxation on economic efficiency and explore the optimal taxation of commodities and income. Finally, we consider questions of tax administration and apply them in a developing country context.

Why do we need social security? Will the private sector be able to provide them? This course emphasizes the criteria of efficiency and equity, as government plays an important role in performing the function of income redistribution through the social securities. The course also studies the theories and practices of social securities related to income distribution and redistribution. Hence, this course also tries to analyze social security from the viewpoints of welfare economics. In Japan, social security is composed of social insurance and social welfare. There was a huge increase of social security expenditures in Japan with the aging of society following the drastic increase of issuances of national bonds in the early 1990s. We discuss Japanese current systems of social securities, including annuity pensions, health care, and other social welfare programs.

Course objective:

1) The students should learn how to describe games in the formal language of game theory.
2) Students should also learn how to recognize the major strategic considerations and predict the behavior in games using the concepts of game theory.
3) At the end of the course the students should be able to analyze and solve complicated games

This subject is an elective course in management science. Game theory is the mathematical study of multi-person strategic interactions, in which an individual’s success depends on his/her own choice as well as the choices of others. Game theory has applications in many fields, such as politics, economics, biology, and computer science. The goal of this course is to give you a thorough introduction into game theory. The students should learn how to describe games in the formal language of game theory. Students should also learn how to recognize the major strategic considerations and predict the behavior in games using the concepts of game theory. At the end of the course the students should be able to analyze and solve complicated games. We will discuss four classes of games: static games of complete information, dynamic games of complete information, static games of incomplete information and dynamic games of incomplete information. Corresponding to these four classes of games will be four notions of equilibrium in games: Nash equilibrium, subgame-perfect Nash equilibrium, Bayesian Nash equilibrium and perfect Bayesian equilibrium. Furthermore, we’ll use many examples related to platform economy to illustrate the basic ideas in this course.

This seminar provides students with an introduction to the study of contemporary Chinese political economy. The early sessions of the course will place China’s economic development in global historical context before examining the characteristics of the Maoist command economy as well as reformers’ approach to marketization after 1978. Later sessions will focus on current issues relating to the state’s efforts to establish a sustainable, equitable and innovative economy. The final sessions examine China’s role in an increasingly turbulent global economy. Working closely with the instructor, students will write a research paper on a topic related to the contemporary Chinese political economy.

This course provides a general and base knowledge of modern industrial organization based on strategic interaction among firms and consumers. The course examines the functioning of the markets by analyzing the behavior of non-competitive firms, also with the tools of modern game theory. Industrial policies and regulation are discussed together with the principles of competition policy. The course discusses topics including introduction and microeconomics background; game theory and oligopoly; market structure; non-price strategies; and competition policy and regulation.

The course broadens, and selectively deepens, students' understanding of finance, building on their existing knowledge of financial economics. The course covers a broad range of topics, with both a theoretical and an empirical emphasis. These include topics in corporate finance, investments and performance evaluation, and international finance. The course consists of two interchangeable ten-week components, one on investments and international finance, and the other on corporate finance.

This course focuses on derivatives, with a particular emphasis on equity derivatives (standard call and put options, exotic options), futures and forward contracts, and interest rate derivatives (swaps, caps and floors, swaptions). It systematically addresses three basic questions: how do these products work, i.e. what are their payoffs? How can they be used, for hedging purposes or as part of trading strategies? And above all: how are they priced? The course emphasises a small number of powerful ideas: absence of arbitrage, replication, and risk-neutral pricing. These are typically introduced in the context of discrete-time models, but the course also covers some well-known continuous-time models, starting with a comprehensive treatment of the Black-Scholes model. The level of mathematics is appropriate for third-year students with a solid quantitative background.

The course provides a comprehensive introduction to the modern theory of finance. It describes the functioning of the main asset markets, the most important theories explaining the formulation of prices of financial assets, and the role of financial markets in the optimal allocation of risk bearing. Students develop an understanding of the economics and characteristics of the main financial assets.