Economics

This advanced-level lecture course covers standard topics of microeconomics. The first half looks at basic price theory and market efficiency, and the second half focuses on market failures (such as market power and asymmetric information) and analyzes whether or not the basic properties of competitive markets are continuing to hold. The course will also introduce game theory and its application as a basic tool.

This course provides a survey of environmental policy from the perspective of economics. Topics include principles of environmental economics, air pollution, and waste management. It focuses on the application of economic concepts to the analysis of environmental policy and the consequences of economic behavior on the environment. The main aim of the course is to learn how basic economic concepts can be applied to the analysis of economic and social incentives concerning individual and collective decision-making in the context of the environment. Prerequisite: Principle of Microeconomics. 

This is an advanced course considering the economic forces that govern the geographic distribution of economic activity and its implications for economic outcomes and public policy issues. The course is divided into two parts. The first part develops a simple theory of cities as the result of the interaction between agglomeration and congestion forces. It studies in detail the agglomeration forces that attract firms, consumers, and workers to cities, as well as the congestion forces that limit the size of cities and how to overcome them through transportation networks and housing markets. The second part of the course extends the basic model to study a system of many locations, the dynamics of city growth and decline, and to conclude, the role of cities and geography for climate change.

The course discusses the key economic policy areas of the European Union and offers an analysis of the different approaches to regional economic integration throughout the history of the European Union. The course analyzes the economic bases for the rise of the European Union from its origins in the post-World War II recovery to its historic enlargements in 2004 and 2007. The accession of the new Central and Eastern European Member-States (most recently Croatia in 2013) poses new challenges for the EU. Since Europe accounts for one-quarter of the global economy, half of the global trade, and a substantial part of world's capital markets, this course also looks at the impact of the European Union on other trading blocs like NAFTA. Competitiveness is the key word for globalization and the course focuses on different forms of market integration used inside the EU and discusses consequences for both competition policy and industrial policy. The theory of the economic integration process is applied to a business setting, with a series of business cases illustrating how a variety of firms are responding strategically to the establishment of the Economic and Monetary Union, Brexit, and the accession of new Member-States. Students are given advice and guidance on using case studies and how to evaluate the strategies and choices made by firms. Special attention is given to the present problems of the Euro crisis and corresponding consequences for national tax policies within the EU. The course may include a field trip.

This course provides intermediate econometric techniques used in empirical analysis, including least square estimation, serial correlation, simultaneous equation, granger causality, panel data analysis, logit regression and difference-in-difference approach. We focus on practical training using personal computer and statistic package of either Stata or R. Grade is determined by the terminal paper test and a report of empirical analysis.

This course begins with a historical perspective on the development of current economic and tech-structures, asking what is actually new. It then examines types of tech economies and forms of valuation, considering topics such as credit (e)valuations, the power of platforms, the producers of technology such as software engineers and users, prediction algorithms, digital money and markets, and surveillance capitalism. Anthropologists and social scientists from adjacent disciplines have the potential to contribute to both academic and public debates regarding economies of technology by engaging both critically and productively with the way that technology is shaping society and making specific assertions about what is “of value." Students develop their own argument about the changing economies of technology during the course using an empirical case and present their own case for feedback at a workshop, before writing the final essay. This course builds knowledge, skills, and competencies to engage with the current developments in tech by building on classical as well as current theoretical perspectives from fields including economic and digital anthropology, sociology, and science and technology studies.

This course studies French business with a focus on commercial, communication, and marketing strategies. Topics covered include selection of products, distribution channels, communication and business image, visual and sound identity, communication decisions, and business reputation. The course utilizes local, national, generalized, and specialized mass media.

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the basic structures and pricing theories for financial derivatives, including an examination of futures, forwards, options, swaps, and credit derivatives. Topics include basic pricing theories for the derivatives, arbitrage vs. hedge transactions, bond pricing, duration, term structure of interest rates, interest rate derivatives, binomial option pricing model vs. Black-Scholes model, implied volatility, numerical analysis, exotic options, market risk vs. credit risk, and several cases of financial risk management.

This course presents the theories of international commerce from a classical and neoclassical perspective. The course covers the Ricardian model of exchange, the Heckscher-Ohlin model, and contemporary theories of international commerce.

The initial focus is on the emergence of the industrial core and its relationship with the wider world. By 1914 the USA was the world industrial leader, with industrial output equal to that of France, Germany, and Britain combined. Accordingly the case of US economic development is considered in some detail. Global economic history is not just a history of the industrial core, though, and accordingly Chinese and Japanese economic history are also studied in some detail. In the 20th century, elements of the world economy disintegrated during the 1920s and 1930s, most especially the networks of trade and the international monetary system. This led to widespread depression, including in the USA, and students seek to understand what went wrong. The course concludes with a discussion of a second era of global economic expansion since 1945.