Economics

This course develops an integrated framework of household finance for private and public use. It covers how to maximize intertemporal utility given an individual's life-cycle income; how to become rich if one wants to pay the price for it; how to save, borrow, and purchase property (and if one should do it at all); et cetera. In terms of public policy, the course provides a holistic view of wealth and income inequality, how poverty restricts sound financial decision making, and how policies can improve social outcomes by reducing (or increasing) income inequality. Topics include developing a sound integrated framework for individuals to manage their finances with a long-term horizon in mind (based on the permanent income hypothesis); analyzing the impact of credit restrictions and hyperbolic discounting in household financial management in poor and middle-income countries; investigating the role of public policy in improving household financial decisions; and explaining the determinants of wealth and income inequality and how economic policies can improve social outcomes. 

This course examines core managerial accounting concepts for planning, control, and decision-making. The course presents the concepts of cost and managerial accounting; analyzes accounting information for decision making purposes; and discusses contemporary managerial accounting techniques. 

This course is designed to introduce students to the systematic study of international political economy (IPE). It attempts to address major IPE theoretical approaches and issues within the field such as trade, finance, and capital movement. 

With the different food crisis and increased protectionism, agriculture is coming back in the policy makers' agendas. Food security, food sovereignty, and sustainability are now central to the debate. This course provides an understanding of the main challenges facing the world food markets. It introduces the basis of agricultural economics and policy with a particular focus on the European Common Agricultural Policy. The role of international institutions and trade liberalization is also discussed, in particular concerning developing countries. Agricultural specificities in the WTO and regional negotiations are detailed. Finally, policy evaluation tools are briefly presented, based on some examples.

This course introduces the basic elements of economic geography, such as the location, spatial pattern of economic activities, the distribution and exploitation of resources, and land use. It also examines the case of regional development, focusing on the features, problems, and alternatives of human land use.

Economic Geography is the study of the unequal distribution of the world’s resources and economic activity in the global space economy. While the geographic scale of analysis can vary - from a firm, to a cluster or community, to a city, to a country or a region, there is also an emphasis on the relationships between activities taking place within and across these various scales and ‘the global’. Economic factors exert an important influence, yet other factors such as cultural and political should not be ignored. This course highlights the geographic logic of economic activities in space, and relies on other relevant explanations when necessary to understand contemporary economic geographies. This course places particular emphasis on historical and contemporary economic events that have shaped East Asia. Also, there is an educational component to this course, particularly when it comes to energy, the environment, and the role of education as a tool to help foment positive changes for tomorrow’s society