Economics

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.

This course addresses how economic and psychological factors affect the economic decisions of individuals, focusing on their bounded rationality. Each class is composed of two parts. The first half of the class addresses the basic concepts and principles of Behavioral Economics, while the second half involves reading research articles and discussing the related research questions.

This course gives students a thorough introduction to the field of behavioral organizational economics. The course discusses seminal as well as current research papers in the field, featuring empirical studies as well as lab and field experiments. The goal of the course is to transfer research findings to real-world applications in organizations. Students study employment relationships between workers and organizations and get to know key factors that shape them in a positive way. Students focus on the two concepts of motivation and selection, and they learn about how to detect discrimination in the hiring process.

This course focuses on structure, functions, and current issues in the agri-food economy from input industry to farm processing to distribution and retail in Denmark, Europe, and internationally. The course covers issues such as the Danish agri-food industry; the European agri-food systems and trends; the economic organization of the agri-food industry; quality, food safety, and the consumer; globalization of food markets; chain management and organization in agri-food chains; and agri-food cooperatives and organizations.

This course considers current climate events and case studies in tandem with theoretical concepts and indicators. Topics include the ongoing debates and central concepts of green-growth; understanding the current climate crisis and its relationship with capitalism; faults with using GDP to measure development; international economic relations pertaining to the environment; how to collectively govern natural resources; theories and principles of political instruments to regulate the economy and the environment; and how to transition away from fossil fuels. 

This course examines Thai economic development using a comparative perspective. Topics include trends; growth and crises; role of agriculture; industrial policy and development; role of foreign investment; government, state enterprises and private sector; debates over ethnicity and entrepreneurship; service and informal sectors; demographic change, employment and migration; education and human resource development; environmental challenges; trends in income distribution; poverty measurement and policies; financial sector development; and regional, global trade and capital movements.

This course provides overview of financial markets and the structure of financial markets. It covers the various operating mechanisms of financial markets, the pricing method of financial assets, the interrelationship of major financial variables, and the behavior of various subjects by means of basic theory, knowledge, and skills of the market economy.