Seoul National University

This course examines the major achievements of behavioral economics focusing on theory and empirical evidence, and introduces policy design and evaluation based on insights into human behavior changes.  

Unlike traditional economics, which understands human decision-making and behavioral changes based on the assumption of human rationality and standard preferences, behavioral economics has broadened its scope to expand human decision-making models and develop new policy tools to induce behavioral changes based on the incorporation of recent studies and contributions of psychology and other fields.  

Students explore these new interpretations and learn about recent applications and newly defined understanding of human beings and their economic behavior. 

Students who wish to take this course are required to have an appropriate level of knowledge of microeconomics and economic statistics. 

This advanced topics course covers international trade institutions, trade law, and trade policy. Students explore trade policies, how they are implemented by the United States and other countries, and how their use is constrained by international trade agreements.  

The Fall 2025 offering of this course covers fundamental principles of international trade rules established by the World Trade Organization (WTO), including the principles of non-discrimination, trade remedy measures, SPS, TBT, and exceptions to trade obligations. 

In addition, students examine newly emerging issues in trade, such as environmental concerns, digital trade and e-commerce, intellectual property rights, and trade in services, and delve into the most frequently used methods of dispute resolution: mediation, arbitration, and litigation. Through lectures, simulations, and student presentations, students learn the procedures and actual workings of these three methods at various settings such as WTO, WIPO, and LCIA, inter alia. 

Students should expect to present a substantial case study and produce a final paper.  

This course introduces students to ethical issues, arguments, and disagreements. The course covers contemporary and historical ideas about morality and explores 1) what attitude is to be taken, 2) which factors are morally relevant, 3) how to apply philosophical reasoning. 

Students examine various ethical topics and schools of thought related to how people should act and live.  Students explore moral reasoning that philosophers have discovered (or made explicit) in the course of daily lives, how conflicts between them occur, and how we sometimes fail.   

Topics include characteristics of moral reasoning, responses to subjective or relativistic morality, basic moral theories and principles, analyses, and evaluation of arguments. 

This course explores how the healthcare services market differs from other markets by examining the characteristics of demand and supply in healthcare services from an economic viewpoint. Additionally, the course covers the role of health insurance in mitigating uncertainty and risk inherent in health and examines its impact on the demand, supply, and pricing of healthcare services. Furthermore, the course addresses various issues such as information asymmetry, problems like moral hazard and induced demand, behavioral economic approaches, the significance of medical technology advancements, the long-term effects of health and medical disparities, and responses to infectious disease crises, aiming to find implications for building an efficient future healthcare system.  

Topics include problems faced by the Korean healthcare system, theories of healthcare service demand, Health production functions and healthcare service productivity, Theory of health insurance demand and the impact of health insurance on healthcare service demand, Comparison of Korea's health insurance system with those of other countries, Latest theories and empirical studies on moral hazard, Information asymmetry issues in healthcare service supply, Impact of payment systems on demand and supply, Future of healthcare supply with advancements in medical technology.

This course covers algorithm design techniques and algorithm analysis techniques. It deals with inductive and recursive thinking through which problems can be tackled and solved. 

In the class, students learn organized and effective thinking methods for problem solving. Topics include analysis tools (asymptotic complexity, recurrence), sorting and selection, retrieval and insertion of data (search tree, hash table), dealing with sets, dynamic programming, graph algorithms, text pattern matching, limit of computation (NP-Completeness), problem space, etc. 

Prerequisite: Data Structure. Students should also be familiar with the basics of discrete mathematics and probability. 

This course develops English language skills to an advanced level through reading and critical interpretation of English literature. Students read, discuss, and write about selected well-known literary fiction in English literature, ranging from traditional canonical works to contemporary science fiction. The focus of the course is to introduce essential themes as well as elements of literary form and technique, while developing the analytical skills necessary to produce sophisticated interpretations of texts. Critical reading involves reading actively and reflectively, and being able to understand, analyze, interpret, and communicate intelligently about literary works. Through a broad study of various texts, this course supports both language development and growth in critical thinking. 

This course examines how the market price is set and how market failure occurs as well as how the government can improve market performance. It is recommended for students who have taken Microeconomics and are interested in further studies of oligopoly behavior and competition policy. 

The real market is often in the form of monopolistic competition, oligopoly, and monopoly rather than ideal perfect competition. In such cases, the main task of industrial organization theory is to clarify how market prices and transaction volumes are determined, what are the problems at that time, and what fair trade policies can improve market performance.  

This course is for those who are interested in market organization as a student of microeconomic theory, and it examines the relationship between market structure and firms’ behavior and consumer welfare as well as the strategic interactions between and among firms and consumers. Our quest is for the simplest model or the smallest family of models capable of clarifying important policy issues such as collusion, predation, entry, price discrimination, vertical integration, and patent protection. 

Prerequisite: Microeconomics; it may also be helpful to have a foundation in game theory as an analysis tool.  

This course introduces the study of law and the principles which constitute the foundation of studies in law. This course provides general outlines of issues related to current law, including the Constitution, and the basis of legal philosophical principles. 

Students are introduced to a basic understanding of the concept and ideology of law: Based on the philosophical and theoretical background of what law is and why it exists, legal ideologies such as justice, freedom, and order are explored.  

Students learn the basic structure and concepts of major positive laws such as the Constitution, civil law, and criminal law, and based on this, they directly analyze simple cases to develop legal thinking. 

The course also covers career exploration of legal organizations. Students explore the roles and entry paths of various legal organizations, such as judges, prosecutors, and lawyers, and presents practical prospects for career paths that connect law majors. 

This course covers basic theories and contemporary issues of Human Rights Law across international, national, and transnational dimensions. Important themes and questions in the fields are explored by closely examining cases from various jurisdictions and critically engaging with global academic literature. Active class participation, including one class presentation, is expected. This is a discussion-based seminar course, but a few lecture sessions may be provided as necessary.  

Topics include ideas of human rights, transnational approaches to human rights, human rights and state sovereignty, universality and particularity, non-citizens' rights and democracy, rights of social minorities, equality and discrimination, human rights in the new contexts of human existence. 

This course focuses on the legal responses to climate change in three contexts: international, comparative, and national laws. It begins with causes and effects of global climate change and the methods available to control and adopt to it. It then investigates the emergence of climate change regime and various policy tools nations employ, including emission trading, carbon tax, litigation, securities disclosures, and voluntary action. Relations with other legal regimes (e.g., human rights, trade, and environmental justice will also be examined. 

Topics include Climate change and international law, Evolution of United Nations climate change regimes, Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement, Paris rulebook, Climate governance beyond the UN, Net zero, Green New Deal, Energy and climate change, corporate responsibility, climate liability, plastic pollution.