Intermediate Microeconomics (ECO201) focuses on the study of consumer and producer decisions and interactions. It also introduces the students to decision-making under uncertainty and basic portfolio theory, market equilibrium and general equilibrium of the economy, monopolistic and oligopolistic competition among firms and other forms of strategic interaction studied in Game Theory. Additional issues are reviewed, including conditions for market efficiency, public goods, the effect of strategically used private information, market failures and their remedies, etc.

Textbook:
❯ Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern
Approach by Hal R. Varian.

Prerequisites: ECO101, ECO102

Intermediate Microeconomics (ECO201) focuses on the study of consumer and producer decisions and interactions. It also introduces the students to decision-making under uncertainty and basic portfolio theory, market equilibrium and general equilibrium of the economy, monopolistic and oligopolistic competition among firms and other forms of strategic interaction studied in Game Theory. Additional issues are reviewed, including conditions for market efficiency, public goods, the effect of strategically used private information, market failures and their remedies, etc.

Textbook:

Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern

Approach by Hal R. Varian.

Introduction to Econometrics (ECO203) introduces the most common ways to study and analyze economic data, with a focus on emphasizing data analysis for empirical causal inference. Topics include linear regressions, randomized trials, instrumental variables, and differences-in-differences. Students also learn how to study datasets through practical examples (R coding).

Textbook: Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach by Jeffrey M. Wooldridge / Basic Econometrics by Damodar N. Guarati and Dawn C. Porter.

Prerequisites: ECO101, ECO102 and ECO201.

This course introduces to basic issues regarding the financial system, i.e. markets and institutions intermediating saving and investment. After an informal description of the financial system, it starts with basic asset pricing, continues with  corporate finance theory (Modigliani-Miller theorem and its deviations), then turns to the study of banking, insurance and financial markets. Whenever possible, it connects theory with contemporary issues.

Introduction to Finance (ECO 204) introduces fundamental ideas of modern portfolio theory and corporate finance. Topics include present value and discounting, interestrates and yield tomaturity, various financial instruments including financial futures, mutual funds, the efficient market theory, basic asset pricing theory, the capital asset pricing model, models for pricing options and other contingent claims, and the use of derivatives for hedging.

The course intends to provide an introduction to the development of economics theories, methods and practices since World War II. The first 2 weeks will brush a general chronology of the transformation of economics in the postwar in the US and Europe. The goal is to provide a sense of which communities economists were involved in and what social, political, international and technical contexts they were evolving in. 

Each of the other 5 sessions introduces one aspect of economists’ current theoretical and empirical practices through reading and discussing famous controversies. For each thematic session, students will find on Moodle a package of articles and/or archival material (like correspondence) in which economists argue with each other on a fundamental aspect of economic science during the 1940s to 1980s, and today. 

 

At the beginning of each session, 1 or 2 groups of 4 students will be asked to:

-explain who the economists involved in the debates are, what social, political and economic context they were operating in, and what they were working on

-summarize the arguments (through staging a 10-15 minutes debate to re-enact the controversy)

-provide their opinion as to how the debate was solved, and where 2018 economists stand on these issues

The other students will then be invited to confront their interpretation of the articles presenting the controversy. I will end the session with a wrap-up lecture on how each question was debated since World War II and whether some kind of agreement has been reached in the last decade.

At the beginning of the first introductory session, I will set up groups, and allocate topics. You will then have a month to prepare your group presentation. Please feel free to reach me via email if you have questions.

 Each student is asked to read all the material provided in advance for each thematic session. I will put additional material and the lecture slides in moodle at the end of each session.