ECO_3F001_EP - Advanced Microeconomics (2024-2025)

This course builds on ECO201 to go beyond the competitive equilibrium setting and introduce new causes of market failures. We aim to study how the presence of incomplete and asymmetric information affects the standard analysis of microeconomic theory. The starting point is that asymmetric information leads to market failures, which opens the question of how to regulate and appropriately design markets to solve or reduce these failures. We will present the basics of two important theories and methods which have been the core of the modern microeconomic analysis since 1970: signaling games and mechanism design. The students will learn new tools to analyze markets and interactions in the presence of incomplete and asymmetric information. They will also learn how to develop policy tools and design markets that mitigate the issues induced by the information structure.

The mathematical treatment is rigorous, but not as much as fr a graduate-level course. This course will be thus most useful as a preparation for formal graduate studies in economics.

ECO_3F002_EP - Advanced Macroeconomics (2024-2025)

This course will cover fluctuations, unemployment, economic crises, and macroeconomic stabilization policies through the lens of the “New Keynesian” model that has developed over that past couple of decades and now guides short-run macroeconomic analysis. After reviewing the building blocks of the short-run macroeconomic model (namely, aggregate demand and supply), we will cover conventional monetary and fiscal policies, and then turn to the unconventional policies that are put in place during “liquidity traps”, i.e. situations wherein conventional monetary policy is unable to efficiently restore aggregate demand (as is currently still the case in the euro area). We will occasionally look into the historical record - from the Great Depression to the Japanese experience, to the worldwide Great Recession - and structure the evidence by means of a simple macroeconomic model with price rigidities. We will discuss the effectiveness of unconventional monetary policies (forward guidance, quantitative easing), as well as the unconventional effects of fiscal policies, during liquidity traps. Finally, we will examine whether the current trap follows from a serious but temporary shock or reflects a “secular stagnation" episode of persistently low aggregate demand and growth.

 

Prerequisite

Intermediate Macroeconomics course (Bachelor, Year 2)

 

Readings

Main text: Edouard Challe, Macroeconomic Fluctuations and Policies, MIT Press, 2019

A complementary reading list of policy and accessible research papers will be provided in due time.

ECO_3FT01_EP - Advanced Microeconomics- Tutorat (2024-2025)

ECO_3S005_EP - Corporate Social Responsibility for Business (2024-2025)

Prerequisite: ECO201, ECO202

This course introduces the economics of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and the determinants for businesses, acting on a voluntary basis, to incorporate social, environmental, and ethical concerns into their economic activities and interactions with their stakeholders. It consists in two parts. The first part presents what is and is not CSR in economics, and the relationship between CSR and climate risk. The second part develops the relationship between CSR and financial performance, and how companies succeed in motivating employees with CSR.

Textbook:
❯ Corporate Environmentalism and Public Policy by Thomas P. Lyon & John W. Maxwell (Cambridge University Press)
❯ The Market for virtue: the potential and limits for CSR by David Vogel (Brookings institution press)

 

Evaluation: continuous assessment + final exam

The final exam consists of a written report analyzing a scientific research article on the topics covered in class. The report is prepared at home, over several weeks.

ECO_3S007_EP - Introduction to Research Frontiers A (2024-2025)

This course introduces students to the research frontiers in economics. Each week, a researcher from the laboratory CREST would present a central topic of his/her research. Students are expected to see how researchers tackle problems using  the tools and concepts developed in economics. Topics include traditional microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics, as well as recent interdisciplinary developments such as blockchain technology, and machine learning.

Together the courses A & B will consist of 8 two-hour lectures by Polytechnique economists presenting their own recent research work. 

For each course students should choose one of the presentations and submit a report on it. They should submit 2 reports if they take both courses.
 
Here are some guidelines on the report. Each student should submit an individual report containing their own original ideas, i.e. copy-pasting or paraphrasing the presentation’s material will be penalized. The report should have 4 pages or fewer, and include (a) a summary of the presentation and (b) a discussion. The student may discuss how important the research question is and/or the contribution with respect to existing knowledge. They may criticize the methodology or the interpretation of the results. They may explain which recommendations for economic policy, if any, are supported by the findings. They may suggest some modifications or extensions of the research work. In some cases they might find connections with other presentations. (Students will be expected to do some but not all of this, and some presentations will lend themselves more naturally to one type of discussion than another).

ECO_3S008_EP - Introduction to Research Frontiers B (2024-2025)

This course introduces students to the research frontiers in economics. Each week, a researcher from the laboratory CREST would present a central topic of his/her research. Students are expected to see how researchers tackle problems using the tools and concepts developed in economics. Topics include traditional microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics, as well as recent interdisciplinary developments such as blockchain technology, and machine learning.

Together the ECO307 and ECO308 classes will consist of 8 two-hour lectures by Polytechnique economists presenting their own recent research work. 
 
For each course students should choose one of the presentations and submit a report on it. They should submit 2 reports if they take both ECO307 and ECO308 classes.
 
Here are some guidelines on the report. Each student should submit an individual report containing their own original ideas, i.e. copy-pasting or paraphrasing the presentation’s material will be penalized. The report should have 4 pages or fewer, and include (a) a summary of the presentation and (b) a discussion. The student may discuss how important the research question is and/or the contribution with respect to existing knowledge. They may criticize the methodology or the interpretation of the results. They may explain which recommendations for economic policy, if any, are supported by the findings. They may suggest some modifications or extensions of the research work. In some cases they might find connections with other presentations. (Students will be expected to do some but not all of this, and some presentations will lend themselves more naturally to one type of discussion than another).
 
 
Calendar :

April 6 Julien Combe
April 20 Guillaume Hollard
April 27 Yukio Koriyama
May, 4 Jean-Baptiste Michau
May 11 Isabelle Méjean
May 18 Georgy Lukyanov
May 25 Olivier Gossner
June 2 Pierre Boyer

ECO_3S009_EP - Computational Economics (2024-2025)

This course is designed to provide economists with elements of modern scientific computing using the open-source Julia language. It covers several topics in numerical analysis and programming, and applies them to several economic modeling fields (dynamic programming, macro modeling, IO models). Approximately half of the sessions will consist in hands-on tutorials.

ECO_3S051_EP - Economics of Block Chains (2024-2025)

The digitalization of markets is proceeding at an ever-increasing pace, deeply transforming how customers shop for products and services, but also how firms interact with one another. The design of internet platforms and Blockchain protocols raises new challenges that can only be grasped through a sound understanding of computer science and economic incentives.



We will explore the economic concepts and computer science tools students need to acquire in order to participate to this transformation. The course will put an emphasis on Blockchains because of their disruptive potential. The structure of the course will reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the topic.

ECO_3S052_EP - Experiments in Economics (2024-2025)

Experiments are a great way to produce the kind of data required to answer specific economic questions. As a result, the use of experiments in economics has greatly increased over the last three decades. The class will provide a guided tour of noticeable experiments. Some standard experiments will be reproduced during the class and we will debate regarding the economic implications. Along the way, we will address important questions like what is a good descriptive model?, do results from the lab generalize to the field?, or can we predict what kind of experiments would scale up? Last, but not least, experiments are a great way to test and reconsider rationality assumptions often made in economics.