FIRST YEAR COURSES
September
Mathematics
for Economists .
This course reviews key topics in mathematics that are frequently used
in economics. Linear Algebra: vectors, matrices, quadratic forms.
Mathematical Analysis: continuity, differentiability,
Fall Term
Classical microeconomic theory: Consumption theory, production theory,
individual decision making with uncertainty, the Arrow-Debreu general
equilibrium model, basic issues in welfare measurement.
Statistics.
This course introduces the basic tools of probability
theory and statistical inference. Probability Theory: Probability
Spaces, Random Variables, Random Vectors, Some special distributions.
Statistical Inference: Sampling Theory, Specification and
Estimation of Parametric Models, Stochastic
Convergence, Asymptotic Theory for Estimators, Tests of
Hypotheses, Testing Procedures.
Winter Term
Microeconomics
II.
This course is an introduction to game theory. The basic framework of
Game Theory. Main solution concepts. Basic refinements of Nash
equilibrium. Incomplete information. Bayesian games, signaling games.
Finite and infinite horizon, folk theorems in Nash and subgame- perfect
equilibria.
Macroeconomics
II.
This
course complements Macroeconomics I and continues with an introduction
to dynamic macroeconomics. Two-period
Overlapping Generation (OLG) models: government debt and taxes,
bequests, land and crop, money and inflation, etc. Multi-period OLG
framework. Stochastic growth model with infinitely-lived agents:
calibration and simulation, heterogeneity, money, endogenous growth and
cycles and time-inconsistency.
Econometrics
I.
The objective of this course is to provide an introduction to the
application of statistical methods in econometrics. The course covers
estimation and inference in linear models, including regression,
instrumental variables and systems of equations. The last part of the
course is devoted to introduce the students into the analysis of time
Series models.
Spring Term
Microeconomics
III.
This course covers market failure in the presence of externalities,
market power and asymmetric information. Topics include: Externalities,
public goods, voting and social choice, monopoly, oligopoly,
bargaining, moral hazard, adverse selection, mechanism design and
auctions.
Macroeconomics
III.
Deals with the importance of monetary aggregates and monetary policy
for the business cycle, and treats different approaches to generate
persistent propagation of monetary and real shocks. Includes: empirical
evidence on "Money and Output"; introduction of money in General
Equilibrium models; liquidity and expected inflation effects; monetary
non-neutralities; price and wage rigidities; inflation and output
dynamics; monetary policy rules; microfoundation of money;
search-theory; internal propagation of shocks; credit-cycles,
bank-lending channel.
Econometrics
II.
This course introduces the main topics in microeconometrics. Discrete
Response Models: the linear probability model, probit and logit models,
multinomial response models, ordered response models. Corner solution
and sample selection corrections: the tobit model, censored and
truncated regression models, sample selection corrections. Panel data
models: random and fixed effects models, dynamic models.
SECOND YEAR COURSES (Elective)
Economic
Theory
Game Theory.
Evolutionary and epistemic foundations of solution
concepts; repeated games; bargaining; supermodular games; global games;
heterogeneous priors; psychological games; game theory without expected
utility.
Contract
Theory.
Advanced models of moral hazard, adverse selection, mechanism design,
career concerns, relational contracts, incomplete contracts,
transaction costs, property rights. Applications to the theory of the
firm, organizational design, financial structure, bureaucracy, and
networks.
Auctions and
Market Design.
Basic auction theory; common value; information revelation and
information acquisition; multiple homogeneous unit auctions;
applications to utility markets; multiple unit auctions with synergies;
applications to telecom auctions; competing markets; matching markets.
Advanced Topics in Economic Theory.
Advanced subject on topics of current research interest.
Macroeconomics
Advanced
Macroeconomics I.
This
course introduces the basics of the Open Economy Macroeconomics. The
Current Account: incomplete-market models. Purchasing Power Parity and
the Law of One Price. Risk Sharing, Welfare and the International
Business Cycle Transmission. Exchange rate determination and current
account dynamics. Optimal stabilization policy in open economy. Open
issues in open macro modelling. Financial and currency crises.
Advanced
Macroeconomics II.
Introduction to the labor market from the Macroeconomic perspective.
This module covers in depth the development of search models and their
applications to the theory of business cycles and growth as well as the
predictions of policy interventions in the labor market.
Macroeconometrics.
This course presents the economic motivation, the statistical
principles and the practical use of different type of models to analyze
the cyclical position of an economy. Topics included: Kalman Filter,
Hodrick Prescott filter, Markov switching models, smooth transition
regression models, nowcasting and real time forecasting, and Business
cycle synchronization and characteristics.
Econometrics
Time Series.
This course covers the main topics in time series models. Multivariate
time Series. Non-stationarity. Cointegration and error correction
models. Cointegration in systems of equations. Generalized methods of
moments estimation. Time series models of heteroscedasticity
Microeconometrics.
Econometric tools to model individual agents behavior
with panel data models, treatment of unobserved heterogeneity.
Identification and estimation of the selection-bias-free impact of
policy interventions. Topics in Labor Economics: Labor supply,
household behavior, human capital, migration, cultural economics and
market discrimination.
Advanced
Econometrics.
This course covers some advance topics in econometric
theory.
Behavioral, Experimental and Network Economics
Behavioral
Economics and Finance.
Incorporates psychological evidence into economics models. Includes:
risk aversion and prospect theory; bounded rationality; self control;
manipulation of beliefs; altruism;
learning; contracts; limits to arbitrage; momentum; bubbles and
crashes; theories of investor sentiment.
Social
Networks.
Topics cover: complex networks, random graphs, small worlds,
preferential attachment, models of epidemic diffusion, network closure,
structural holes, network formation theory, network games.
Experimental Economics.
Introduction to the theory and practice of experimental economics. How
to design and run experiments. Focus on methodology and design.
Includes theory and practice.
Industrial Organization
Industrial
Organization I.
This course covers the main topics on the theory of industrial
organization with special emphasis in two-stage games, delegation
games, horizontal integration, vertical integration and product
differentiation.
Industrial
Organization II.
Issues of public policy in industrial organization:
Antitrust policy; regulation; deregulation and privatization; political
economy of regulation. Integrates theory and empirical research.
Advanced
Topics in Industrial Organization.
Advanced subject in topics of current research interest
in industrial organization.
Public Economics and Political Economy
Theory and evidence on tax policy: tax incidence, effects on labor
supply and savings, optimal taxation, corrective taxation of
externalities, corporate taxation, expenditure taxation.
Public
Economics II.
Theory and evidence on expenditure policy: public goods, education,
local public goods, political economy, redistribution and welfare,
social security and unemployment insurance, health policy.
Political
Economy.
Static and dynamic policy choice. Pre- and post-election politics.
Presidential and parliamentary regimes. Multi-jurisdiction politics.
Government failure. Accountability. Institutions: persistence,
instability and change.