Optional Modules
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Economic Analysis of Non-Standard Data
Economic research and models are data hungry. While the availability of well-structured and easily downloadable is vast and growing, the quantity of unstructured data is even larger. The objective of this course is to make students familiar and comfortable with the retrieval, processing, and analysis of non-standard data. This may include web scraping or image recognition. For instance, economic growth can be measured using satellite images or economic uncertainty can be captured through newspaper text. Applications for non-standard data include, but is not limited to, nowcasting, prediction, demand estimation, and latent factor models.
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Introduction to Algorithmic Trading Robot Design
The overall aim is to introduce students to the microstructure of modern financial markets in general, and to algorithmic trading in particular. Algorithmic trading refers to the use of robots (automatic order submission computer program) to accomplish a certain trading goal, such as automatic market making, statistical arbitrage, technical analysis, portfolio rebalancing, etc. Students will be given the opportunity to get hands-on experience in purposely designed online financial markets, directly as manual traders, and indirectly by means of python scripts. We use Flex-E-Markets as online trading platform, and a python package called FMClient that allows python scripts to interface with Flex-E-Markets.
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S170 : Industrial Organisation
This course provides a rigorous treatment of the main concepts in industrial organisation. The course covers both theory and applications.
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S201 : Applied Macroeconomics
The aim of this course is twofold: First, it will introduce students to structural VARs, and related the concept of structural to identification more broadly. In addition, the students will obtain the computational tools to analyse structural VARs themselves using mathematical softwares (primarily Matlab). Second, the course will go through applied macroeconomic theory and analyse the effects on monetary and fiscal policy, and how the policy effectiveness are altered when the economy is in a liquidity trap.
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S301 : Applied Econometrics
The aim of this module is to enable students to follow modern applied econometric papers and critically interpret empirical output, including an understanding of the limitations imposed by the econometric techniques and the data available. This course has two components (i) empirical strategies for obtaining causal estimates, including randomized experiments, difference-in-difference, regression discontinuity, selection correction and instrumental variables and (ii) panel data estimation including fixed and random effects and dynamic panel data models. The focus is on empirical rather than purely theoretical issues. The emphasis throughout will be on intuitive treatment of the issues rather than detailed technical derivations. This will include discussion of empirical papers that address policy issues via data analysis.
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R200 : Advanced Macroeconomics
The course provides the foundations and core topics of advanced macroeconomic theory that is used for macroeconomic research. It includes techniques (e.g. definition of general equilibrium, elements of dynamic programming and optimal control theory, etc.) and two broad macroeconomic topics, economic growth and business cycle theory (in the context of DSGE modelling).
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R301a : Econometrics II: Time Series
The time series part of the course will show how economic and financial time series can be modelled and analysed. Topics covered include ARMA models, state space models, trends and cycles, multivariate models and co-integration, nonlinear models and changing volatility.
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R301b : Econometrics II: Cross Section and Panel Data
The cross-section and panel data part of the course will cover a broad range of topics in microeconometrics. Topics covered will be taken from random utility models in discrete choice, heterogeneity and endogeneity in binary choice models, program evaluation and treatment effects, fixed and random effects estimators for panel data, nonlinear and dynamic panel data models, machine learning, count data models, and an introduction to simulation methods (classical and Bayesian).
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S101 : Public Economics
This course covers the foundations for optimal taxation based largely on the seminal work of Ramsey (1927) and Mirrlees (1971). The goal of the course is to familiarize students with basic empirical methods and theoretical models in applied microeconomics, with a focus on connecting theory to data to inform economic policy. Topics include efficiency costs and incidence of taxation, inequality, optimal income and commodity taxation.
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S130 : Economics of Ageing
This course covers areas of active empirical research on the economics of aging. We will cover OLG, adverse selection, and life cycle savings and labor supply models as well as empirical evidence on these models. Specific topics include the role of savings incentives on individual and national savings, the annuities market, and the effects of public pensions and disability insurance programs on labor supply and savings.
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S140 : Behavioural Economics
This course offers an introduction to the behavioural approach to economics. Among the topic covered are behavioural game theory, intertemporal decision making, neuroeconomics, cognitive biases, decision-making heuristics and addiction. The course includes both theoretical and empirical material, but a recurring theme is the importance of experimental findings both in the laboratory and in the field.
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S150 : Economics of Networks
The course introduces students to the economics of networks. This area of research has emerged in the last two decades and it has introduced a set of tools for economists to incorporate network structure in the analysis of individual behaviour and economic outcomes. Topics covered include the formation of networks, the provision of local public goods, coordination, learning, trading, and financial networks. A central focus of the course is the interplay between theory and experiments.
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S190 : International Trade
This course covers the main theoretical models of international trade, impacts of trade policy, and how firms respond to changes in policy and technology. There is a heavy emphasis on examining the predictions of theoretical models through empirical analysis. We will be reviewing the methodologies in a variety of papers, many of which make use of panel data.
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F300 : Corporate Finance
The objective of this course is to present some major theoretical concepts of modern corporate finance. The ideas behind these theories and their rationale will be discussed, and related empirical research will be examined. The course will also acquaint students with the methodology used in corporate finance, in order to enable them to follow advances in corporate finance research on their own.