Ph.D. Economics

ECO 500 Mathematics for Economists An exposition of those parts of mathematics necessary to equip the graduate student in economics with modern techniques of analysis and empirical investigation. (This is a service course.)

ECO 501 Microeconomic Theory I First term of a two-term sequence in microeconomic theory. Topics include consumer and producer theory, choice under uncertainty, and an introduction to game theory.

ECO 502 Microeconomic Theory II Second term of a two-term sequence in microeconomic theory. Topics include static and intertemporal general equilibrium theory, public goods and externalities, auctions, mechanism design, bargaining, repeated games, social choice, and implementation.

ECO 503 Macroeconomic Theory I This course is the first term of a two-term sequence in macroeconomics. Topics include consumption, saving, and investment; real interest rates and asset prices; long-term economic growth; money and inflation; and econometric methods for macroeconomics.

ECO 504 Macroeconomic Theory II This course is the second term of a two-term sequence in macroeconomics. Topics include classical and Keynesian theories of cyclical fluctuations; the determination of employment and real wages; credit markets and financial stability; and stabilization policy.

ECO 505 Responsible Conduct of Research in Economics This seminar is designed to help graduate students in economics cultivate ethical research practices they may apply in future work at or beyond the University. Students are encouraged to discuss concerns that may arise during the conduct of their research with experienced faculty and devise solutions for dealing with these concerns. The course provides necessary training for newly mandated RCR training for graduate students supported by government grants, and is required for successful completion of the program.

ECO 506 Directed Research Under the supervision of a faculty member, students carryout research on a directed topic and present results. Students must identify a supervising faculty member and submit a written plan for research and evaluation which must be approved by the supervising faculty member and director of graduate studies.

ECO 511 Advanced Economic Theory I Topics vary from year to year reflecting, among other things, current developments and the instructor's interests. Topics covered in past years have included expected and nonexpected utility theory, intertemporal general equilibrium theory, evolutionary game theory, dynamic games, contract theory, theory of organizations, and bounded rationality.

ECO 512 Advanced Economic Theory II Topics vary from year to year. See 511.

ECO 513 Advanced Econometrics: Time Series Models Concepts and methods of time series analysis and their applications to economics. Time series models to be studied include simultaneous stochastic equations and VAR, ARIMA, and state-space models. Methods to analyze trends, second-moment properties via the auto covariance function and the spectral density function and methods of estimation and hypothesis testing and of model selection are presented. Kalman filter and applications as well as unit roots, cointegration, ARCH, and structural breaks models are also studied.

ECO 514 Game Theory Course provides a broad treatment of game theory and its applications, particularly in economics. Coverage includes topics such as common knowledge and rationality, refinements of the Nash equilibrium, auctions, bargaining, mechanism design, dynamic games, and reputation. This follows up on the introduction to game theory provided in the microeconomic sequence.

ECO 515 Econometric Modeling The construction, estimation, and testing of econometric models as a process, from theory to model formulation to estimation and testing and back again to theory. Bridging the gap between theory and applied work. A series of topics in macroeconomic time series and microeconomic cross-sectional analysis that include consumption at the household and aggregate level, commodity prices, and nonparametric and parametric estimation.

ECO 516 Behavioral Economics This course covers a variety of topics and models that incorporate findings and concepts from psychology into economic analysis. The course addresses both experimental evidence and formal modeling. Themes studied may include social preferences (fairness, reciprocity), intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation, self-control, motivated beliefs (overoptimism, wishful thinking), reference-dependent preferences (loss aversion, prospect theory), imperfect memory and attention, and bounded rationality (cognitive limitations, choice overload, satisficing).

ECO 517 Econometric Theory I A first-year course in the first-year econometrics sequence, it is divided into two parts. The first gives students the necessary background in probability theory and statistics. Topics include definitions and axioms of probability, moments, some univariate distributions, the multivariate normal distribution, sampling distributions, introduction to asymptotic theory, estimation and testing. The second introduces the linear regression model and develops associated tools. Properties of the ordinary least squares estimator will be studied in detail and a number of tests developed.

ECO 518 Econometric Theory II This course begins with extensions of the linear model in several directions: (1) predetermined but not exogenous regressors; (2) heteroskedasticity and serial correlation; (3) classical GLS; (4) instrumental variables and generalized method of moments estimators. Applications include simultaneous equation models, VAR's and panel data. Estimation and inference in nonlinear models are discussed. Applications include nonlinear least squares, discrete dependent variables (probit, logit, etc.), problems of censoring, truncation and sample selection, and models for duration data.

ECO 519 Advanced Econometrics: Nonlinear Models Economics 519 is half of the second-year sequence in econometrics methodology (Economics 513 is the other). The course covers nonlinear statistical models for the analysis of cross-sectional and panel data. It is intended both for students specializing in econometric theory and for students interested in applying statistical methods to statistical data. Approximately half of the course is devoted to development of the large-sample theory for nonlinear estimation procedures, while the other half concentrates on application of the methods to econometric models for discrete and limited dependent variables.

ECO 520 Economics and Politics (also

POL 577

) Focused on analytical models of political institutions, this course is organized around canonical models and their applications. These include voting models, menu auctions, models of reputation, and cheap talk games. These models are used to explain patterns of participation in elections, institutions of congress, lobbying, payments to special interest groups, and other observed phenomena.

ECO 521 Advanced Macroeconomic Theory I Topics vary from year to year, reflecting current developments and the instructor's interests. Topics covered in the past years have included methods of numerical analysis and econometric testing of equilibrium business cycle models, the role of monetary and fiscal policy in inflation determination, the nature of optimal monetary policy, and dynamic games and time consistency in macroeconomic policy formation, central banking, and theories of price stickiness.

ECO 522 Advanced Macroeconomic Theory II A continuation of Economics 521. Topics vary from year to year.

ECO 523 Public Finance I A microeconomic examination of the role of government in the economy. Topics include the theory and measurement of excess burden, optimal tax theory, the analysis of tax incidence, and an examination of the effects of taxation on behavior.

ECO 524 Public Finance II The course examines the collective-decision mechanisms through which government policy is formulated, with an emphasis both on theoretical models of social choice and positive studies of governmental decision making. Additional topics include social insurance and the study of intergovernmental fiscal relations, with attention given to the division of functions among levels of government and basic issues in state and local finance.

ECO 525 Asset Pricing (also

FIN 525

) Asset pricing in competitive markets where traders have homogeneous information as well as empirical tests of asset-pricing models and associated "anomalies" are also surveyed. Measures of riskiness and risk aversion; atemporal asset-pricing models; dynamic portfolio choice; option pricing; and the term structure of interest rates, corporate investment and financing decisions, and taxation are studied.

ECO 526 Corporate Finance (also

FIN 526

) Theories and empirical evidence regarding financial markets and institutions that focus on asymmetric information, transaction costs, or both; and rational expectation models of asset pricing under asymmetric information, dynamic models of market making, portfolio manager performance evaluation, principal-agent models of firm managerial structure, takeover bids, capital structure, and regulation of financial markets are studied.

ECO 527 Financial Modelling (also

FIN 527

) Advanced asset pricing and corporate finance including a selection from: models of financial crises and bubbles; interaction between finance and macroeconomics, derivative pricing in incomplete markets; tests of asset pricing models and associated anomalies; models of investor behavior; financial econometrics, including tests of asset pricing models and methods for high frequency data. Pre-requisites: ECO 525 and 526 (526 may be taken concurrently).

ECO 529 Financial and Monetary Economics The Great Recession led to a transformational rethinking of Monetary Economics. This course covers the interaction between monetary policy and macro-prudential policy as well as spillover analysis and the implications for the international financial architecture. Goals are to learn about new research trends and contrast them with the established New Keynesian framework. The course introduces new advanced tools, including formal modeling, economic dynamical systems in continuous time, strategic interactions, asymmetric information, and modern welfare analysis.

ECO 531 Economics of Labor An examination of the economics of the labor market, especially the forces determining the supply of and demand for labor, the level of unemployment, labor mobility, the structure of relative wages, and the general level of wages.

ECO 532 Topics in Labor Economics The course surveys both the theoretical literature and the relevant empirical methods and results in selected current research topics in labor economics.

ECO 541 Industrial Organization and Public Policy Methods for empirical and theoretical analysis of markets composed of productive enterprises and their customers are studied. Analyses are applied to modern market structures and practices and the public policy toward them. Topics include the roles of technology and information; the structure of firms; modes of interfirm competition; determination of price, quality, and research and development investment; and criteria for government intervention.

ECO 542 Industrial Organization and Public Policy II Theoretical and empirical study of the public regulation and deregulation of rate of return, prices, and entry in public utilities and franchise oligopolies. Theory and practice of antitrust policy is examined, including some elements of antitrust law. In addition, regulation of product quality, advertising, and safety is examined. This course draws heavily on material developed in 541.

ECO 543 Industrial Organization & Public Policy III (HALF TERM) This half-course discusses empirical work on imperfect competition among firms: how to implement empirical methods as well as how to read empirical papers. The first section of the course considers applications that apply tools covered in previous courses from the IO sequence to consider issues such as antitrust (particularly merger policy) and price discrimination. The next section covers the issues and tools involved with estimating partially identified models. The third section of the course looks at several different topics from an empirical point of view, particularly those centered around vertical markets.

ECO 551 International Trade I The determinants of foreign trade: (1) intercountry differences of factor endowments and technologies and (2) scale economies and imperfect competition are studied. Dynamic comparative advantage; innovation and growth; factor movements and multinational corporations; gains from trade; tariffs and quantitative restrictions on trade and their role in dealing with market failures and oligopolies; the political economy of trade policy; international negotiations on trade policy; and economic integration are studied as well.

ECO 552 International Trade II A continuation of Economics 551, with emphasis on current research issues. Topics vary from year to year.

ECO 553 International Monetary Theory and Policy I Course develops core models of international finance and open-economy macroeconomics and surveys selected current research topics in the field. Topics include investment and the current account, international capital market integration, international transmission of business cycles, international borrowing and default, the determination of nominal and real exchange rates, monetary and fiscal policy in the open economy, alternative exchange rate arrangements, and policy interdependence and coordination.

ECO 554 International Monetary Theory and Policy II Advanced topics in monetary economics, with an emphasis on open economies. Price-level and exhange-rate determination under alternative monetary policy rules; money demand and currency substitution; real effects of monetary disturbances; exchange-rate policy and macroeconomic stability; welfare effects of exchange rate stability; advantages and disadvantages of monetary union.

ECO 562 Economic Development I An examination of those areas in the economic analysis of development where there have been recent analytical or empirical advances. Emphasis is given to the formulation of theoretical models and econometric analysis and testing. Topics covered include models of household/farm behavior, savings behavior, equity and efficiency in pricing policy, project evaluation, measurement of poverty and inequality, and the analysis of commodity prices.

ECO 563 Economic Development II Selected topics in the economic analysis of development beyond those covered in 562. Topics are selected from theoretical and empirical models of economic growth, trade, and international finance; health and education policy; innovation in agriculture in developing countries; private and social security systems; and the political economy of development. Prerequisite: 562.

ECO 565 Health Economics I. Examines health issues in the developed world