Advanced microeconomics and macroeconomics

This course is designed to provide a rigorous introduction to both modern microeconomics and modern macroeconomics. Its objective is to equip students with the basic analytical tools to read and understand the academic literature and the policy debate on both microeconomic issues (e.g. how consumer choice and firm behaviour are affected by market design and public policy) and macroeconomic issues (e.g. the efficacy and desirability of fiscal and monetary policies).

For the Advanced Microeconomics module: After the course, students must be able to use economic reasoning to understand the main determinants of individuals' and firms' decisions, the
functioning of markets in real world settings, and how they are influenced by public policies or changes in economic fundamentals. This theoretical knowledge is highly complementary to the data analysis techniques that students will learn in other courses (such as "Research Methods") and are key to a correct understanding and interpretation of the empirical evidence. Students will also acquire the basic knowledge needed to approach more advanced topics in other subfields of economics for which microeconomics is a pre-requisite (e.g. development, education, health, industrial, international, labour, and public economics, among others).

For the Advanced Macroeconomics module: By the end of the course, students will be equipped with analytical tools for improving their knowledge and understanding of some major real-world macroeconomic issues (for example: why delegating monetary policy to an independent central bank? Should government fiscal policy be constrained by rules? Which factors can trigger bank runs or sovereign debt crises? how can government policy help to avoid them? What are the macroeconomic and welfare effects of different social security systems? Can government use fiscal policies to affect economic growth?) Students should know as how to use economic analysis to make informed judgements about macroeconomic issues. Seminar presentations (on a voluntary basis) will enable students both to test their understanding and ability to communicate knowledge of the relevant topics and to discuss real-world macroeconomic issues with their pairs.