Courses

 

Fall term courses are core type as they cover basic concepts and analytical tools that (winter term) field courses require. Thus, all fall term courses are designed to respond to the needs and requirements of winter term courses. All courses and the master thesis are mandatory. But, at any rate, students must pass all courses as a prerequisite to start with the master's thesis.

MICROECONOMICS. The aim of this course is to obtain a profound insight into household and business decisions. Different scenarios are considered, including those in which there is strategic interaction between economic agents, or between economic agents and the economic regulator, and under different forms of market power. Throughout the course different situations concerning uncertainty will be contemplated: no uncertainty, uncertainty and information asymmetry between economic agents.

MACROECONOMICS. In this course students acquire the theoretical skills and computational tools needed to understand the behaviour of aggregate economic variables. Taking into account that this may be the first approximation of the students to economics, emphasis is placed on a rigorous understanding of basic concepts.

QUANTITATIVE METHODS. This course enables students to obtain the quantitative tools necessary for the winter term courses. More precisely, the student becomes familiar with regression analysis and other statistical estimation techniques such as cross section, time series and panel data analyses.

COMPUTATIONAL METHODS. The aim of this course is to provide the student with basic mathematical tools and computational techniques for the empirical implementation of winter term courses. Students learn some basics of mathematics and statistics as well as general notions of calculus and statistical packages used in empirical analysis such as MATLAB and STATA.

LABOUR MARKETS. In this course the student becomes familiar with the state of the art in labour economics research. The emphasis of the course is mainly empirical. The purpose of this course is twofold: to provide the student with the basic economic instruments used by experts in labour markets, and the empirical techniques necessary to address most issues related to labour markets.

ENERGY MARKETS, NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT. This course is designed to enable the student to analyse current and relevant topics in the research field of natural resources, with special emphasis on energy markets. The approach of the course is mainly empirical, the purpose being to provide the student with basic instruments and quantitative techniques used by experts in this type of markets.

MONETARY MARKETS. This course has two main targets. First, students become familiar with the money market, in particular with the mechanism of money creation through central banks and money multiplier and its effect upon price level and economic activity. Second, students become familiar with quantitative analysis of data to analyze the interaction between monetary policy and economic activity.

MASTER THESIS. The purpose is that students implement the skills acquired by writing an essay on a specific subject. Students are expected to show a particular interest in one of the markets analysed in the winter courses. Under the supervision of an instructor specialist in the study of the chosen market, the student is required to write an essay containing both theoretical and empirical analysis of a specific market-related problem. Selection of Past Dissertation Theses.