Degrees
Find a range of programs and courses relevant to you:
Course outlines
Find your course outline or those from previous years:
We are excited to be able to offer the following courses to start in September 2020
Public Economic and Regulation (ECON6313)
This course studies the role of government policy in a market economy and emphasises the view that public policy and markets are complementary. It explains when government intervention in markets enhances welfare, and how this intervention influences the behaviour of actors in the private sector. We will cover the basic frictions that lead to market failure, such as externalities, asymmetric information, market power, and behavioural biases. The usefulness of these concepts will be demonstrated through their application to selected topics, such as the policy response to COVID-19, the provision of public insurance, and social security reform. The course will end with several mini lectures on collusion, financial stability, sovereign debt, and political economics. These mini lectures provide a more complete picture of government policy and cover topics that are not often discussed in a public economics course. They will also be taught by experts in the field such as Richard Holden (UNSW, on political economy), Radek Paluszynski (U. Houston, on sovereign debt), David Rahman (U. Minnesota, on collusion), and Stephane Verani (Fed Board, on financial stability).
Instructor: Dr Pei-Cheng Yu
Economic Development in China (ECON6314)
In this course, we will examine the factors leading to China’s remarkable economic transformation and some of their consequences. Topics we will cover include innovation in China’s imperial past, Mao’s reforms, decollectivisation and gradualist reforms, fiscal decentralization, international trade, governance, and inequality. Taking this course will give students a deeper understanding of China’s economic development experience and expose students to the application of economic theory and use of econometric methods in applied economics research.
Instructor: Dr Jane Zhang
Industrial Organization (ECON6301/ECON7301)
A large part of economic transactions take place in markets. Using modern micro-theoretic tools, we analyse how firms exercise market power and how competition policy can be designed to curb the negative effects on consumers and society. Introducing models of imperfect competition where firms strategically interact with each other, we apply them to systematically analyse a range of issues including pricing, product differentiation, advertising, innovation, collusion, mergers, and vertical restraints, among others. Recent developments in personalized pricing and networks will also be explored. The course emphasizes the importance of a theoretical understanding of strategic behaviour as the foundation for any practical application to industry.
Instructor: Professor Arghya Ghosh
2019 John McMillan Prize
The
2019 John McMillan Prize for the Best Paper in Economics by a PhD student goes to
Jie Chen for her paper “Facilitating public good provision in groups with a “relatively privileged” player: The comparative efficacy of punishment and reward”
2019 PhD Presentation Award
The
2019 Best PhD Presentation Award goes to
Adam Gorajek for his presentation “International Trade and the Well-meaning Economist”
Seminars