This course is a continuation of the second-year course EC240.
The course comprises bi-weekly lectures given by senior practitioners and leading researchers from inside and outside LSE, including in the public, private and third sectors. The lectures will expose the students to frontier developments in topics such as public economics, political economy and decision making in the public domain.
The lecture material and associated background reading will then be discussed collectively in accompanying seminar groups. Students may sometimes be expected to undertake their own research for these seminars.
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Graduate Teaching Assistants (who are often PhD students) will chair the seminars on
this course.
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An intermediate course in microeconomic analysis.
Course content
I. Consumer Theory. Utility functions and indifference curves. Income and substitution effects. The Slutsky equation. The expenditure function, compensating and equivalent variation, and consumer surplus. Selected applications to savings and labour supply, including the effects of taxes and benefits.
II. Producer Theory. Production and cost functions. Firm and industry supply. Perfect Competition and Monopoly.
III. Strategic Choice. Basic ideas in game theory. Applications to oligopoly.
IV. General equilibrium and welfare. Competitive equilibrium. Efficiency of equilibrium. Welfare criteria.
V. Topics in welfare economics. Public goods, externalities, second best pricing.
VI. Uncertainty and information. Choice under uncertainty. Insurance markets. Asymmetric information. Selected applications.
Note: Graduate Teaching Assistants (who are often PhD students) will teach classes on this course.
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EC202 course material is hosted here.
Note: Graduate Teaching Assistants (who are often PhD students) will teach classes on this course.
- Teacher:
This course uses economic analysis to explore important questions in contemporary public policy. The first term focusses on macroeconomic policy while the second term focusses on microeconomic policy problems.
The course objectives are to develop knowledge and understanding of key policy issues and debates in the global economy, useful in a wide range of careers in government, finance, consultancy and international organizations such as the IMF and World Bank.
Note: Graduate Teaching Assistants (who are often PhD students) will teach classes on this course.
- Teacher:
EC307 Course Guide
This course explores the microeconomic foundations of economic development.We will discuss education, health, gender, risk, corruption, financial markets, and technology and learning.In studying each of these topics, we will ask: What determines the decisions of poor households in less developed countries? What constraints do they face? Is there scope to improve livelihoods through the actions of governments, international organizations, NGOs, or market participants? What policies have been tried? How have they fared?
This course combines theory and empirics but maintains a strong applied focus.Under each theme, we will derive testable implications from the theory, subject these predictions to econometric testing, comment on the robustness of the results obtained, and seek to draw policy conclusions.
Most classes focus on one or two applied papers and an exercise that asks you to explore these questions on your own.These exercises are important.Class discussions will be based around the exercises and students will be randomly chosen to provide answers to different parts of each exercise.You are permitted (indeed, encouraged) to collaborate on these exercises, but each student must write up and submit an individual solution at the beginning of each class.At the end of the term, one of your assignments will be chosen at random, marked, and count towards your class grade.Students are strongly encouraged to complete the exercises to the best of their abilities before class.Not only do they count towards your class grade, they offer the best preparation for the exam.More importantly, they provide the surest route to learning the subject matter.
Note: Graduate Teaching Assistants (who are often PhD students) will teach classes on this course.
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International Macroeconomics: The course offers an introduction to international macroeconomic theory and develops the main tools for macroeconomic policy analysis. We start by studying the balance of payment and the determination of exchange rates, money, and prices in open economies. We discuss the costs and benefits of different nominal exchange rate regimes and their sustainability, examining the causes and consequences of speculative attacks and financial crises, the role of international financial markets, and international macroeconomic independence.
International Trade Theory: This part of the course strives to explain the pattern of trade observed in the world and to account for the prices at which goods are traded. Positive and normative aspects of international markets are examined. Use is made of the theory of comparative advantage, increasing returns, and strategic theories of international trade. Relations between trade and domestic markets for both goods and factors are examined in terms of the theory of trade according to factor endowments.
The course studies the effect of trade policy within both partial and general equilibrium frameworks. Economic integration between countries is also discussed using the same modelling tools.
Note: Graduate Teaching Assistants (who are often PhD students) will teach classes on this course.
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