Online courses directory (19947)

Public Finance rests at the intersection of two disciplines: Public Economics and Public Choice.  Public Economics deals with issues of social optimality: how much of a good (or ill) does a society desire (or tolerate), and how do we incentivize producers and consumers to attain that amount?  Public economics concerns itself with externalities, which are costs that are borne by persons not involved in a market transaction.  There are both positive and negative externalities; public economists want to know how we get more of the good and less of the bad.  Public choice is the field of economics that looks into the behavior of voters, politicians, and bureaucrats and studies how they choose given different policy institutions. The field of Public Finance studies the interaction between these two disciplines, asking questions like: How do the incentives of the political actors shape the policies they craft?  How does that in turn affect the outcomes in the marketplace?  Alternately, students of Public Fi…

This course surveys major topics and theories in the field of Industrial Organization.  As part of the applied microeconomics structure, Industrial Organization uses the basic tools of microeconomic theory and game theory to study the structure and behavior of firms and their strategic interactions with one another in the marketplace.  Industrial Organization also studies the impact that those interactions have on market structure and welfare. Different kinds of market structures (perfect competition, imperfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, and so forth) present different scenarios in which firms strive to acquire and use market power for their strategic advantage.  While perfect competition and monopoly are two market structures on opposite ends of the spectrum, imperfect competitionwhere a limited number of firms attempt to manipulate their rivals or consumersis a more realistic set-up.  This course will emphasize market structure analysis and the strategic behaviors of competing firms, including…

This course will provide you with an analytical framework for the study of international trade.  Historically, international trade has played a critical role in enabling countries to grow, develop, and become economically powerful.  Through international trade in goods and services, the economies of different countries are more closely linked to one another now than ever before.  At the same time, the world economy is more turbulent now than it has been in decades.  Keeping up with the shifting international environment has become a central concern in business strategy and national economic policy.  This course uses the same fundamental methods of analysis deployed in other branches of economics, as the motives and behavior of individuals and firms remain the same whether they are in the context of international trade or domestic transactions.  You will learn, however, that international trade introduces an entirely new and different set of concerns as well. This course will cover a broad array of rel…

Introduction to econometric models and techniques, simultaneous equations, program evaluation, emphasizing regression. Advanced topics include instrumental variables, panel data methods, measurement error, and limited dependent variable models. May not count toward HASS requirement.

This course focuses on the specification and estimation of the linear regression model. The course departs from the standard Gauss-Markov assumptions to include heteroskedasticity, serial correlation, and errors in variables. Advanced topics include generalized least squares, instrumental variables, nonlinear regression, and limited dependent variable models. Economic applications are discussed throughout the course.

El objetivo del programa es realizar una introducción a los temas legales que regulan y tienen efectos sobre la economía digital. De esta forma, el programa busca brindar a todos los profesionales que se relacionen con la economía digital las herramientas jurídicas necesarias para entender las leyes que se relacionan con la industria de la tecnología, las nuevas formas de entretenimiento y la información.

Choice of material has implications throughout the life-cycle of a product, influencing many aspects of economic and environmental performance. This course will provide a survey of methods for evaluating those implications. Lectures will cover topics in material choice concepts, fundamentals of engineering economics, manufacturing economics modeling methods, and life-cycle environmental evaluation.

15.010 is the Sloan School's core subject in microeconomics, with sections for non-Sloan students labeled 15.011. Our objective is to give you a working knowledge of the analytical tools that bear most directly on the economic decisions firms must regularly make. We will emphasize market structure and industrial performance, including the strategic interaction of firms. We will examine the behavior of individual markets -- and the producers and consumers that sell and buy in those markets -- in some detail, focusing on cost analysis, the determinants of market demand, pricing strategy, market power, and the implications of government regulatory policies. We will also examine the implications of economics on other business practices, such as incentive plans, auctions, and transfer pricing.

15.010 is the Sloan School's core subject in microeconomics, with sections for non-Sloan students labeled 15.011. Our objective is to give you a working knowledge of the analytical tools that bear most directly on the economic decisions firms must regularly make. We will emphasize market structure and industrial performance, including the strategic interaction of firms. We will examine the behavior of individual markets -- and the producers and consumers that sell and buy in those markets -- in some detail, focusing on cost analysis, the determinants of market demand, pricing strategy, market power, and the implications of government regulatory policies. We will also examine the implications of economics on other business practices, such as incentive plans, auctions, and transfer pricing.

Game Theory, also known as Multiperson Decision Theory, is the analysis of situations in which the payoff of a decision maker depends not only on his own actions but also on those of others. Game Theory has applications in several fields, such as economics, politics, law, biology, and computer science. In this course, I will introduce the basic tools of game theoretic analysis. In the process, I will outline some of the many applications of Game Theory, primarily in economics.

14.454 is an introduction to current macroeconomic concerns with particular emphasis on medium-run economic fluctuations, economic crises, and the role of asset markets. Topics include the explanation of high chronic unemployment in some nations, the source of modern liquidity crises, the origin and end of speculative bubbles, and the factors that lead to substantial periods of economic stagnation.

What would happen if workers ran their own businesses? Would worker-managed firms make the same decisions as their capitalist counterparts? Could such an economy be efficient? What policies could be deployed to promote a cooperative sector?

This course will focus on these central questions as we discuss the internal impact of employee ownership; productivity, governance and management, as well as the external impact of employee ownership; spillovers for health, democracy, and the local economy.

We will also discuss the simple economic theory of the labour-managed firm. Cooperatives have many attractive features, including high productivity. But they account for a relatively small proportion of GDP in most economies. We analyse possible reasons for this apparent paradox. There is widespread interest around the world in cooperatives as an alternative to the capitalist corporation, particularly since the financial crash of 2008. Economics and other social sciences sharpen the debate on cooperatives. After taking this course, you will be better prepared to participate in public discussion on cooperatives, join a cooperative, or even start a new one.

This course was created in collaboration with the following institutions:

               

The economic growth of developing countries requires the acquisition of technological capabilities. In countries at the world technological frontier, such capabilities refer to cutting edge skills to innovate entirely new products. In developing countries, the requisite technological capabilities are broader, and include production engineering, project execution and incremental innovation to make borrowed technology work. Theories of technology acquisition are examined. The empirical evidence is taken from two sets of developing countries; the most advanced (Taiwan, Korea, India, China and Brazil) and the least advanced (Africa and Middle Eastern countries).

This class analyzes the theoretical and historical reasons why governments in latecomer countries have intervened with a wide array of policies to foster industrial development at various turning points: the initiation of industrial activity; the diversification of the industrial base; the restructuring of major industrial institutions; and the entry into high-technology sectors.

This half semester class will present an introduction to macroeconomic modeling, particularly economic growth. It will focus both on models of economic growth and their empirical applications, and try to shed light on the mechanics of economic growth, technological change and sources of income and growth differences across countries.

If you really care about the big questions in the economies and societies of the 21st century, such as distributive justice, namely, inequality of income or wealth, and its relationship with economic growth, this course is meant for you. It can truly change your outlook on our world.

This course is a survey of world economic history, and it introduces economics students to the subject matter and methodology of economic history. It is designed to expand the range of empirical settings in students' research by drawing upon historical material and long-run data. Topics are chosen to show a wide variety of historical experience and illuminate the process of industrialization. The emphasis will be on questions related to labor markets and economic growth.

This course gives a historical perspective on financial panics. Topics include the growth of the industrial world, the Great Depression and surrounding events, and more recent topics such as the first oil crisis, Japanese stagnation, and conditions following the financial crisis of 2008.

This course is designed for students particularly concerned with the practical problems of operating in large formal organizations, either from an operational or a research perspective. It will focus, as the title suggests, upon different forms of economic organizations and institutions in advanced and developing industrial societies and the theories (and theoretical perspectives) which might help us to understand them.

This course emphasizes the role of economics regarding its influence on food prices, the environment, and government policies. The primary objective of this course is to explore the basic tool kit of economic concepts that will enable students to critically analyze the choices they face as consumers and world citizens.