Program Guide 2017/18 (ver. April 5, 2017) Master of Science in Economics 2017/18 The Master of Science Program in Economics is Fun, Challenging and Rewarding. Fun - because economics is about important and interesting social issues. Why are some countries rich and some poor? What are the best ways to reduce human impact on the climate? Should families be allowed to choose school? Should both private and public schools be allowed? Challenging - because you need to master difficult analytical methods to work on these issues. You will do a large number of problem sets, labs, oral presentations and exams to learn these methods. At the end, you will spend a complete half-year to write a thesis. And the expectations are high: most theses produce new insights about important issues. Rewarding - because our students get jobs, with good pay. The employment rate among students with an advanced undergraduate degree in Economics from Gothenburg is close to a 100 percent. The largest share works in the private sector, and many of them work abroad. Some continue with Ph.D. studies. Most of the graduates have advanced positions where they make use of the skills they achieved during their studies. Welcome! Professor Johan Stennek Program Coordinator
Contents About the program... 3 Overview of Courses... 4 Economics... 4 Fundamentals... 5 Mathematics... 5 Advanced Microeconomics... 5 Advanced Microeconomics II... 5 Advanced Macroeconomics... 5 Behavioral Economics... 5 Vocational... 6 Graduate Econometrics... 6 Applied Econometrics... 6 Methods of Economic Evaluation and Experiments... 6 Economic Research Process... 6 Internships... 6 Field Courses... 7 Advanced Industrial Economics... 7 Health Economics... 7 Development Economics... 7 Environmental and Resource Economics... 7 Quality of Government... 7 Labor Economics... 8 Public Economics... 8 About the teachers... 9 2
About the program Our program is designed to meet the increasing demand for professionals with top quality skills in the private sector as well as in international organizations and the public sector, in Sweden and all over the world. Our program uses the same academic structure followed by universities all around the world. As a result, we admit students with degrees from universities in many different countries and our students can study part of the program abroad. You may even get a double degree from Tor Vergata (Italy) or Hokkaido University (Japan). After graduation, our students apply for jobs or continue to pursue a Ph.D. at universities all around the world. The program consists of four parts of approximately equal length: 1. The program starts with the fundamentals of economic analysis. You will learn how to analyze common economic problems in markets and in organizations. Issues include taxes, externalities and public goods as well as competition and information problems. You will get an introduction to game theory and behavioral economics. The fundamentals include two courses in microeconomics, one course in macro as well as a course in behavioral economics. There is also a prep course in mathematics. 2. We emphasize vocational training heavily. You will learn to master practical tools used by companies and public authorities around the world. Two courses in econometric methods enable you to handle and analyze data sets using software such as Stata. The evaluation course will teach you cost-benefit analysis and how to use experimental methods in decision-making. The Economic Research course will improve your ability to present complicated problems and solutions both orally and in writing. We also offer you the possibility to do an Internship at public authorities, private firms or third sector organizations as a part of the programme. The vocational part of the program makes you productive from day one on your first job. 3. The program offers several field courses in areas where the department is strong, including development, environmental, health, industrial and financial economics. The field courses give you institutional knowledge, introduce you to current issues and provide you with practical tools commonly used in these areas. Subject to our approval, you may also choose to take field courses at our partner programs all around Europe. Also courses from other Master's programs at Graduate School can also be chosen; for example in management, innovation and international business. 4. The last term, you write your master s thesis, putting it all together. Use your new analytical skills and apply all the practical tools you have learned to master to analyze important economic issues in your field! Approximately half of the courses are compulsory core courses, namely Math, Micro I, Macro, Advanced Econometrics. The other half is elective. While Micro II and Applied Econometrics are not core, they are highly recommended to all students. 3
Overview of Courses Economics This document provides an easily accessible overview of the program. Some details may be changed however. The legally binding document is the Program Syllabus for Master of Science in Economics. All courses are full speed unless indicated otherwise. Sem. Per. Course Responsible 1 1-2 Mathematics 1,2 (GM0702) Dawei Fang 1-2 Advanced microeconomics 1,2 (GM0701) Charles Nadeau 3 Graduate econometrics 1 (GM0715) Andreea Mitrut 4 Advanced macroeconomics 1 (GM0704) Heather Congdon Fors 2 1 Methods of econ evaluation and experiments (GM0729) Elina Lampi 1 The quality of government 2 (GM0727) Statsvetenskap/Heather 2 Advanced microeconomics II (GM0730) Johan Stennek 3 Advanced industrial organization (GM0725) Johan Stennek 4 Advanced development economics (GM0713) Dick Durevall 3-4 Internship (GM0735) Johan Stennek 3 1-2 Internship (GM0735) Johan Stennek 1 Topics in behavioral economics 3 (GM0733) Fredrik Carlsson 1 Topics in environmental economic 3 (GM0734) Jessica Coria 1 Topics in public economics 3 (GM0732) Katarina Nordblom 2 Health economics (GM0723) Kristian Bohlin 3 Economic research process (GM0731) Peter Martinsson 4 Applied econometrics (GM0719) Alpaslan Akay 4 1-4 Master degree project 1 (GM1060) Charles Nadeau 1 = Core 2 = Half speed 3 = Reading course 4
Fundamentals Mathematics The course covers the main mathematical concepts in Economics and Finance and includes: (i) Linear Algebra, (ii) Differential Calculus, (iii) Integral Calculus, (iv), Static Optimization, and (v) Probability. Advanced Microeconomics The course studies how markets work. After analyzing the role of the prices we discuss topics such as taxation, pollution and other externalities as well as public goods. Advanced Microeconomics II The course continues the study of markets and organizations. We cover basic market forms such as oligopolies, auctions and price bargaining. Market imperfections as a result of market power and incomplete information are analyzed. The course provides an introduction to game theory, contract theory and behavioral economics. The course covers the most important areas of modern economic analysis and is similar to the Micro II courses offered in most Ph.D. programs around the world. Advanced Macroeconomics Macroeconomics deals with central issues such as the causes of unemployment, the determinants of growth, the reasons for financial crises and business cycles, and the nature of fiscal and monetary policy. The theoretical core of the course is the overlapping-generations model where individuals make choices over a lifetime of multiple periods. Among the many empirical applications, students will be asked to study the development of specific macro indicators for some country of their choice. Behavioral Economics Behavioral economics develops new economic models that incorporate emotions, fairness, reciprocity, social norms, etc. The background of this development is a wealth of evidence, often from experiments, which shows that many aspects of human behavior cannot be explained by traditional economic analysis. This course covers a number of topics such as relative comparisons, time preferences and field experiments. The aim is to provide the student with knowledge about most important results from key areas within behavioral economics. The students will also learn the necessary tools to be able to investigate behavioral aspects of many economic issues. The course builds on active participation by the students throughout the course. The reading material will be research articles. 5
Vocational Graduate Econometrics In this course, you learn to use modern econometric methods and statistical software. We apply these tools to important economic issues in e.g. labor markets and developing economics. Applied Econometrics This is not like any other econometrics course. The course is a real fun with pictures, videos and visual interactive presentations of how to do econometrics and how to evaluate the econometric research of others. You will learn the fundamentals of the design of an econometric model to fit a particular purpose, and the estimation and testing of that model from a practical point of view. The course aims to make you think and feel like a researcher: you are going to write your own research paper, discuss and present papers on various important state-of-art models in a work-shop organized within the course. Methods of Economic Evaluation and Experiments In this course you will learn how to use surveys, natural experiments and laboratory experiments to evaluate policy changes, welfare, and effects of firms strategies at the market. You will learn how to design, conduct and evaluate surveys and experiments. The evaluation of the results is based on advanced discrete choice econometrics. This course is highly suitable for your thesis work since it focus on methods that are used by practitioners both in academia and in institutions and firms. Economic Research Process This course helps students to identify a research topic for their thesis and to communicate the contents of their thesis both in writing and orally. Internships The programme offers you the possibility to arrange your own internship at public authorities, private firms or third sector organizations for a period of ten weeks. 6
Field Courses Advanced Industrial Economics The course covers issues such as (i) What determines the strength of competition in a market? (ii) What are the effects of competition? (iii) How can public authorities protect competition? The course also provides you with practical tools used by companies and authorities around the world, including (a) How to determine the extent of markets (i.e. what firms compete with one another)? (b) Econometric techniques to measure competition and the effects of competition, as well as (c) an introduction to competition law. Health Economics The course covers issues such as (i) what health is, (ii) demand and supply of health care and health insurance, and (iii) fairness in health care. The course provides you with practical tools, including (a) how to evaluate health interventions, (b) how to measure health-related outcomes, as well as (c) econometric techniques applied to health data. Development Economics The course covers issues such as (i) economic growth and policies for growth, (ii) aid and development, (iii) institutions and development, (iv) political economy perspectives on corruption and conflict, and (v) education, child labor, gender and health issues. The course also provides you with tools such as (a) econometric techniques applied to development economics issues, and (b) evaluation of economic policy programs. Environmental and Resource Economics The course covers issues such as (i) resource management, (ii) the climate and optimal mitigation and policy instruments, (iii) economic growth and the environment, and (iv) international environmental agreements. The course will also provide you with practical tools such as (a) how to evaluate and design resource management programs, (b) measuring the success and failures of international agreements, and (c) econometric techniques applied to environmental and resource issues. Quality of Government This course uses economics and political science tools to analyze the role of quality of government (QoG) institutions for economic and democratic development as well as social and environmental sustainability. It evaluates the importance of QoG for democracy, economic growth, the rule of law, social capital, inequality, social policies and citizens individual well-being; and, whether the concept of QoG is universally applicable or limited to the Western liberal democracies. 7
Labor Economics The aim of this course is to enable students to get an understanding of some relevant issues in contemporary Labor Economics, with an emphasis on the empirical side of the discipline. The course is a mix of theoretical economics, data analysis and econometric techniques. The course is structured as a list of topics commonly studied in Labor Economics. Selected papers within these topics are chosen in order to highlight the empirical methodologies that Labor economists use to study these questions. Thus, the course will focus on both the question to be answered and methodological approaches used to address the basic problem of inference of causal effects in Economics based on micro data. The course is not intended to be an exhaustive survey of all the relevant issues in Labor Economics. Topics that will potentially be included in the course include: the determinants of earnings and returns to education, the education production function, the role of neighborhoods and peers, the effects of family background on the labor market, crime and the labor market, discrimination, and immigration. This course is part of the Ph.D. program, but it is available to very successful master students as an experiment. For this reason we also have a tougher entry requirement, namely that you need to have passed 7 out of 8 first year courses, with high pass in Graduate Econometrics and at least two additional courses. Public Economics This course provides the students the tools needed to analyze important policy issues such as the trade-offs between equity and efficiency. Most teaching material consists of contemporary research articles, which makes the course up to date with modern research. Topics include welfare theory, positive and normative aspects of taxation and redistribution, but also the role of the public sector. The course consists to a large part of seminars where students take active part discussing and presenting their own analysis. 8
About the teachers Our professors combine their interest in teaching with an interest in research. The department is ranked number 87 in the world and number 3 in Sweden. Our professors also have many contacts and much practical experience outside the university. The health economics professor advises multinational pharmaceutical companies on pricing and the industrial economics professor serves as a competition law judge. The development economics professors work with organizations such as the World Bank and one of the environmental economics professors served in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). For more information about our department and the teachers, go to http://www.economics.handels.gu.se. 9