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- Undergraduate Courses Matrix
- Degree Programme
Undergraduate Courses
Game Theory
Strategic-form games and extensive-form games. Solution concepts. Games with incomplete information. Applications and topics which may (but not necessarily) include bargaining, auctions, global games, evolutionary games, learning, games in political science. The paper will be set in two parts. Candidates will be required to show knowledge on both parts of the paper.
- Part A. Questions will be set requiring candidates to solve problems involving the core elements of game theory.
- Part B. Questions will be set requiring candidates to solve problems in and show knowledge of specific applications and topics in game theory.
Philosophy & Economics of the Environment
Rationale, Aims and Objectives
Environmental issues are prominent in public discourse and will remain so for the foreseeable future. They raise fundamental questions about valuation, justice between generations, decision-making under uncertainty, international collective action and the roles of market-based solutions and regulation. The literature on environmental issues is vast and cuts across many traditional academic disciplines. The course will be interdisciplinary. PPE students will thus have the chance to apply the analytical skills learned in the different disciplines to a topic of vital public interest.
Aims. The aims of the paper are to provide students with (i) an understanding of the philosophy and economics of the environment, and (ii) the ability to analyse critically key conceptual and applied issues in this field using both a philosophical approach and the theoretical and empirical tools of economics.
Objectives. At the end of the course, students should have a knowledge of the philosophy and economics of the environment, including theories of value, decision-making under uncertainty, market failures, international environmental agreements and the politics of the environment, intergenerational ethics and discounting, the choice of instruments, how human life and how nature may be valued, and the foundations of cost-benefit analysis (including methods for valuing non-market goods).
The paper will cover, as appropriate, applications to environmental problems such as climate change, acid rain, and local water and air pollution. In order to retain flexibility, however, these are not included in the rubric.
British Economic History Since 1870
Rubric
Trends and cycles in national income, factor supplies, and productivity; changes in the structure of output, employment, and capital; management and entrepreneurship; the location of industries, industrial concentration, and the growth of large firms, prices, interest rates, money, and public finance; wages, unemployment, trade unions, and the working of the labour market; the distribution of incomes, poverty, and living standards; foreign trade, tariffs, international capital movements, and sterling; Government economic policy in peace and war.
Content and Structure
The aim of this course is to provide an analysis of the British economy since 1870 from an economist's perspective. Throughout this period the British economy was firmly embedded in a broader international economy and much of the analysis will involve a focus on the international context. Britain began the period as the unquestioned mid-nineteenth century industrial leader but by the mid-twentieth century the country’s position was that of an only moderately successful industrial economy. The course will examine the wide literature on British economic decline that the shift has prompted. The century under study was one of dramatic aggregate economic fluctuations in both levels of unemployment and rates of inflation. Much of the course will examine the macroeconomics of the period. This will involve analysis of the workings of the classical gold standard, the disruption of the prevailing fiscal and monetary arrangements by the First World War, the Great Depression and its aftermath, and the macroeconomic conditions of the Golden Age of the two post-Second World War decades.
Course Objectives
The objectives of this course are:
- to provide an introduction to the evolution of the British economy in its international context;
- to provide understanding of how economic principles acquired in core Macro and Micro economics courses relate to real economic issues and how they can be used to analyze important real economic problems and developments;
- to provide insight into policy options and debates with emphasis on the role of historical experience as an influence on perceptions of policy options.
Classical Economic Thought
The theories of value, distribution, money, international trade and growth of Smith, Ricardo and Marx.
The aim of the paper is to give an in depth understanding of the distinctive features of classical economics, focussing on the writing of Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx. The stress is on the classical analysis of the nature of a market economy, the source and significance of profits and the dynamics of economic growth. The key texts are studied in detail, together with subsequent commentaries and controversies.
Command & Transitional Economies
Throughout the course emphasis will be placed on knowledge of theory, economic policies and basic institutions, rather than the details of the economic history of specific countries. The main countries studied in the transition period are Russia, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and China. Although most questions in the exam will deal with the Soviet Union/Russia and Eastern Europe, at least two will relate fully or partially to the economy of China.
Comparative Demographic Systems
This course is run by the Department of Social Policy and Social Work
Comparative Demographic Systems
Convenor: Professor David Coleman
Department of Social Policy and Social Work
Candidates will be expected to show knowledge of controversies in demographic theory (Malthus and his critics, Easterlin, Caldwell, the New Home Economics school and others) and to illustrate their answers with varied and specific examples. The paper will contain essay questions and questions involving computation. Candidates will be required to answer three questions, two of the former and one of the latter.
- Demographic analysis and techniques: data sources, adequacy and remedies. Statistical analysis of fertility, mortality, and other demographic phenomena. The life table, stable population, and other models of population structure and growth. Population dynamics, projections and simulations.
- Limits to fertility and the lifespan. Contrasts between stable and transitional population systems in historical European and current non-European societies: the decline of mortality, fertility patterns in relation to systems of household formation, kin organization and risk environments, marital fertility decline and the current status of transition theory. Social, economic, and political consequences of rapid population growth at the national level and the local level. Demographic systems in post-transitional societies (modern Europe and other industrial areas): low fertility, trends in health and survival, and age structure change; their economic and social causes and consequences. New patterns of marriage and family, women in the workforce, labour migration and the demography of ethnic minorities, population policies.
This course is run by the Department of Social Policy and Social Work
Econometrics
Overview:
This course intends to expose you to the statistical techniques that economists use for estimating, testing, and forecasting economic relationships. The emphasis is on understanding the techniques involved and also on what they mean in terms of the economic problem being studied. Successful completion of this course should allow you to read much of the professional empirical literature in economics.
Prerequisites:
This course assumes that you have a good grasp of the concepts covered in Quantitative Economics.
Textbook:
The main text is:
- Introduction to Econometrics, 2nd edition (published by Pearson Education) by James Stock and Mark Watson.
You may also consult the following text:
- Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach by Jeffrey Wooldridge (latest edition).
Economic Decisions within the Firm
The aim of the course is to introduce the student to operational research models and methods, which are useful for understanding problems as faced by firms and other agents, and for making decisions concerning these problems.
Economic Theory
The objective of the course is to introduce the student to some of the fundamental ideas and tools of modern economic theory.
Economics of Developing Countries
The objective of the undergraduate course is to introduce students to key areas of development economics, analysis of conditions in developing countries, and exploring some of the major economic policy issues relating to developing countries.
Economics of Industry
The economics of industry is concerned with the behaviour of firms. This course covers both theory and applications. The objectives of this course are to provide an understanding of:
- the theoretical foundations of firm decisions regarding pricing, product differentiation, advertising, entry, mergers and takeovers, innovation, vertical integration, and organization
- the welfare implications of firm behaviour
- strategic firm behaviour, its effects on other firms
- inappropriate firm behaviour and the design of public policy responses
- methods of determining and analysing firm behaviour through the use of data