Master's Courses

Masters students must obtain prior approval from the instructor and submit that approval to the department before registering for courses outside of the listed courses for their degree program.

ECO 504 Financial Analysis & Reporting
The primary objective of this course is to provide an understanding of the concepts and procedures underlying financial statements and other accounting reports, by analyzing, classifying, and recording business transactions in a manual and computerized environment. The goals are: (1) to develop your ability to work with financial data, (2) to develop your ability to turn financial and operating data into useful information, (3) to develop an appreciation for the variety of accounting models and their uses, and (4) to develop skill in the use of Excel™ in performing financial analyses. Emphasis is on understanding the complete accounting cycle and preparation of financial statements.

ECO 505 Microeconomic Theory
The primary goal is to explain and forecast the behavior of consumers and firms and the performance of specific markets under alternative market structures. Topics include: supply and demand, individual and market demand, consumer behavior, production, cost function, and competitive and monopolistic markets/strategies.

ECO 506 Microeconomics Theory 2
This course studies advanced topics in microeconomics and emphasizes application of theory to real world problems. The first part of the course covers a broad range of markets and explains how the pricing, investment, and output decisions of the firms depend on the market structure and the behavior of competitors. Specifically, it covers the analysis of market power under monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition, game theory, investment, time, and capital markets. The second part emphasizes the normative approach. It covers the general equilibrium analysis, the conditions for economic efficiency, and markets with asymmetric information, externalities, and public goods.

Prerequisite: ECO 505

ECO 507 Macroeconomic Theory
The course is designed to acquaint students with the basic analytical tools and principles of Macroeconomics. Strong emphasis will be placed on the concepts and methodology of economics as a social science. Economic theory deals with aggregate economic problems of employment, inflation, cycles and growth. It emphasizes development of analytical tools applicable in subsequent field courses.

ECO 511 Economics of Health
This course deals with major health issues and policies that apply internationally, especially those that show great variation between rich and poor countries. Students will learn to do careful and systematic empirical research. The class also emphasizes the very special features of the economics of medical care in rich countries, particularly the roles of uncertainty and insurance. Lastly, the multi-faceted role of government in the development, delivery, and regulation of medical care will be discussed.

ECO 512 Environemntal Economics
This course will introduce students to the application of microeconomic theory to current, real-world environmental issues. The first part of the course will describe the circumstances under which markets fail to allocate resources efficiently. This, it turns out, is the rule rather than the exception in the environmental context, and it provides an important (but not the only) rationale for government intervention. The next two segments of the course will cover market-based policy measures that can correct these market failures and methods to quantitatively assess the costs and benefits of these policies. We will then discuss the question of sustainability and the optimal management of natural resources. The course will conclude with a segment on climate change policy.

ECO 516 Economic Development

Poverty is considered to be one of the world’s greatest problems. Why does it exist? Why did some countries manage to get out of poverty and enjoy higher standards of living? This course discusses the economic problems of developing countries, international and financial dimensions of growth and interactions between economic and other factors influencing growth.

ECO 518 Economics of East Asia
The world’s fastest growing economies in the post-war period (Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Hong Kong) are clustered in East Asia. Through applications of economic analysis, this course will provide students with deeper knowledge of East Asian economic growth and understanding of development and growth process of economies in general. The issues will include the order of financial liberalization, trade liberalization, and the recent currency crisis in East Asia.

ECO 521 Urban Economics
This course seeks to develop an understanding of the economics processes and public policies which have shaped the development of metropolitan areas with emphasis on the United States. Topics include: theory of urban growth, trends in urbanization, location theory, the provision and financing of local government, and the external effects of production and consumption of the urban environment. Other topics include transportation problems, housing, and urban poverty.

ECO 525 Economics of Financial Institutions
This course will teach the basic concepts, jargon, and stylized facts on financial markets, as well as simple economic models on portfolio choice, risk-sharing, and asset valuations. This course studies theory and institutions of money and capital markets. Economics of both commercial and central banking are discussed. The relation of monetary policy to stabilization objectives is analyzed.

ECO 526 Financial Economics I (Capital Markets)
What is money? How is the supply of money controlled and how do changes affect the economy? What are the functions of financial institutions (i.e. Federal Reserve, Commercial Banks)? This class discusses the role of various types of securities and financial institutions in channeling funds from savers to investors. Students learn the operations of bank and non-bank financial intermediaries, securities exchanges, markets in futures, and foreign exchange markets. Students also learn about interest rates and central bank policy.

ECO 527 Financial Economics II
This course further develops and extends knowledge of financial economics covered by Financial Economics I. In particular the first half of the course is focused on financial decisions by firms and the second half of the course is focused on financial decisions by investors. The course is designed to help you understand the role of financial assets as a tool of raising capital for firms, to acquire skills to make capital structure decisions and analyze dividend policies, to understand a basic role of investment management business, and to master the working knowledge of evaluation techniques for equity, bond, futures, and option markets.

ECO 528 Empirical Methods in Financial Economics
This course focuses on empirical aspects of financial economics. Students will learn how to use econometrics creatively to generate stylized factors or test the implication offered by economic theories. Today’s capital markets are becoming increasingly sophisticated and involved with many important economic problems, such as the allocation of resources, economic stability, and growth under uncertainty. The following topics will be covered: stock and bond returns predictability, stochastic volatility, estimation for option prices, computing and estimating term structures of interest rates, volatility, and credit risks.

Suggested Pre-requisites: ECO 526, ECO 527, ECO 580, ECO 581, ECO 592

ECO 529 Economics of Asset Valuation
This course develops methods of asset valuation based on equilibrium concepts in micro and macroeconomics. Furthermore, this class teaches techniques to analyze financial contracts whose payoffs are contingent on fluctuation in economic activity. The course focuses on explaining a genuine relationship between consumption-saving decisions and asset pricing under the general equilibrium framework, as well as on model-building skills for advanced research in financial economics. Other topics include: attitude toward risk, incomplete markets, factor pricing, dynamically complete markets, risk-neutral probability, and risk neutral pricing.

Suggested Pre-requisites: ECO 505, ECO 526, ECO 527

ECO 534 International Finance
The purpose of this course is to analyze the key financial markets and instruments that facilitate the trade and investment activity on a global scale. The economics determinants of prices and price relationships in the major financial markets will be dealt with an emphasis on private and public policy issues. Institutional facts, related theories and empirical evidence will be presented to facilitate the students with knowledge and skills to tackle current economic issues in international finance. This course aims to familiarize students with the key ideas and relationships and gain insights on central problems facing private companies and policy-makers.

ECO 535 International Economics
This course is an introductory course to the theory and policy of international economics. It covers extensively the real-side trade of the world economy and leaves the monetary side to other specialized courses such as international finance and open-economy macroeconomics. Topics to be covered include: the theories of comparative advantage (both classical and modern), the new theories of trade with scale economies and imperfect competition, the uses of various policy instruments (tariffs, quotas, voluntary trade restraints, and other trade distortions), the issues of unfair trade practices (dumping and subsidies), the use of strategic trade policy, the formation of free trade areas, the effects of regional economic integration, and the recent issues on globalization.

ECO 540 Economics of Education
This course is designed to highlight how econometrics can be applied to a broad range of empirical problems in the economics of education. A major goal of this course is to get students to read and write research papers by focusing on major issues. Topics to be discussed include: education and school quality, education signaling and school choices, minimum wage, ethnicity, race and gender in the labor market, wage inequality, and returns to working experience and tenure.

ECO 543 Labor Economics
Students will learn the economic analysis tools for the behavior of employers and employees and the interrelationships of the major forces at work that shape the demand and supply of labor markets. Topics include: applied economics, beginning with wage theory and institutions which affect the supply and demand of labor. Additional topics will include examining the causes and consequences of wage differentials, policy problems as level and structure of unemployment, relation of wages to inflation, and government regulation of wage setting institutions.

ECO 545 Human Resource Economics
This course discusses the relationships among the techniques of human-capital formation (education, on-the-job training, financing, human-capital maintenance, health care, job safety), human-capital mobility (occupational information, relocation), and economic performance.

ECO 551 Mathematics for Economists
This course in mathematical economics will provide you with the mathematical tools and methods frequently used to design models for economic analysis. Linear algebra, multivariable calculus, and optimization theory are the main topics of the course and applications to simple economic models will be emphasized. Pre-requisites are courses in elementary economics and calculus.

ECO 555 Information and Internet Economics
This course focuses on economic issues involving both information and Internet Technology. On the information side, it covers value of information, issues that arise from information asymmetry, cost of producing information, how to manage intellectual property, and information as an “experience good.” On the technology side, the course discusses business implications of the Internet by introducing topics concerning systems competition, lock-in and switching costs, positive feedback, network externalities, and standards.

ECO 561 Economic Fluctuation and Forecasting
This is an introductory course for time series analysis with an emphasis on prediction. Forecasting is important in decision making process of economic agents, because of the simple fact: most economic variables of interest vary randomly over time. Topics include: stationary ARMA processes, forecasting, covariance-stationary vector processes, vector auto-regressions, models of non-stationary time series, and processes with deterministic time trends, univariate processes with unit roots, unit roots in multivariate time series, co-integration, and time series models of hetero-skedasticity.

ECO 564 Economics of the Public Sector
“Why does the government tax?” Is there an optimum with respect to the size and mix of the public sector? This course in mathematical economics will provide you with the mathematical tools and methods frequently used to design models in economics analysis. Linear algebra, multivariable calculus, and optimization theory are the main topics of the course and applications to simple economics models will be emphasized.

Pre-requisites: courses in elementary economics and calculus.

ECO 567 Game Theory
Game theory is a means of studying strategic behavior. “What is strategic behavior?” It is conduct by a person or a firm, for example, intended to achieve a specified goal; e.g. finding a low purchase price for a commodity or generating a high profit level. Often two entities have directly opposing goals. A simple example is that of a buyer and a seller since the buyer wants to trade at a low price and the seller wants to trade at a high price. In fact, when you think about it, most of the significant deliberate choices that you make each day are strategic. How can we, as scientists, predict accurately the outcomes of strategic conflicts between groups of adversaries? Game theory has become a very useful means of constructing such predictions. The course will examine the development of the theory and will highlight its achievements and failures when applied to economic problems.

ECO 569 Industrial Organization
This class discusses the economic analysis of the structure of industries and firms in America and other advanced economies, including production policies, relations between structure, competition, and efficiency. Other topics to be discussed include: strategic behaviors, patents and technological change, international trade, and monopolies.

ECO 570 Economics of Regulation
This course analyzes the purposes, criteria, and effects of government, as well as the regulatory policies in various sectors of the economy. Other topics to be discussed include: public utilities, telecommunication, petroleum, government defense, and anti-trust policies.

ECO 578 Computational Investment
This course is an elective cross-disciplinary course, providing students with an inquisitive mind an opportunity to learn about real world investment problems and to solve them with fascinating computational tools, which only become mature in recent years.

ECO 580 Econometrics I
This course aims to spell out and thoroughly discuss fundamental concepts and procedures used in econometric practices. The course begins with a review of descriptive measures for large data sets (i.e. mean, mode, standard deviation, etc.), normal and binomial distributions, estimation, testing of hypothesis and proceeds to study probability distributions, point and interval estimations, analysis of variance and two-variable regression. Additionally, survey of basic statistical concepts and methods employed in economic analysis and research will be covered.

ECO 581 Econometrics II
This course is a sequel to ECO 580. The main objective of the course is to provide a fairly in-depth analysis of the linear regression model and a brief introduction to the analysis of linear structural equations. Major emphasis is on the general linear regression model and its application to real world data using standard computer software under alternative specifications of the model. The course also studies seasonal adjustment of time-series data, construction of index numbers, and tests of goodness-of-fit using Chi- Square tests.

Prerequisite: ECO 580 or its equivalent

ECO 582 Computational Econometrics
This class uses SAS to demonstrate ways to analyze economic data utilizing various econometric techniques. Topics covered include basic linear regression models, binary choice models, and time series and simultaneous equation models. SAS programs are run using real data. No prior knowledge of SAS is necessary. Prerequisite: ECO 580; ECO 581 is suggested

ECO 583 Econometric Applications
This course will focus on applications of computational, statistical and econometric techniques. Building on the extensive exposure to Econometric techniques in the other courses in the Economics Masters program, this course will focus on various applications of these techniques across multiple industries. Following a review of the analytic techniques that are regularly used in Business, the course will follow a case study approach reviewing specific business problems that call for analytic solutions and following the approaches through the analysis process to the communication of findings and results. The course will involve identifying, quantifying, and statistically testing hypotheses that will answer compelling business questions. Current tools of the marketplace (e.g., SAS, SQL, E-Views) will be reviewed and used where appropriate. The communication of analysis and resultant business recommendations is a key focus in this course. Students will be expected to carry out a group project and present their results to the class in a polished, professional manner.

ECO 588 Practicum in Financial Economics I
This course is an equity valuation class where students will learn how to determine the fair or intrinsic value of publicly traded common stock. Students will learn how analysts use discounted cash flow analysis and relative valuation techniques to determine the value. The course also covers dynamics that influence equity valuation such as industry analysis and macro-economic factors. This course covers most the CFA Level 1 equity portion of the exam. Topics include: Global asset allocation, sector allocation, security-market indexes, market, industry and company analysis, and portfolio management.  Students will individually build, track, and maintain an investment portfolio on a market simulator.

ECO 589 Practicum in Financial Economics II
This course is a fixed-income valuation class that covers an overview of the global fixed-income markets, price/yield calculations, pricing of bonds with embedded options, bond price and yield volatility, credit analysis, default spreads, and yield curve analysis.  This course covers most of the CFA Level 1 fixed-income portion of the exam. Topics include: Financial statement analysis, the valuation of equity and fixed income investments, quantitative methods, performance measurement and review of the CFA® Ethics and Professional Standards.  Student teams will write a comprehensive equity research report. Objectives of this sequence are to prepare students for their future roles as security analysts, wealth advisors, or portfolio managers and to take the Chartered Financial Analyst® exam.

ECO 590 Monetary Theory
This course is developed to provide students with knowledge of basic monetary theory. By taking this course, students will 1) learn the advantages of using fiat money over commodity monies, 2) learn a simple model of money where money is used as a medium of exchange, and 3) learn how to apply this model to various monetary issues including inflation, banking, central banking, and the effects of money on saving, investment, and output.

ECO 592 Financial Risk Management
This course deals with the pricing of financial derivatives and their use in financial risk management. The first part develops the no-arbitrage principle and analyzes the pricing of forward and futures contracts, options, fixed-income derivatives, and corporate liabilities. The second part utilizes this knowledge to study techniques of managing credit risk, interest rate risk, exchange rate risk, and operation risk (i.e. what is known as financial risks). Throughout the course, the roles of financial institutions and innovation in hedging against market volatilities will be addressed as well.

Prerequisite: ECO 580 and ECO 526 or permission of instructor

ECO 593 Topics in International Economics

This course studies advanced topics in international economics, with a special emphasis on the applications of recent trade theory and policy to the current world economy. Topics to be emphasized include the new theories of trade with scale economy and imperfect competition, strategic commercial policies with tariffs, quotas, and voluntary trade restraints, the issues of unfair trade practices such as dumping and trade subsidies, formation of free trade areas such as NAFTA, regional economic integration such as the European Union, the balance-of-payments crisis, currency devaluation, the role of IMF, and the international policy coordination.

ECO 597 Internship in Applied Economics
This course is provided for students who are interested in practicing the usage of economic tools for applied problems. Student will work in an appropriate organization for several months using economic tools for the solution of practical problems. Plan of work, supervisor, and final report subject to approval of the Director of Master's Program. Further information on Internships.

ECO 598 Independent Research in Economics
This course involves the development of individual project or inquiry into an area of particular relevance to the student’s interest within the field of Economics. A written proposal and a faculty member’s approval of the willingness to supervise the project is required. Further information on Independent Research.