Graduate Courses, Fall 2020
Introduction to optimization methods and partial equilibrium. Theories of utility and consumer behavior production and firm behavior. Introduction to uncertainty and the economics of information, and to noncompetitive market structures.
Analysis of short-run determination of aggregate employment, income, prices, and interest rates in closed and open economies. Stabilization policies.
A formal introduction to game theory and information economics. Alternative non-cooperative solution concepts are studied and applied to problems in oligopoly, bargaining, auctions, strategic social choice, and repeated games.
A forum for advanced students to critically examine recent papers in the literature and present their own work.
Heterogeneous agent economics, investment, scrapping and firing, nonquadratic adjustment costs, financial constraints, financial intermediation, psychology of decision making under risk, optimal risk management, financial markets, consumption behavior, monetary policy, term structure of interest rates.
Presentations by research scholars and participating students.
A course that gives third- and fourth-year students doing research in macroeconomics an opportunity to prepare their prospectuses and to present their dissertation work. Each student is required to make at least two presentations per term. For third-year students and beyond, at least one of the presentations in the first term should be a mock job talk.
A forum for presentation and discussion of state-of-the-art research in macroeconomics. Presentations by research scholars and participating students of papers in closed economy and open economy macroeconomics and monetary economics.
A survey of the main features of current economic analysis and of the application of the theory to a number of important economic questions, covering microeconomics and demand theory, the theory of the firm, and market structures. For IDE students.
This course presents a basic framework to understand macroeconomic behavior and the effects of macroeconomic policies. Topics include consumption and investment, labor market, short-run income determinations, unemployment, inflation, growth, and the effects of monetary and fiscal policies. The emphasis is on the relation between the underlying assumptions of macroeconomic framework and policy implications derived from it.
This course analyzes empirically and theoretically the political, institutional, and social underpinnings of economic development. We cover an array of topics ranging from power structures to corruption, state capacity, social capital, conflict, democratization, and democratic backsliding. We focus on recent advances to identify open areas for further research.
Probability: concepts and axiomatic development. Data: tools of descriptive statistics and data reduction. Random variables and probability distributions; univariate distributions (continuous and discrete); multivariate distributions; functions of random variables and transformations; the notion of statistical inference; sampling concepts and distributions; asymptotic theory; point and interval estimation; hypothesis testing.
A sequel to ECON 552, the course proceeds to research level in time series econometrics. Topics include an introduction to ergodic theory, Wold decomposition, spectral theory, martingales, martingale convergence theory, mixing processes, strong laws, and central limit theory for weak dependent sequences with applications to econometric models and model determination.
Methods and approaches to empirical economic analysis are reviewed, illustrated, and discussed with reference to specific empirical studies. The emphasis is on learning to use methods and on understanding how specific empirical questions determine the empirical approach to be used. We review a broad range of approaches including program evaluation methods and structural modeling, including estimation approaches, computational issues, and problems with inference.
Application of statistical analysis to economic data. Basic probability theory, linear regression, specification and estimation of economic models, time series analysis, and forecasting. The computer is used. For IDE students.
Continuous optimization has played a major role in the recent development of fast algorithms for problems arising in areas such as theoretical computer science, discrete optimization, and machine learning. The approach is to first formulate the problem as a continuous optimization problem, even if the problem may be over a discrete domain; adapt or develop deterministic or randomized continuous-time dynamical systems to solve it; and then design algorithms for the problem via appropriate discretizations. The goal of this course is to design state-of-the-art algorithms for various classical discrete problems through the use of continuous optimization/sampling. The algorithmic applications include shortest paths, bipartite matching, flows, linear programming, sampling, and counting. We present approaches including gradient descent, mirror descent, multiplicative weights update method, accelerated gradient descent, Riemannian descent, Newton’s method, cutting-plane methods, Langevin dynamics, and Hamiltonian dynamics.
A forum for state-of-the-art research in econometrics. Its primary purpose is to disseminate the results and the technical machinery of ongoing research in theoretical and applied fields.
A course for third- and fourth-year students doing research in econometrics to prepare their prospectus and present dissertation work.
This course covers topics in causal inference including approaches from other disciplines that may be of use to empirical economics. The first part of the course is conceptual; students learn about graphical approaches to modeling causation and how these ideas connect with the potential outcomes framework. We consider nonparametric identification of causal effects and the relationship between identification and consistent estimation. The second part examines a range of modern empirical techniques from the perspective of causal inference. These include methods for estimating treatment effects using high-dimensional data, synthetic control, additive and non-additive nonparametric instrumental variables estimation, and nonparametric procedures to adjust for measurement error.
A survey of some major events and issues in the economic development of Western Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, stressing the causes, nature, and consequences of the industrial revolution in Britain and on the Continent, and the implications of the historical record for modern conceptions of economic growth.
A forum for discussion and criticism of research in progress. Presenters include graduate students, Yale faculty, and visitors. Topics concerned with long-run trends in economic organization are suitable for the seminar. Special emphasis given to the use of statistics and of economic theory in historical research.
Begins by locating the study of industrial organization within the broader research traditions of economics and related social sciences. Alternative theories of decision making, of organizational behavior, and of market evolution are sketched and contrasted with standard neoclassical theories. Detailed examination of the determinants and consequences of industrial market structure.
For third-year students in microeconomics, intended to guide students in the early stages of theoretical and empirical dissertation research. Emphasis on regular writing assignments and oral presentations.
For advanced graduate students in applied microeconomics, serving as a forum for presentation and discussion of work in progress of students, Yale faculty members, and invited speakers.
Topics include static and dynamic approaches to demand, human capital and wage determination, wage income inequality, unemployment and minimum wages, matching and job turnover, immigration and international trade, unions, implicit contract theory, and efficiency wage hypothesis.
A forum primarily for graduate students to present their research plans and findings. Discussions encompass empirical microeconomic research relating to both high- and low-income countries.
Workshop for students doing research in labor economics and public finance.
Current issues in theoretical financial economics are addressed through the study of current papers. Focuses on the development of the problem-solving skills essential for research in this area.
The course exposes students to main stochastic modeling methods and solution concepts used to study problems in operations research and management. The first half of the class covers analysis of queuing models such as Markovian queues, networks of queues, and queues with general arrival or service distributions, as well as approximation techniques such as heavy traffic approximation. The second half focuses on control of stochastic processes; it covers finite and infinite-horizon dynamic programming problems, and special classes such as linear quadratic problems, optimal stopping, and multi-armed bandit problems.
The course exposes students to main stochastic modeling methods and solution concepts used to study problems in operations research and management. The first half of the class covers analysis of queuing models such as Markovian queues, networks of queues, and queues with general arrival or service distributions, as well as approximation techniques such as heavy traffic approximation. The second half focuses on control of stochastic processes; it covers finite and infinite-horizon dynamic programming problems, and special classes such as linear quadratic problems, optimal stopping, and multi-armed bandit problems.
This workshop is for third-year and other advanced students in financial economics. It is intended to guide students in the early stages of dissertation research. The emphasis is on presentation and discussion of materials presented by students that will eventually lead to dissertation topics. Open to third-year and advanced Ph.D. students only.
Major topics in public finance including externalities, public goods, benefit/cost analysis, fiscal federalism, social insurance, retirement savings, poverty and inequality, taxation, and others. Applications are provided to crime, education, environment and energy, health and health insurance, housing, and other markets and domains. The course covers a variety of applied methods including sufficient statistics, randomized control trials, hedonic models, regression discontinuity, discrete choice, spatial equilibrium, dynamic growth models, differences-in-differences, integrated assessment models, applied general equilibrium, event studies, firm production functions, learning models, general method of moments, and propensity-score reweighting estimators.
This workshop is for third-year and other advanced students in international economic fields. It is intended to guide students in the early stages of dissertation research. The emphasis is on students’ presentation and discussion of material that will eventually lead to the prospectus.
The first part of this course covers the basic theory of international trade, from neoclassical theory where trade is the result of comparative advantage (Ricardo, Heckscher-Ohlin) to the “New Trade Theory” where trade is generated by imperfect competition and increasing returns to scale. Particular emphasis is placed on the implications of the different theories concerning the aggregate gains or losses from trade and the distributional implications of trade liberalization. The second part of the course explores new advances in the field. It covers the Eaton-Kortum (2002) and Melitz (2003) models; extensions of these models with many countries, multiproduct firms, and sectors; methods of quantitative trade analysis to revisit classic questions (gains from trade, distributional effects of trade, trade policy); and new advances in dynamic trade theory.
A study of how consumers and firms are affected by the globalization of the world economy. Topics include trade costs, the current account, exchange rate pass-through, international macroeconomic co-movement, multinational production, and gains from globalization.
Workshop/seminar for presentations and discussion on topics in the field of international trade.
Development theory at both aggregate and sectoral levels; analysis of growth, employment, poverty, and distribution of income in both closed and open developing economy contexts.
Linking of abstract economic concepts to concrete policy and management decisions. Application of theoretical tools of economics to global warming, pollution control, fisheries, forestry, recreation, and mining.
A forum for graduate students and faculty with an interest in the economic problems of developing countries. Faculty, students, and a limited number of outside speakers discuss research in progress.
Workshop for students doing research in development to present and discuss work.
We survey the main theories of distributive justice proposed by political philosophers since John Rawls, including A. Sen, R. Dworkin, G.A. Cohen, and R. Arneson. We use economic models to study these theories, and we critique them from the economic and philosophical viewpoints. We then read Thomas Piketty’s book Capital in the Twenty-First Century. If time permits, we introduce a microeconomic theory modeling how people cooperate in economic settings, to be contrasted with Nash equilibrium, a model of how people compete.