Curriculum

This course educates students in applied cost-benefit analysis of: (a) private investment, (b) public investment, (c) business strategy, and (d) government policy, with a primary focus of applying economic reasoning and writing/presentation skills to deliver practical information for decision making in a complicated business world.

This course aims at training students to apply the knowledge and skills developed in the taught courses of the programme to put together an original and analytical piece of research. It is a complement of classroom learning and seeks to encourage critical thinking and informed judgement. Each student of this course must write a research paper independently under the supervision of a faculty member. The research paper would normally entail the use of empirical methods such as data analysis or econometrics.
This course is offered in the Summer Term only and open to students with GPA not less than 3.5 in the first semester. During the second semester, students who plan to take this course choose a research topic and produce a proposal. An academic supervisor is then allocated on the basis of each chosen topic.

Investment banks and credit rating agencies play a very important role in the global financial markets and commercial real estate sector. The increasing publicity associated with these two industries, and the vast career opportunities offered by them, call for a need to more thoroughly understand what investment banks and credit agencies do and the function they perform in the financial markets and real estate sector.

This course aims to introduce a set of fundamental principles of data science that underlie techniques for extracting useful knowledge from data. It also introduces several major data mining techniques for solving business problems around these general principles.

This course aims to provide students an opportunity to gain real-life working experience related to the various business activities associated with an economic organization. Under the guidance of both faculty and workplace supervisors, students will work in an organization as interns and complete work assignments. The internship assignment is expected to take up no less than 120 hours to complete, and it may or may not be paid.

This course is designed to introduce the financial and corporate governance environment in China.  The first part explains the models of corporate finance and governance. The second part provides theoretical as well as empirical framework for the analysis of corporate finance and governance in China. Upon completion of the course, students are expected to have basic understanding on the characteristics of corporate finance and corporate governance in China; and to be able to evaluate policies and potential challenges on the financial markets and corporate governance in China.

This course introduces the frontier of economic studies in digital currencies.  It covers a variety of topics, including (i) cryptography and blockchain, (ii) cryptocurrencies and smart contracts, (iii) tokens and platforms, and (iv) central bank digital currencies. Economic principles would be used to analyse regulations of digital currencies. It also examines how the role of central banks and monetary policies evolve with the development of central bank digital currencies.

This course analyzes the economics behind the digital economy.  The course examines a variety of topics, including (i) pricing and demand for digital goods, (ii) two-sided markets and platform competition, (iii) network effects and standard, (iii) online reputation mechanisms, (iv) digital payment systems and virtual currencies, (v) digitization and innovation, and (vi) economics of artificial intelligence.  Economic theories, especially those from information economics, would be used to analyze and explain phenomena observed in the digital economy.

This course introduces fundamental concepts of risk management for financial institutions. It focuses on the measurement and management of risks that financial institutions encounter, including market risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, and operational risk. It evaluates and applies different tools and procedures, comprising quantitative measures, qualitative assessment, and enterprise risk management, to measure and manage risk. Problems and challenges that can arise in the risk management process are also addressed.

This course studies key economic institutions of China that have emerged in the course of transition from a planned to a market economy.  These institutions are not necessarily the first-best choices from the perspective of conventional theories of market economy, but they might overcome some typical institutional weaknesses of transitional economies.  They include the double-track pricing and allocation system, local government ownership of firms, fiscal decentralisation and yardstick competition among different regional jurisdictions, etc.  Drawing on the major contributions in the economics literature, the costs and benefits of adopting these institutions by China will be analysed.

This course provides an introduction to financial economics. The topics include an introduction of capital markets, consumption and investment, capital budgeting, the theory of choice, valuation of securities, portfolio analysis, bond analysis, options and futures markets, International Financial Management, and Efficient Capital Markets. It will also provide students with knowledge and skills in applications of modern finance theory to risk management and other issues in economics and financial markets. Applications of the theory are emphasized throughout the course.

In this course, Environment, social, and governance (ESG) impacts on risk and return of investment will be identified. Different ESG investment approaches and strategies will be addressed and an understanding of ESG integration will be provided on how ESG will be embedded in the investment process and in valuation models. Sustainable Investing across asset classes will be discussed and different ESG Reporting standards will be assessed.
Students that finish the course will be prepared for the “Certified ESG Analyst (CESGA)” certification by EFFAS (The European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies).

This course provides an in-depth analysis of the theory of Industrial Organization. Students will be introduced to the theory of the firm, including the determinants of market structure, firms’ pricing decision under different market structure and its related welfare implications and other business strategic decisions (product differentiation, advertising, research and development). Government regulations and competition policy will also be discussed.

This course aims to provide the economic theories and models for students to understand the macroeconomic environment under the trend of globalization. In particular, the course covers topics in international trade, exchange rate and international capital movement. Current international economic issues such as trade protectionism, financial crises, and currency internationalization will be examined through the lens of international economics.

This course provides students with fundamental international finance concepts and applied techniques to international financial management and investment. This course focuses on the foreign exchange markets and international capital markets, and analyzes how international firms make financial decisions of foreign investment, and measure foreign exchange risk in the present global financial environment. The course is organised in three parts: (1) introduction of international financial environment and the important international macroeconomic concepts; (2) describing the foreign exchange rate market, the exchange rate determinations with its theoretical analysis and forecasting, and the foreign exchange risk and its management; (3) focus on international portfolio investment strategies and the exchange risk management.

The course is designed to provide students with the requisite economics concepts needed to enable them to investigate and analyze competition cases in the real world. Students will learn the necessary economic tools to analyze why certain conduct engaged by firms might be harmful to the competitive process. As competition policy is as much about economics as about law, the students would also learn about the basic legal framework governing the operation of competition law enforcement as well as the relevant competition guidelines issued by competition agencies around the globe to help industries to understand better the approach taken by them in their enforcement work. Through this course, students are expected to be able to apply their knowledge of economics grounded in a solid understanding of the relevant legal context in handling complex real world competition cases. 

This course discusses the impacts of money demand and money supply, and therefore monetary policies on output, employment, and inflation. The role of central bank and its interaction with firms and workers, more specifically, how it should carry out monetary policies in face of the rational expectations of these economic agents in the private sector, will be evaluated. In addition, under the rapid globalisation, impacts of one country’s monetary policy on exchange rates and other country’s economies will also be studied. After taking this course, students are expected to be able to explain different phenomenon of the macro-economy and make forecasts about the basic macro-economic trends.

This course aims at bringing current development of microeconomics to students. The topics may vary from year to year, depending on the research and teaching interest of instructors. Two to four topics will be covered thoroughly in one semester.

This course educates students in knowing the latest development of macroeconomics. The topics may vary from year to year, depending on the research and teaching interest of instructors. Some examples of topics are (i) how macroeconomic theories can be applied to understand the complex functioning of a modern market economy, (ii) why fluctuations in aggregate economic activity and sometimes crisis may occur in an economy and (iii) how government policies may be used to stabilize the functioning of an economy. Current macroeconomics issues will be discussed, for examples, the causes and remedies of (1) the global financial crisis in 2008, (2) the European sovereign debt crisis and (3) the long-term stagnation in Japan.

This course aims to explore the development and structure of cities with economic and environmental principles. The discussion starts by explaining why cities exist with the concepts of agglomeration economies. Then, we investigate how spatial and geographical structure of economic activities are determined in cities through the introduction of the location choices model of households and firms. After that we embed environmental externalities and amenities into the location choice model and study the role of environment in shaping where households locate. Finally, we explore the set of urban systems used in contemporary cities and describe the changes that will be required in the transition to sustainability. Through taking this course, students are expected to learn various urban economics theories, which provide explanations to many contemporary urban and regional economic issues.