First Year Courses

In the first year, students of both MA Programs (MA in Economic Analysis and MA in Financial Economics) take the same four core economic courses, a course in transition economics, plus two non-economic courses - Ukrainian Business Language and English. While the Ukrainian Business Language is not included in the grade-point average, it is prerequisite for the degree.

Microeconomics I, II, III, IV, V. Five miniterms.
Microeconomics is taught in a year-long sequence of five modules. An examination is given at the end of each miniterm. Modules I-III cover consumer theory, theory of production and costs, and market structures and competitive strategy. Modules IV-V cover advanced microeconomic topics, including extensive treatments of intertemporal choice, uncertainty and risk, game theory and strategy, general equilibrium and welfare, asymmetric information, public goods and market failure, public choice theory, law and economics, and the economics of information. Walter Nicholson’s Microeconomic Theory: Basic Principles and Extensions is the basic textbook being used. Other useful sources include the following: Hal R. Varian Intermediate Microeconomics; Hal R. Varian Microeconomic Analysis; Robert Pindyck and Daniel Rubinfeld Microeconomics; and a considerable array of outside readings.

The modules can be defined more precisely as follows in terms of the corresponding chapters and sections in Nicholson. 

I. Consumer behavior; II. Production, the firm, and competitive markets; III. Market power and strategic behavior, and factor markets; IV. General equilibrium and economic efficiency, information and market failure; V. The role of government. Applications to specific policy areas—regulation, environmental problems, agricultural policy, trade policy, etc.

The last module is only partially filled with material from Nicholson, and its content might vary from year to year.

Macroeconomics I, II, III, IV, V. Five miniterms.

This course covers macroeconomic theory with policy applications as it is taught at the international level in the West. The key textbooks are N.G. Mankiw, Macroeconomics and R. Barro, Macroeconomics. The texts are supplemented by numerous outside readings from major economics journals and other monographs. The modules roughly fall according to the following pattern:

I-II. The social accounts framework. The labor market and aggregate supply. Aggregate demand and macroeconomic equilibrium. Theories of consumption and saving. Theory of investment. Balance of payments. Role of the public sector. Money and the demand for money. Money supply in industrial economies. Inflation and inflation tax. The Keynesian model of macroeconomic equilibrium. Aggregate demand and aggregate supply. IS-LM model in the closed economy. Real business cycles models. Modern models of short-run fluctuations. III. Macroeconomic general equilibrium in a fixed exchange rate regime. General equilibrium in a flexible exchange rate regime. The two-period model. Dynamic programming approach to discrete time optimization. IV. Economic growth. One- and two-sector models of endogenous growth. Government spending, taxes and transfers. Dynamic mathematical tools in continuous time. Solow-Swan and Ramsey models. V. Inflation and unemployment: the rational expectations approach to the Phillips curve. Expectations, especially rational expectations, more generally. The Lucas policy critique. Applications of rational expectations to pricing of stocks and bonds, and the signalling function of prices.

Statistics and Econometrics I, II, III, IV, V. Five miniterms.

Module I covers the basic concepts of probability and statistics and introduces the basic ordinary least squares regression technique. Modules II-V deal with specification testing,  time series analysis, panel data and qualitative and limited dependent variables building on the statistical foundation established in the first module. Throughout, the emphasis is on learning by doing, and developing an intuitive understanding. Statistical packages, like Stata, Matlab and EViews, are used to learn and practice the techniques studied in the course. The textbooks used in the course are Paul Newbold Statistics for Business and Economics; Damodar Gujarati Basic Econometrics; Peter Kennedy A Guide to Econometrics; Jack Johnston and John Dinardo Econometrics; William H Greene Econometric Analysis; Walter Enders Applied Econometric Time Series; Jeffrey M. Wooldridge Introductory Econometrics.

Mathematics for Economists I, II, III, IV, V. Five miniterms.

The purpose of this course is to give students the mathematical tools they will need for the master’s program and further graduate work in economics. Module I covers calculus and linear algebra; Module II is concerned with linear programming, duality, simplex methods, applications; Modules III and IV cover topics in optimization—including unconstrained optimization, constrained optimization, concave and quasi-concave functions, numerical methods, applications. Module V deals with dynamics—differential equations, dynamic optimization, and applications. The text for the course is Carl Simon and Lawrence Blume Mathematics for Economists.

Transition Economics. Two miniterms.

Course is taught for the first time. Syllabus will be available from instructor at the beginning of the course.