Economics M.A.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Upon completion of the degree, students should be able to understand how fundamental microeconomic concepts (such as preferences, utility functions as representations of preferences, production functions, prices, income, demand functions, supply functions, perfect competition, oligopoly, monopoly, and equilibrium) can be combined to analyze and model markets, how different market structures can result in different equilibrium prices, consumer and producer surplus, and how to find the equilibrium (or equilibria) of such markets.

2. Upon completion of the degree, students should be able to understand how fundamental macroeconomic concepts (such as interest rates, investment, savings, government expenditures, taxes, inflation, and money supply), fit together to analyze and build a model of the macro economy, which accounts for the individual problems of individuals and producers in the economy, and whose general equilibrium can be solved using recursive methods and modern optimization techniques; Students will also be able to understand how macroeconomic concepts are related to microeconomic concepts and models, what is known as the micro-foundations of macroeconomics.

3. Upon completion of the degree, students should be able to understand how data can be used along with econometric methods to test the hypotheses derived from economic theory, namely, understand the basic methods of modern econometrics including multiple regression, non-linear models, maximum likelihood, and simulation methods as well as understand how under some conditions advanced econometric models coupled with recursive methods can allow us to uncover the preference parameters of an economic model properly specified.

4. Upon completion of the degree, students should be able to pose and answer a research question by constructing a model of a market or an economy, by using fundamental economics concepts as well as algebraic functions, concepts from algebra and calculus, numerical graphs and solution methods to analyze the model, and by using econometric and statistical techniques to connect the theoretical implications of the model with the empirical evidence.