Economics

An introduction to macroeconomic theory and policy. Topics will include economic aggregates such as production and employment, the general level of prices and inflation, the exchange rate, interest rates, monetary and fiscal policies, the balance of payments and economic growth. Analysis is particularly directed to current macroeconomic problems and policy issues.

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Intermediate macroeconomic analysis develops the tools, skills and knowledge base necessary to operate as a practicing macroeconomist. These may include: models of long run economic growth; an assessment of the evidence on economic growth and its implications; the flexible-price macroeconomic model in which markets continuously clear; an assessment of the evidence regarding whether prices and wages are flexible or sticky; the sticky price macroeconomic model in which markets do not always clear; assessment of the flexible and sticky price models; the analysis of macroeconomic policy making.

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This subject examines the development of the microeconomic theory of the behaviour of economic agents and how the behaviour of economic agents and government influence the efficiency of the economy. Topics include perfect competition, general equilibrium, market power, intertemporal decision making, decision making under uncertainty and imperfect information.

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This subject examines multiple regression analysis and its use in economics, management, finance, accounting and marketing. Topics will include the properties of estimators, hypothesis testing, specification error, multicollinearity, dummy variables, heteroskedasticity, serial correlation, panel data and methods for discrete dependent variables. These methods are consolidated through a Capstone project involving hypothesis-formation, real-world data collection and writing-up the results in a formal report.

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Extensions of the multiple regression model are examined. Topics include causal and statistical interpretations of regression models, instrumental variables, panel data and time series regression models and relevant statistical theory.

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This subject will cover the determinants, patterns and effects of international trade within a general equilibrium framework, where the interrelationships amongst product and factor markets in an economy are explicitly taken into consideration. It deals with how trade is affected by government policies and international trading agreements. It introduces basic analytical tools for evaluating the welfare and income distributional consequences of trade policies from both an industry and national perspective. The theories are related to current issues in international economics, such as globalisation, regional trading blocs and trade policies generally in Australia and the rest of the world.

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This subject will address economy-wide issues in economic development. The main objectives of the subject are to examine the key determinants of economic growth and the actual development experience of selected countries. Special emphasis will be placed on drawing policy lessons from the latest research and country experience of growth and development. The subject will cover topics such as social welfare, education, institutions, corruption, microfinance, foreign aid, the geography of economic development, and theories of economic growth and development.

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This subject is an introduction to the field of industrial organisation. Industrial organisation deals with the structure, management, and performance of firms and markets. It is concerned with firm behaviour and strategy, the implications of firm behaviour for economic efficiency, and the role public policy plays in promoting efficiency. Most of the time, models of perfect competition and monopoly fail to explain the composition and behaviour of most industries in modern capitalist economies. Our goal in this class is to depart from those two idealised models and to explain why industries are composed of a few large firms instead of many small ones. We will be looking at the strategic interactions between firms in a market, and analysing such market phenomena as price discrimination, product differentiation, price wars, mergers, vertical relationships between firms, advertising, entry and exit, and research and development. Whenever possible, we will try to study real-world applications of the theories that we learn in class.

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This course provides an overview of the economic principles that underlie the operation of banks and other financial institutions. The impact of monetary policy in Australia will also be examined with particular emphasis on the roles played by the Reserve Bank and other banking and financial institutions. Topics may include how economic theory applies to financial markets; the process of financial intermediation; available financial statistics; the money supply process and the implementation of monetary policy; money in the macroeconomy; the recent behaviour of major financial aggregates; the 1997/98 Asian economic crisis; financial regulation and deregulation; the monetary transmission mechanism; and a discussion of the recent approach to monetary policy in Australia. The course emphasises institutional and public policy issues, providing an Australian perspective on this topical subject.

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This subject examines how labour markets function, the market where employers and workers interact. Topics include labour supply, labour demand, wage determination, education and training, compensating wage differentials, unions and collective bargaining, labour market discrimination, earnings inequality, unemployment and analysis of current labour market policy issues. Data and empirical studies from Australia and other countries will be used to illustrate theoretical work.

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Topics include the reasons for, and the economic analysis of, government intervention in food production, food distribution and food consumption; agri-food policies in selected countries; food standards and international trade, world food security; and agriculture in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Prescribed Texts: There is no prescribed text. Readings based on journal articles will be provided through the LMS.

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The development of economic theory, emphasising the works of the classical and neoclassical economists and Keynes. The subject will be concerned with looking at modern economic theory from an historical perspective. Students will be expected to read original works as well as secondary literature.

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This subject is an introduction to advanced study of macroeconomics. An integrated theoretical framework – a simple life cycle model – is used to explore the central issues of macroeconomics. Major topics to be covered include: income determination and economic growth, economic fluctuations and business cycle, fiscal and monetary policy, open economy and international trade. The overall objective of this subject is to provide students with an integrated neoclassical approach to address substantive macroeconomic questions so as to improve their critical thinking and analytical skills and enhance their understanding of aggregate economic behaviour.

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The objectives of the subject are to introduce new techniques of microeconomic analysis; and to study applications of microeconomic theory to a range of situations involving behaviour of consumers and firms, and market interaction. Topics include game theory and oligopoly, economics of information, behaviour under uncertainty and general equilibrium analysis.

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This subject addresses two key components of the clean energy transition: energy systems and transportation systems. It provides a comprehensive understanding of both types of networks and associated markets, with a focus on understanding government regulation designed to promote efficient investment in and operation and use of energy and transport services, as well as policies designed to mitigate the impact of the production and consumption of these services on the environment. Topics include market power and regulation, energy transportation and storage, cost-reflective pricing, renewable energy subsidies, crude oil prices and cartels, economic valuation of travel time and reliability, road congestion, tolls and fuel taxes, energy and fuel efficiency standards, competition among different transportation modes, and the economic implications of emerging technologies such as smart metres, household-level solar and batteries, and electric and autonomous vehicles.

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This subject focuses on the application of economics to the analysis of policy issues facing governments in Australia and overseas. The subject begins with a general introduction on the application of principles of microeconomics for guiding the formulation of policy options and their interpretation. It then explores in detail specific topics drawn from health economics, microeconomic reform, income distribution, poverty or other relevant policy areas. For each specific topic the subject presents and evaluates results in the literature and analyses future policy options and their effects.

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Topics include review of the economic framework for analysing decision making; background to the Australian and other relevant taxation systems; issues and controversies in relation to the tax system and taxpayer decisions; objectives of tax collectors and taxpayers; why taxes exist; options and issues concerning tax bases: income, company profits, expenditures, wealth; the economic impact of taxes on work effort, prices, consumption and saving, investment and financial decisions, corporate investment and corporate financing, welfare, the international location of profits, tax avoidance and evasion; economic analysis of taxpayer decisions concerning legal entities, filing procedures, objections and reviews, negotiation strategies; and policy decisions concerning the tax mix, rate structures and administrative options, legal processes.

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This subject is concerned with the economics of asymmetric information, when agents may have private knowledge, take hidden actions, and attempt to manipulate the knowledge, information and incentives of others. Using game theory and information economics it will cover the main techniques and results of principal-agent theory and contract theory. It will introduce students to the principles of economic design in asymmetric information environments. These tools will be applied to a variety of topics and case studies, performance incentives, regulation, government procurement, structure of insurance markets, monopoly behaviour, agricultural contracts and share cropping.

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This subject addresses the economic principles underlying various areas of the law and which are relevant to legal practice. Three main issues will be studied. The first is competition law and consumer protection. The second is property rights, including intellectual property. The third main area concerns issues of damages and compensation. The course will develop economic tools to analyse these legal issues. These include incomplete contracting, oligopoly analysis and incomplete information.

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This subject introduces students to empirical research demonstrating economically important patterns of behaviour that violate standard rationality assumptions, and to theoretical research aimed at capturing these behavioural patterns in tractable models. Most of the semester will be devoted to behavioural aspects of individual decision making, such as temptation and present-biased preferences, prospect theory, reference-dependent preferences, and over-confidence. We will also cover happiness research and behavioural public economics. This subject can be profitably taken alongside ECON30022, which in addition to the design of experiments also covers behavioural aspects of strategic interaction.

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Set theory, univariate calculus and optimisation are reviewed and applied to the theory of the firm and the theory of consumer demand. Linear algebra concepts including matrix operations, vector spaces and quadratic forms are introduced and applied to problems in economics and econometrics. Applications of multivariate calculus including constrained optimisation, the envelope theorem and Kuhn-Tucker conditions are covered.

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Experimental Economics is a branch of economics that uses controlled experiments to evaluate theories and behavioural assumptions, as well as to test policies and their implementation. The subject will introduce students to experimental methods as applied in economics and present key findings from laboratory and field experiments. The first lecture in most weeks will be devoted to running experiments where students will experience different economic situations. The second lecture will present the theories underlying the experimental games and will use the experimental data from the first lecture (as well as other experimental data) as a vehicle for discussion. By comparing actual individual behaviour to the theoretical predictions, the course aims to provide a deep understanding of individual behaviour and how economic science progresses. Topics that will be covered may include risk, time, and social preferences, trading in a variety of markets such as auction and markets with price controls and for trading long-lived assets, voluntary provision of public goods and cooperation enforcement, social norms and behavioural game theory.

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The focus of this unit is on the application of economic analysis to study the consumption and production of health. The main objectives of this subject are to develop an understanding of: (1) the underlying economic frameworks appropriate to study health and health care, and (2) the impact of market failures in the provision of health care and the role for government policy. Topics covered may include production of health, demand for health (including the demand for health “bads”), moral hazard and adverse selection in health insurance markets, health labour markets, including physician-patient interactions, the institutions of the Australian system of health care, health policy and evaluation techniques.

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The subject is a combination of principle and practice. It provides an overview of the economic principles governing financial markets; then provides insights into some important empirical and practical issues concerning the operation of financial markets; and concludes with a discussion of some practical issues associated with Australian financial markets.

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This subject covers the application of computer based techniques to solve the problems encountered in economics and business. The techniques covered include the construction and use of hierarchical data sets, the use of multivariate graphics and statistics in the context of data mining applications, the elements of computer simulations, and the application of linear programming for the analysis of productivity in the context of data envelopment analysis. One aspect of this subject is the introduction of students to different software options. Possible software to be considered will be SAS, Stata, GAUSS, SPSS, TSP, EMS, Scientific Word, and Eviews.

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This subject provides an introduction to open economy macroeconomics and international finance. Topics will include balance of payments, the determination of exchange rates, the effects of monetary and fiscal policies under fixed and floating exchange rate regimes, global capital markets, balance of payments crises, and financial globalization and the challenges facing developing economies.

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Australia's largest trade partners are largely from Asia, and this subject provides an introduction to the economic history of various Asian economies, such as China and Japan. Using history and economic history textbooks for both countries and a neoclassical growth framework, the subject examines the contours of each country's development through the perspectives of industrialization, imperialism, institutions, and international engagement. Students will become knowledgeable of the evolution of Asian economies and be prepared to engage in discussions of Asian economic and business issues.

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Using concepts and analytical tools grounded in applied economics, this subject studies agricultural, forestry, and water systems and the implementation and impact of policies that affect them. Topics include deforestation and the expansion of the agricultural frontier, property rights, sustainable forestry management, water allocation and water markets, salinity and other aspects of water quality, biodiversity and endangered species protection, carbon offsets and ecosystem services, pesticide use and organic production, biofuels, and food safety.

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This subject examines estimation and testing of microeconometric models based on cross-sectional and panel data and quantitative and limited dependent variables. Illustrative application topics normally will include labour economics, consumer demand and finance. The computer software used is Stata.

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Normally topics will include current techniques used in forecasting in finance, accounting and economics such as regression models, Box-Jenkins, ARIMA models, vector autoregression, causality analysis, cointegration and forecast evaluation, and ARCH models.

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This subject examines multiple regression analysis and its use in economics, management, finance, accounting and marketing. Topics will include the properties of estimators, hypothesis testing, specification error, multicollinearity, dummy variables, heteroskedasticity, serial correlation, panel data and methods for discrete dependent variables. These methods are consolidated through a Capstone project involving hypothesis-formation, real-world data collection and writing-up the results in a formal report.

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Extensions of the multiple regression model are examined. Topics include causal and statistical interpretations of regression models, instrumental variables, panel data and time series regression models and relevant statistical theory.

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