Week 1 Monday, September 1st (Professor Merva)
Researching economics and
summarizing information for policy and decision-makers: Information resources
and writing: the White Paper and the Position Paper. Reference Librarian Livia Piotto.
Valuation and risk: in this lecture
we review the risks associated with stocks and bonds and the factors to
consider in assessing that risk for country-specific investments.
Assignment 1
(30%): Prepare an equity research report and presentation for one selected stock. Guidelines provided in class. Due Monday of
Week 3.
Assignment 2 (30%) White Paper: You have been asked by your employer, a
pension fund to provide information on a specific country’s investment risk for
sovereign bonds: the particular concern is the probability of a sovereign
default on the bonds. You must provide a
4 to 5-page White Paper for your boss and give a 10-minute summary report with
3 to 10 power point slides maximum. Due: Monday of Week 4. You should demonstrate an understanding of the
information from the readings assigned below.
Bibliography and outline due at the beginning of class Week 4; final
paper due at the beginning of class Week 5.
Background Readings:
The Economics and Law of Sovereign Debt and DefaultAuthor(s): Ugo
Panizza, Federico Sturzenegger and Jeromin Zettelmeyer, Journal of Economic Literature,
Vol. 47, No. 3 (Sep., 2009), pp. 651-698,
To Judge Leviathan: Sovereign Credit
Ratings, National Law, and the World EconomyAuthor(s): Christopher M. Bruner
and Rawi Abdelal, Journal of Public Policy, Vol. 25, No. 2 (May - Aug., 2005),
pp. 191-217.
Week 2 Monday, September 8th (Professor Merva)
Assignment 3: (10%) Read the CFA
Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Practice: and prepare for an in
class test on the CFA Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Practice
Review of progress on the White
Paper of Assignments 1 and 2. For
Assignment 2, students should provide a bibliography and outline (worth 15% of
the Assignment’s grade).
Week 3 Monday, September 15th (Professor Merva)
Public versus private funding of
public services, the arts, health care and education:
Reading: Macroeconomics of Unbalanced Growth: The
Anatomy of Urban Crisis Author(s): William J. Baumol Source: The American
Economic Review, Vol. 57, No. 3 (Jun., 1967), pp. 415-426
Assignment 4 (30%): Students need to
prepare a two page position paper summary paper of Baumol’s model and address
the issue of public versus private funding of either education or health care:
empirical data on costs of education and current sources of funding should be
included for post-secondary education within a country (time series) or across
countries (cross sectional data) or both (panel data). The argument and outline are due Monday of
Week 4 (worth 15% of the assignment’s grade); final Paper and Presentation due
Monday of Week 5.
Week 4 Monday, September 22nd (Professor Merva)
Lecture on using empirical
data: sources, presentation, and
statistical analysis.
Pre-view of Assignment 4: position and outline presented and reviewed
by the class (worth 15% of the assignment’s grade).
Week 5 Monday, September 29th (Professor Merva)
Assignment 2 and 4: In-class presentations (worth 20% of the
assignments’ grades)
Week 6: Monday October 6th
(Professor Ruscitti)
Microeconomics:
Private information, adverse selection and market failure (based on Akerlof`s
paper). George A.
Akerlof, “The market for “lemons”: quality uncertainty and the market
mechanism”, The Quarterly Journal of
Economics 84, 488-500, 1970.
Week
7: Monday, October 13th (Professor Ruscitti)
Continue: Microeconomics:
Private information, adverse selection and market failure (based on Akerlof`s
paper). George A.
Akerlof, “The market for “lemons”: quality uncertainty and the market
mechanism”, The Quarterly Journal of
Economics 84, 488-500, 1970.
Week
8: Monday, October 20th (Professor Ruscitti)
Microeconomics: education and labor
market signaling:
M. Spence, “Job Market Signaling”, The Quarterly Journal of Economics 87,
355-374, 1973.
Week 9: Monday, October 27th (Professor
Ruscitti)
Imperfect information and credit rationing
(based on Stiglitz, and
A. Weiss` paper). J. E. Stiglitz, and A. Weiss,
“Credit rationing in markets with imperfect information”, The American Economic Review 71, 393-410, 1981.
Week 10 Monday, November 3rd (Professor Ruscitti)
Continue: Imperfect information and credit rationing (based on Stiglitz,
and A. Weiss` paper). J. E. Stiglitz, and A. Weiss, “Credit rationing in
markets with imperfect information”, The American Economic Review 71, 393-410,
1981.
Week 11
Monday, November 10th (Professor Merva)
Students should present their microeconomics research paper topics,
thesis statement and discuss their work to date.
Week 12 Monday, November 17th (Professor Merva
and Ruscitti)
Presentation by students of the preliminary drafts of the microeconomics
research paper (worth 20% of the assessment for the final paper): required to hand in:
-
Thesis statement
-
Bibliography
-
Outline
Week 13 Monday, November 24th (Professor Merva)
Econometrics and statistics lecture
(tbd)
Week 14 Monday, December 1st (Professor
Merva and Ruscitti)
Microeconomics research papers due
last day of class.
Final presentations of microeconomics
research paper
Week 15 Scheduled Final Exam meeting (Professor Merva and
Ruscitti)
Final
presentations of microeconomics research paper