Undergraduate - Business & Economics
Economics of the Law (BCom)
This subject addresses the economic principles underlying various areas of the law and which are relevant to legal practice. Three main issues are 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 develops economic tools to analyse these legal issues. These include incomplete contracting, oligopoly analysis and incomplete information.
Microeconomics (BCom)
Svetlana Danilkina
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.
Behavioural Economics (BCom)
Behavioural economics extends traditional economics by incorporating insights into human behaviour derived from psychology and sociology. The behavioural patterns studied in this subject include judgement biases, mental accounting, framing, loss aversion and anchoring, present-biased preferences, fairness, negative reciprocity and visceral influences. Applications of behavioural economics to both microeconomic and macroeconomic topics are considered, such as self-control, wage rigidity and involuntary unemployment, social capital and the equity premium puzzle. Research techniques emphasised in behavioural economics, such as experimental methods, are discussed.
Auctions and Bidding (BCom)
Auctions have been commonplace since antiquity. In recent times, auctions often have been used to sell a variety of agricultural commodities and natural resources, while sealed-bid tenders (an auction format) continue to be used extensively by both firms and governments to procure a variety of goods and services. Moreover, companies like eBay are integral parts of the global economy. This subject is designed to introduce students to the important auction formats and pricing rules and to help them understand the basic economic theory used to analyse these institutions. Empirical evidence and practical examples is used throughout.
Advanced Microeconomics (BCom)
An introduction to advanced microeconomics and to the economics of information and strategic behaviour. Topics covered include decision making under uncertainty, the interaction of primal and dual methods of modelling producer and consumer behaviour, the existence and welfare properties of general equilibrium, the theory of market failure and public goods, models of strategic behaviour in oligopoly, an introduction to game theory.