Suchergebnis: Katalogdaten im Frühjahrssemester 2021

Mathematik Master Information
Anwendungsgebiet
Nur für das Master-Diplom in Angewandter Mathematik erforderlich und anrechenbar.
In der Kategorie Anwendungsgebiet für den Master in Angewandter Mathematik muss eines der zur Auswahl stehenden Anwendungsgebiete gewählt werden. Im gewählten Anwendungsgebiet müssen mindestens 8 KP erworben werden.
Economics
NummerTitelTypECTSUmfangDozierende
363-0552-00LEconomic Growth and Resource UseW3 KP2GC. Karydas
KurzbeschreibungThe course deals with the factors that contribute to economic development. Throughout the course theoretical economic modelling will be used to discuss the effects of factors – such as land, human/physical capital, technology, fossil energy resources, and climate change – on economic growth and to draw conclusions for the future.
LernzielThe general objective of the course is to provide students tools and intuition to:

i) think in a structured way – though economic modelling – about the factors that have lead to the different growth experiences among countries, and still shape our contemporary situation;
ii) assess and design policies on the basis of economic development;
iii) draw conclusions for the future of economic development, that take into account prevalent issues such as the scarcity of fossil energy resources and climate change.
InhaltWhy is economic growth worth studying? Which are the factors behind economic growth? What is the role of natural resources in shaping economic development? Is our finite planet able to support sustainable long-term economic growth? Economics aims at explaining human behaviour; how do we model it and how can we steer it for the better? How do you design an efficient economic policy for a sustainable future? What is sustainable anyway? These are some of the questions you will learn to answer in this course.

After spending the first lecture on overviewing the course, and the second lecture on building our mathematical and economic foundation, we begin with the three main modules that comprise this course.

The first module – called “Land and Economic Growth” – deals with the historical evolution of the factors behind economic development from the pre-industrial times to our modern growth experiences. By studying the history of economic growth, we understand change and how the society we live in came to be. In this module we will develop economic models that capture the transition from an era of miniscule economic growth that persisted for millennia before the industrial revolution – with land and human labour as the main inputs to economic activity, to our modern growth experience where the continuous improvement in technology and services is our status quo.

The second module – called “Non-Renewable Resources and Growth” – deals with the problem of optimal exploitation of non-renewable resources, as well as with the issue of “Resource Curse” – i.e., the observed negative relationship between economic development and resource abundance. Emerging in the 1970s due to two oil crises, the problem of the economy’s extreme dependence on fossil and depletable energy resources sparked a great deal of research to guide our way forward. Some important questions we will formally answer in this module are the following. How do we optimally exploit a given stock of a non-renewable resource? What affects the prices of non-renewable resources? If fossil energy sources – a (so far) important input to production – are getting ever depleted, is long-term growth possible? How do we explain the “Resource Curse” and what are the policies that allow a sustainable future in countries that suffer from such a curse?

The third module – called “Climate Change and Growth” – deals with the pressing problem of our changing climate. Greenhouse gas emissions – so far essential for economic activity – accumulate in the atmosphere and alter environmental patterns. This phenomenon – commonly known as climate change – is responsible for the increase in the frequency and the intensity of natural disasters, which damage our stocks of capital and put a drag on economic growth. To derive appropriate policies for a sustainable future, we will incorporate these aspects in workhorse models of the economics and finance literature. Students will learn how to derive and set the “correct” price on the use of polluting energy resources from the perspective of policy-makers. Additionally, pricing of climate change risks for financial markets is important, both for individual investors and central banks, as it is they who provide liquidity to firms to pursue their long-term growth targets. Accordingly, we will close the lecture with the pricing of climate change risks from an investor’s perspective.

After the last lecture of each of the three modules students will be handed out an exercise set which will be submitted by the beginning of the following week’s lecture. That lecture will be an exercise session where we will discuss the solutions in class. Each exercise set will be graded. The average grade from the best two exercise sets will account for 25% of the final grade; the rest 75% will be determined by a written exam.
SkriptLecture Notes of the course will be sent by email to officially subscribed students.
LiteraturThe main reference of the course is the set of lecture notes; students will also be encouraged to read some influential academic articles dealing with the issues under study.
Voraussetzungen / BesonderesKnowledge of basic calculus (differentiation - integration) and basic statistics (e.g. what is an expectation; variance-covariance) is considered as a prerequisite. Elementary knowledge of dynamic systems analysis, optimal control theory and economic theory is a plus but not a prerequisite.
363-0514-00LEnergy Economics and Policy
It is recommended for students to have taken a course in introductory microeconomics. If not, they should be familiar with microeconomics as in, for example,"Microeconomics" by Mankiw & Taylor and the appendices 4 and 7 of the book "Microeconomics" by Pindyck & Rubinfeld.
W3 KP2GM. Filippini, S. Srinivasan
KurzbeschreibungAn introduction to energy economics and policy that covers the following topics: energy demand, investment in energy efficiency, investment in renewables, energy markets, market failures and behavioral anomalies, market-based and non-market based energy and climate policy instruments in industrialized and developing countries.
LernzielThe students will develop an understanding of economic principles and tools necessary to analyze energy issues and to understand energy and climate policy instruments. Emphasis will be put on empirical analysis of energy demand and supply, market failures, behavioral anomalies, energy and climate policy instruments in industrialized and developing countries, and investments in renewables and in energy-efficient technologies.
InhaltThe course provides an introduction to energy economics principles and policy applications. The first part of the course will introduce the microeconomic foundation of energy demand and supply as well as market failures and behavioral anomalies. In a second part, we introduce the concept of investment analysis (such as the NPV) in the context of renewable and energy-efficient technologies. In the last part, we use the previously introduced concepts to analyze energy policies: from a government perspective, we discuss the mechanisms and implications of market oriented and non-market oriented policy instruments as well as applications in developing countries.

Throughout the entire course, we combine the material with insights from current research in energy economics. This combination will enable students to understand standard scientific literature in the field of energy economics and policy. Moreover, the class aims to show students how to relate current issues in the energy and climate spheres that influence industrialized and developing countries to insights from energy economics and policy.

Course evaluation: at the end of the course, there will be a written exam covering the topics of the course.
Voraussetzungen / BesonderesIt is recommended for students to have taken a course in introductory microeconomics. If not, they should be familiar with microeconomics as in, for example, "Microeconomics" by Mankiw & Taylor and the appendices 4 and 7 of the book "Microeconomics" by Pindyck & Rubinfeld.
364-0576-00LAdvanced Sustainability Economics Information
PhD course, open for MSc students
W3 KP3GL. Bretschger, A. Pattakou
KurzbeschreibungThe course covers current resource and sustainability economics, including ethical foundations of sustainability, intertemporal optimisation in capital-resource economies, sustainable use of non-renewable and renewable resources, pollution dynamics, population growth, and sectoral heterogeneity. A final part is on empirical contributions, e.g. the resource curse, energy prices, and the EKC.
LernzielUnderstanding of the current issues and economic methods in sustainability research; ability to solve typical problems like the calculation of the growth rate under environmental restriction with the help of appropriate model equations.
363-0575-00LEconomic Growth, Cycles and PolicyW3 KP2GH. Gersbach
KurzbeschreibungThis intermediate course focuses on the core thinking devices and foundations in macroeconomics and monetary economics, and uses these devices to understand economic growth, business cycles, crises as well as how to conduct monetary and fiscal policies and policies to foster the stability of financial and economic systems.
Lernziel- Fundamental knowledge about the drivers of economic growth in the short and long run, key macroeconomic variables and observed patterns in developed countries

- Comprehensive understanding of core macroeconomic frameworks and thinking devices
InhaltThis intermediate course focuses on the core thinking devices and foundations in macroeconomics and monetary economics, and uses these devices to understand economic growth, business cycles, crises as well as how to conduct monetary and fiscal policies and policies to foster the stability of financial and economic systems. The course is structured in the following way:

Part I: Basics
- Introduction
- IS-LM Model in Closed Economy (Repetition)
- Schools of Thought
- Consumption and Investment
- The Solow Growth Model

Part II: Special Themes
- Money Holding, Inflation, and Monetary Policy
- Crises in Market Economies
- IS-LM Model and Open Economy
- Theories of exchange rate determination
- Technical Appendix
SkriptCopies of the slides will be made available.
LiteraturChapters in
Manfred Gärtner (2009), Macroeconomics, Third Edition, Prentice Hall.
and selected chapters in other books and/or papers
Voraussetzungen / BesonderesIt is required that participants have attended the lecture "Principles of Macroeconomics" (363-0565-00L).
363-0515-00LDecisions and MarketsW3 KP2VA. Bommier
KurzbeschreibungThis course provides an introduction to microeconomics. The course emphasizes the conceptual foundations of microeconomics and contains concrete examples of their application.
LernzielThe purpose of this course is to provide master students with an introduction to graduate-level microeconomics, particularly for students considering further graduate work in economics, business administration or management science. The course provides the fundamental concepts and tools for graduate courses in economics offered at ETH and UZH.

After completing this course:
- Students will be able to understand and use existing models to make predictions of consumer and firm behavior.
- Students understand the fundamental welfare theorems and will be able to analyze equilibria of markets with perfect and imperfect competition.
- Students will be able to analyze under which conditions market allocations are not efficient (market failure).
InhaltMicroeconomics is the branch of economics which studies the decision-making by an individual, household, firm, industry or level of government. The economic equilibrium is the result of agents' interactions. Microeconomics is an element of nearly every subfield in economic analysis today. This course introduces the fundamental frameworks which form the basis of many economic models.

Theory of the consumer:
- Consumer preferences and utility
- Budget sets and optimal choice
- Demand functions
- Labor supply and intertemporal choice
- Welfare economics

Theory of the producer:
- Technological constraints and the production function
- Cost minimization
- Profit maximization

Market structure:
- Perfectly competitive markets
- Monopoly behavior
- Duopoly behavior

General equilibrium analysis:
- Market equilibrium in an exchange economy
SkriptThe lecture will be based on lecture slides, which will be made available on Moodle.
LiteraturThe course is mostly based on the textbook by R. Serrano and A. Feldman: "A Short Course in Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus" (Cambridge University Press, 2013). Another textbook of interest is "Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach" by H. Varian (Norton, 2014).
Exercises are available in the textbook by R. Serrano and A. Feldman ("A Short Course in Intermediate Microeconomics with Calculus", Cambridge University Press, 2013). More exercises can be found in the book "Workouts in Intermediate Microeconomics" by T. Bergstrom and H. Varian (Norton, 2010).
Voraussetzungen / BesonderesThe course is open to students who have completed an undergraduate course in economics principles and an undergraduate course in multivariate calculus.
363-1017-00LRisk and Insurance EconomicsW3 KP2GI. Gemmo
KurzbeschreibungThe course covers the economics of risk and insurance, in particular the following topics will be discussed:
2) individual decision making under risk
3) fundamentals of insurance
4) information asymmetries in insurance markets
5) the macroeconomic role of insurers
LernzielThe goal is to introduce students to basic concepts of risk, risk management and economics of insurance.
Inhalt“The ability to define what may happen in the future and to choose among alternatives lies at the heart of contemporary societies. Risk management guides us over a vast range of decision-making from allocation of wealth to safeguarding public health, from waging war to planning a family, from paying insurance premiums to wearing a seatbelt, from planting corn to marketing cornflakes.” (Peter L. Bernstein)

Every member of society faces various decisions under uncertainty on a daily basis. Many individuals apply measures to manage these risks without even thinking about it; many are subject to behavioral biases when making these decisions. In the first part of this lecture, we discuss normative decision concepts, such as Expected Utility Theory, and contrast them with empirically observed behavior.

Students learn about the rationale for individuals to purchase insurance as part of a risk management strategy. In a theoretical framework, we then derive the optimal level of insurance demand and discuss how this result depends on the underlying assumptions. After learning the basics for understanding the specifications, particularities, and mechanisms of insurance markets, we discuss the consequences of information asymmetries in these markets.

Insurance companies do not only provide individuals with a way to decrease uncertainty of wealth, they also play a vital role for businesses that want to manage business risk, for the real economy by providing funds and pooling risks, and for the financial market by being important counterparties in numerous financial transactions. In the last part of this lecture, we shed light on these different roles of insurance companies. We compare the implications for different stakeholders and (insurance) markets in general.

Finally, course participants familiarize themselves with selected research papers that analyze individuals’ decision-making under risk or examine specific details about the different roles of insurance companies.
LiteraturMain literature:

- Eeckhoudt, L., Gollier, C., & Schlesinger, H. (2005). Economic and Financial Decisions under Risk. Princeton University Press.
- Zweifel, P., & Eisen, R. (2012). Insurance Economics. Springer.


Further readings:

- Dionne, G. (Ed.). (2013). Handbook of Insurance (2nd ed.). Springer.
- Hufeld, F., Koijen, R. S., & Thimann, C. (Eds.). (2017). The Economics, Regulation, and Systemic Risk of Insurance Markets. Oxford University Press.
- Niehaus, H., & Harrington, S. (2003). Risk Management and Insurance (2nd ed.). McGraw Hill.
- Rees, R., & Wambach, A. (2008). The Microeconomics of Insurance, Foundations and Trends® in Microeconomics, 4(1–2), 1-163.
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