111 - 120 of 158 results for: ECON

This is a course on how energy and environmental markets work, and the regulatory mechanisms that have been and can be used to achieve desired policy goals. Throughout the course students play the roles of electricity generators, electricity retailers, energy traders, and electricity consumers in order to gain an understanding of how energy and environmental policies (including environmental regulations and renewable energy mandates) affect the business strategy of market participants - and in turn economic and environmental outcomes. The goal of the course is to provide students with both theoretical and hands-on understanding of important energy and environmental market concepts that are critical to market functioning but not always widely appreciated. The course is useful background for private sector roles in energy production, research, management, trading, investment, and government and regulatory affairs; government positions in policymaking and regulation; research and policy functions in academia, think tanks, or consultancies; and non-profit advocacy roles related to energy and the environment. Econ 1 recommended.

Theoretical and empirical analyses of the determinants of market structure; firm behavior and market efficiency in oligopolies; price discrimination; price dispersion and consumer search; differentiated products; the role of information in markets, including insurance and adverse selection; auctions; collusion and cartel behavior; advertising; entry and market structure; market dynamics; strategic behavior.

Topics may include theoretical and empirical analysis of bargaining, dynamic models of entry and investment, models of household borrowing, models of markets with asymmetric information, advertising, brands, and markets for information, and research at the boundaries between IO and neighboring fields such as trade, behavioral economics, and household finance. Prerequisite: Econ 257.

Course combines individual meetings and student presentations, with an aim of initiating dissertation research in industrial organization. Prerequisites: ECON 257, ECON 258. Enrollment by non-Econ PhD students requires instructors' consent.

This course presents the power system engineering and economic concepts necessary to understand the costs and benefits of transitioning to a low carbon electricity supply industry. The technical characteristics of generation units and transmission and distribution networks as well as the mechanisms used to operate the electricity supply industries will be studied. The fundamental economics of wholesale markets and how intermittent renewables impact the price and quantity of physical and financial products traded in these markets (e.g., energy, capacity, ancillary services, and financial contracts) will be analyzed. Long-term resource adequacy mechanisms will be introduced and their properties analyzed. The role of both short-duration and seasonal energy storage will be analyzed. Mechanisms for determining the engineering and economic need for transmission network expansions in a wholesale market will be discussed. The impact of distributed versus grid-scale generation on the performance of electricity supply industries will be studied. A detailed treatment of electricity retailing will focus on the importance of active demand-side participation in a low carbon energy sector. This course uses knowledge of probability at the level of Stats 116, optimization at the level of MS&E 111, statistical analysis at the level of Economics 102B, microeconomics at the level of Economics 51 and computer programming in R.

The first part of this course covers Ricardian, factor-proportions and monopolistic-competition models of international trade. The second part of the course covers commercial policy, with an emphasis on the economics of trade agreements. Students are expected to develop and present a research proposal. Prerequisites: Econ 202 or permission of instructor.

The course will cover quantitative and empirical work in trade, trade policy, and related subjects.

Benchmark open economy models. Solution methods for macroeconomic models. Analysis and evaluation of quantitative macroeconomic models. Main applications: Sovereign debt and default; Financial crises and sudden stops; Hedging, interest parity relationships, and the determination of exchange rates; Liability dollarization.

This is the second half of the international finance sequence. Part I: intertemporal approach to the current account, international real business cycle models, international risk-sharing, gains from financial integration, global imbalances, and exchange rate determination. Part 2: open-economy monetary models and currency unions. Part 3: international finance policy, capital controls and foreign exchange interventions. Part 4: sovereign debt. . Prerequisites: Econ 210, 211, 212 and 268.