Course Description

AE6101 Advanced Microeconomic Theory (3 AUs) 
This course explores the fundamentals and methodology of modern microeconomic analysis. The course covers economic theories and models that describe consumers, firms and markets. Specific topics include consumer behaviour, production and cost, government intervention, market structure, elements of game theory, externalities, public goods, as well as information theory.

AE6102 Advanced Macroeconomic Theory (3 AUs)
This course examines economic theories and models that describe the economy as a whole. Specific issues of interest include output, inflation, business cycle, the macroeconomic impact of monetary and fiscal policies, and the tradeoff between unemployment and inflation. The course also discusses the different components of GDP, such as consumption and investment, and introduces the candidate to the role of money in a modern economy.

 AE6103 Applied Econometrics (3 AUs)
This course covers econometric techniques which are useful for microeconometric modeling. Issues relating to estimation and testing of a range of models for analysing microeconomic data are discussed. The methods are illustrated with applications taken from consumer theory, labour markets, finance and other areas of economics. Topics covered include panel data and count data models, limited dependent variables, discrete choice models and duration analysis. The course will provide hands-on experience for the use of computer software.

AE6207 Quantitative Methods (3 AUs)

This course covers the following topics; Matrix Algebra, Optimization methods, Probability, Discrete type distributions, Continuous distributions, Sampling distribution theory, Hypotheses testing and Multivariate distributions, etc.

AE6200 Open Economy Macroeconomics (3 AUs)

This course offers an introduction to international macroeconomics, covering topics including current account determination, exchange rate determination, and international capital flows. The course develops a theoretical framework for analysing current issues such as the emergence of the US as the largest foreign debtor and global trade imbalances. The course also surveys frontier theoretical and empirical research on international macroeconomics and finance that equip the students with practical knowledge, e.g., in assessing financial vulnerabilities of countries.

AE6210 Applied Research Project (3 AUs)

This is a research project in which students apply their research skills to a specific economic issue. Students must first submit a research proposal to their supervisor. Upon acceptance of the research proposal, they must provide weekly reports on their research progress. Students are expected to meet the supervisors weekly to discuss the progress of the Project. The final report must include a literature review, a research methodology, an empirical analysis, and a concluding section covering observations and policy recommendations. Upon completion of the project, each student must make a presentation of the project to the supervisor.

AE6301 Seminar Course on the Singapore Economy (3 AUs)

The course is a study of Singapore economic policies - their rationale, their design and what they have achieved. Topics include economic development, economic stabilisation, monetary and fiscal policies, privatisation and liberalisation, manpower and labour market, social security and regionalism, etc.

AE6303 Public Finance and Public Policy (3 AUs)

This course aims to study the role of government in addressing market failures, within social domains such as education, healthcare, and retirement financing, through policies like taxation and subsidies. The course is for students interested in topics such as taxation, education, healthcare financing, government budgets, economic efficiency, and equity. The course prepares you for a career in government (e.g. Ministry of Finance, Central Provident Fund), private sector (policy think tanks and consultancies addressing and advising on market failures), and academia.  

AE6304 Cost Benefit Analysis & The Environment (3 AUs)

This course will help the candidates to evaluate public sector projects and policies more quantitatively and hence more accurately. The first part of the course examines the theoretical foundations of cost benefit analysis. Specific issues include investment criteria for the public sector, risk and uncertainty, impact on income distribution, shadow pricing, positive and negative externalities, and the social rate of discount. The second part of the course centres on the application of cost benefit analysis to a number of case studies.

AE6307 Behavioural Economics for Policy Analysis (3 AUs)

Behavioural economics is an exciting new field within economics. Behavioural economics challenges some of the basic assumptions of traditional economics about human economic behaviour and incorporates insights from other disciplines such as psychology and sociology. New insights derived from more realistic assumptions about human behaviour will enable the policymaker to better formulate and evaluate economic policy.

AE6312 Economic Growth & Development (3 AUs)

This course explores developments in the analysis of economic growth and introduces current debates on evidence and policy relevant to the growth performance. It covers a wide range of topics, including population, education, health, technology, inequality, geography, and growth econometrics, among others.This course therefore provides an understanding of why some nations are rich and others poor, and why some countries grow quickly and others slowly. It is important for our students to develop the skills in evaluating the impact of some public policies on a country's long-run growth.

AE6314 China & the International Political Economy (3 AUs)

This course examines the rise of China and the changing international political economy over the past four decades, which have witnessed substantial transformations in globalization and technological innovation. It focuses on three inter-connected contexts: 1) a rising China and its domestic, business, and diplomatic policy dimensions; 2) the implications of a rising China for the Asian regional and global order, including the Chinese model of development, impact of global geopolitics on Chinese economic development, and the “Belt and Road Initiative”; 3) the impact of global governance and international political economy (IPE) on China, and vice versa. This course intends to introduce a series of theoretical concepts and methodological developments in the IPE in order to grasp with these changing processes and their implications for policies and social sciences.

To accomplish these goals, this course is organized by way of a series of special topics pertaining to IPE theories and methodologies, contemporary China, the Chinese overseas and their changing relations with China, and China’s place in Asia and the world, Sino-American trade war and its impact. Students’ active participation, including formal presentations, forms an integral component of this course.

AE6317  Experimental Economics (3 AUs)

This module consists of two parts: behavioral economics and experimental methods. For the behavioural economics,  three topics are covered: social preference, time preference, and risk preference. For the experimental methods part, there is introduction of the fundamental principles in designing economic experiments and the procedures in conducting economic experiments. It should be noted that even when teaching the topics in behavioural economics, this module will focus on why and how these experiments are designed.

AE6600  Advanced International Trade (3 AUs)

This course will start with an introduction to traditional trade models, followed by modern developments and current research frontier of trade theories. In this part, various forces for international trade and its impacts on different economic entities will be discussed and tested with real data. These trade theories are applied to the context of government policies: what is the optimal trade policy for different countries; how domestic political environment and industry structure affect the optimal policy; how does or does not international agreements work; the impacts of trade conflicts in the integrated global economy. Finally, investigation of the micro firm level adjustments to international trade and its macroeconomic impacts on resource allocation, labor market outcomes, innovations, and economic development.

AE6700 Housing Economics (3 AUs)

This course explains how housing market functions by providing both theoretical foundations and empirical analyses on important issues in housing economics. Specifically, students will learn: (1) what affects housing tenure decisions (to buy or rent), (2) how to estimate housing demand and supply functions, (3) what causes housing cycles, (4) how to estimate hedonic house price models and indices, and (5) understand existing issues in housing markets (e.g segregation, urban sprawl, housing affordability), (6) before appreciating the various interventions and policies employed by planners to mitigate these issues. More importantly, students will learn to discern and critically evaluate what policies work and what do not.

AE6203 Financial Econometrics (3 AUs)

This course introduces financial econometric models and their application to modelling and forecasting of financial time series data. The aim is to equip candidates with the basic characteristics of financial data and provide experience in analysing financial time series. Econometric techniques are applied to finance topics which include portfolio theory, capital asset pricing models, option pricing models and portfolio management. Real examples of data analysis will be discussed.

AE6209 Economics of Financial Analysis (3 AUs)

This course will cover various topics in financial analysis such as equity analysis, credit analysis, model building and forecasting, cost and cycles of inventory, etc.

AE6211 Economics of Corporate Finance (3 AUs)

The key topics include: how to value assets, in particular bonds and common stocks; what is the link between risk and value; what are the patterns of corporate financing; how does a firm decide on dividend payments; does capital structure matter; how much a firm should borrow; and the applications of such knowledge to the major capital markets around the world.​

AE6302 Money and Banking (3 AUs)

This course introduces to students the most up-to-date knowledge in the banking industry. It covers four areas in modern money and banking: 1) the linkages between money and the aggregate price level; 2) the money creation process; 3) the role of the central bank, and 4) digital money, cryptocurrencies and central bank digital currencies.

AE6313 Financial Development (3 AUs)

The main topics covered are: finance for development, financial innovation, financial liberalization, financial inclusiveness, financial globalization and financial crisis. On successful completion of the course, students will be able to gain an understanding of how finance is related to the real sector, critically discuss models that explain the roles of finance, and assemble data to study contemporary issues related to financial development.​

AE6315 International Finance (3 AUs)

Many companies engage in cross-border business and they face challenging financial questions beyond those found in a purely domestic setting. Some on-going challenges that all managers and economists dealing with economic issues of various countries have to face include foreign exchange rate fluctuations that need to be managed to create good business performance. Occasionally, they find themselves in a global financial crisis that creates substantial disruption to work and livelihood. The course aims to provide the students with an in-depth understanding of the global financial environments that managers and economists have to deal with in the course of their careers. The course covers important concepts and tools that help manage international financial risks, both derivatives, and non-derivatives. The course also addresses the complications that foreign direct investment typically encounters and offer methods for assessment and risk management.

AE6316 Household Finance (3 AUs)

This course seeks to introduce state-of-the-art economic research in the field of household finance. It is targeted at individuals who would like to understand how households make financial decisions and learn about tools and techniques that can be used to address commonly made mistakes. Besides improving their personal financial well-being, students of this course will be able to come up with policies and tools to improve the financial health of others. 

AE6318 Sustainable Finance (3 AUs)

This course seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of topics in sustainable finance using economic models. Through a combination of theoretical concepts such as indicators in environmental, social and governance (ESG), and understanding of financial instruments such as green bonds and carbon credits, students will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to address sustainability challenges. 

AE6401 The Fintech Economy (3 AUs)

This course introduces students to Token Economics, blockchain technology and FinTech innovation.  Students are expected to have some knowledge of microeconomics and macroeconomics. The course focuses on the Fintech and emphases the token economics and design thinking behind blockchain and other related technologies.

AE6106 Data Analytics & Machine Learning (3 AUs)

The last two decades witness the most significant era of digitalization for the world economy. Large economics and financial data sets are much easier to get compared to 20 years ago. It has changed some of the ways how we analyse the data. This course studies the fundamental machine learning (ML) techniques used among data scientists, discusses the motivations and principles behind various machine learning algorithms and the limitations of each method. Simulation and programming in R will also be discussed, especially statistical simulation in economics.

AE6202 Applied Time Series Analysis (3 AUs)

This course will introduce you to a wide range of methods and time series models used in forecasting in business and economics. You will be familiar with the processes of forecasting, quantitative forecasting methods, data analysis and selection of the appropriate forecasting models and implementation of forecasting.  The topics include advanced topics such as exponential smoothing models, dynamic regression models, hierarchical or grouped time series models, models with complex seasonality, and bootstrapping and bagging.  Practical topics will also be included such as evaluating forecast accuracy of the range of models, residual diagnostics and estimation of prediction intervals. Time series modelling and forecasting will use a software package in R with actual time series data.  You will also know how to use and apply R- statistical packages to implement the models using real data.