Postgraduate Economics 2014-2015

Labour economics is one of the most diverse fields in economics, spanning both microeconomics and macroeconomics. This module covers this breadth and depth, including labour supply and demand, returns to education, unemployment, retirement as well as other key areas in the field. The course is split into two parts. The first part examines key theoretical areas of labour demand and supply, exploring models that give predictions about the behaviour of labour market actors. The second part examines the empirical ‘toolbox’ that labour economists use focusing on empirically-related topics and offering students experience using data and econometric programming skills.

The purpose of this course is to expose students to the methodology of experimental economics and to give an overview of some of its uses in different areas of Economics, namely the functioning of markets, the effects of institutions on the decisions of economic agents, and to address public policy issues. This course will enable students to understand experimental methods in economics, to design simple economic experiments, and analyse results from experimental studies which investigate an economics-related research question. Topics will include the methodology of experimental economics, experimental markets, individual decision making and social interactions.

This course focuses on the design, implementation and evaluation of various aspects of public policy, while developing a deep understanding of how the techniques used draw on economic theory, and their associated strengths and weaknesses. The course will include a range of micro- and macro-policy applications to develop students’ skills in applying relevant techniques to real world problems. Students will benefit from a number of external lectures from policy makers in the Scottish Government, the EU and leading research centres will provide further examples of the application of the techniques in the real world.

This course is organized around a series of lectures, tutorials and computer workshops. We first review the microeconomics of consumption and investment in health choices. This helps to motivate the estimation methods frequently encountered in health econometrics. We then study (at the level of Cameron and Trivedi's Microeconometrics, or Goldberger's A Course in Econometrics) several topics including heteroscedasticity, measurement error, instrumental variables estimation and linear models for panel data. We also study econometric methods to estimate causal effects including natural experiments and field experiments. There are problem sets and computer assignments that are discussed in the tutorials.  

This course provides a systematic approach to developing and executing a research agenda on a topic chosen by the student together with an academic supervisor. This project provides the students the opportunity to use the appropriate specific econometric and statistical tools and endow them with the ability to use these tools for their own research project. It enables the students to understand the basic methods of quantitative research, develop their ability to think and act strategically in planning a research project, set up an applied research question, choose the appropriate quantitative tools, and carry out the statistical/econometric investigation.

This course provides a systematic approach to developing and executing a research agenda on a topic chosen by the student together with an academic supervisor. This project provides the students the opportunity to use the appropriate specific econometric and statistical tools and endow them with the ability to use these tools for their own research project. It enables the students to understand the basic methods of quantitative research, develop their ability to think and act strategically in planning a research project, set up an applied research question, choose the appropriate quantitative tools, and carry out the statistical/econometric investigation.