Master of Science (MSc) in
DIGITAL ECONOMY
AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

This is a graduate level course in applied econometrics. Both microeconometric theory and empirical strategies for applied econometric research will be discussed. Modern causal inference including machine learning tools and big data analysis will be introduced. This course will discuss instrumental variable methods, treatment effect, matching, panel data models, differences-in-differences, regression discontinuity designs, binary response model, censored data, and modern causal inference topics including machine learning in causal inference, and so on. Students are advised to take ECON5120/ ECON5121/ ECON5122 before taking this course.

Large-scale data set has become increasingly available in many fields of economics. This presents challenges to statistical inference and even merely “understanding” the data. Meanwhile, it offers abundant opportunities for new inquiries and answers. In this course, we introduce the core statistical methods to work with big data (structured and unstructured) and show how these techniques can be combined with econometric tools in economics research. While we cover major machine learning tools, including supervised learning methods, unsupervised learning and dimensionality reduction, we will focus on their concrete applications in current empirical research. Examples will be drawn from various lines of research, including text as data, relevant prediction problems in economics, and causal inference.

Using the Chinese economy as a context, the course is designed to guide and train students to think courageously, creatively, and critically. Students are required to find "puzzles" in the contemporary Chinese economy, to develop economic issues of general relevance from these "puzzles", to frame these issues into theoretical or empirical questions, and finally to draft papers based on these questions. The course relies heavily on class discussion. Students are required to present at each stage of their thinking process. Students are advised to take ECON5010/5011/5012, 5020/5021/5022 and 5120/5121/5122 before taking this course.

This course provides the economic foundation of modern asset pricing theory. It serves as an introduction to the functioning of the financial market as an efficient venue for financing investment activities. Various issues on risk measurement, risk assessment, managing risk, investors' psychological attitudes towards risk, and its implications on consumption and portfolio decision making in an uncertain world will be introduced and discussed. In-depth treatment will be given to the classical Markowitz's mean-variance analysis, CAPM, multi-factor asset pricing theory and no-arbitrage asset pricing theory as cornerstones of modern finance.

This course discusses the theory and practice of public finance, focusing on the quantitative effects of public policies. There are two parts in this course – government spending and government revenue (taxes). The course emphasizes on the experience of United States public finance; students will be trained to use sophisticated cross-section and panel data and SAS/STATA programming techniques will be taught extensively throughout the course.

This course offers theoretical, empirical and current topics in international trade. It covers studies of positive issues, such as: Why do countries trade? What goods do countries trade? How does openness to trade shape countries' industrial structure and global production sharing? The course also concerns the normative issues, such as: Is trade beneficial to everyone, or are there winners and losers? What is the impact of trade on economic growth, wage inequality and poverty? All these issues will be discussed both from theories and empirics, as well as at country, industry and firm level. In particular, we will also discuss the ongoing US-China trade war.

This is a graduate-level international finance course. It aims to provide students with a solid understanding of the modern theories and empirics of international finance. Topics covered in this course include: exchange rate determination theories, exchange rate regimes, capital flows, currency crises, international monetary policy spillovers and coordination, among others.

This course provides an introduction to advanced labour economics, with an emphasis on applied microeconomic theory and empirical analysis. It explores the connection between economic research and real-world applications, examining how economic theory and empirical evidence can be used to understand labour market issues. Topics include labour supply and demand, minimum wages, the economics of human capital, discrimination, gender economics, family economics, and labour market dynamics.

This course provides an overview of the theory of industrial organization and its applications. Topics include theory of the firm, business integration, supply chain contracting, monopoly, price and non-price business strategies, and case studies.

This course addresses the economic theory and empirics of corporate finance and governance. The goal is to help students understand major research issues in the field and develop their skills to apply theory to corporate finance practices. The course focuses on important topics such as capital structure, ownership structure, capital budgeting and corporate governance institutions. The course extensively uses the tools of game theory, information economics and microeconometrics.

This course provides an introduction to the theory and empirics of behavioral economics and behavioral finance. In this course, classical assumptions on economic agents such as rationality and time consistency are relaxed, allowing students to analyze investors and financial markets from a non-traditional perspective. The course is therefore a good complement to the mainstream economic and financial theories built upon individual rationality.

This course is an introduction to rigorous and policy‐relevant impact evaluation strategies and techniques for postgraduate students in economics. The course's main emphasis is on empirical strategies to identify the causal effects of public policies and programs. The course has a strong focus on applications, although students will be expected to fully understand the conceptual underpinnings of each strategy. Topics include instrumental variables, fixed effects, differences-in-differences, experiments, and regression discontinuity design for policy evaluation.

In many countries, health care spending grows much faster than GDP. Countries like the Unites States spend about 20 percent of its GDP on health care. As one of the most important "goods", how health care is financed and delivered has large welfare implications. In this course, we will apply methods and reasoning from microeconomics to the health care sector. In particular, we will investigate different aspects of the health care system and assess how various policies affect the functioning of the health care system.

This graduate course includes two parts. The first part provides elementary theories of monetary policy and fiscal policy, providing students a general framework for policy analysis. The second part mainly discusses the development of Chinese monetary policy and fiscal policy in the past three decades, the potential policy reform and its implications to the Chinese economy. In addition, how monetary policy and fiscal policy respond to financial crises or public health crises will be widely analyzed and discussed in this course.

This course provides an introduction to contemporary public policies in China. These include economic public policies such as labor, trade, tax and poverty alleviation, as well as social public policies such as environment, population, education, healthcare and social security. This course focuses on using economic concepts and theories to analyze and evaluate such policies.

This course aims to provide an in-depth coverage of the financial system in China, with a focus on its distinct characteristics.Part 1: introduces general functions of financial markets and compares the Chinese financial system with those in developed countries.Part 2: provides a detailed analysis on several key financial markets in China, including the banking industry, the stock market, the foreign exchange market, the real estate market, etc.Part 3: Further discusses financial policies in China