Master of Science (MSc) in
ECONOMICS

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.

This is an advanced course on game theory. We will cover topics in strategic games, extensive games of complete and incomplete information, epistemic foundations of game theory, repeated games, bargaining theory, coalitional games and matching theory. We will also discuss various applications of game theory in Economics.

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 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.

The goal of this course is to understand the economic problems of developing countries by using economic theories and their applications. The course will cover both macroeconomic and microeconomic approaches to development economics. We will first overview the theories of growth and discuss their potential in explaining income differences across countries, and then study the different facets of human development: market, institution, and culture.

The course provides a theoretical and empirical foundation for the analysis of labor market. Topics to be covered include: labor supply and demand, minimum wages, migration, human capital and education production, labor market incentives, efficiency wage, and skill investment. Students should preferably have finished graduate level Microeconomic theory and Econometric Theory and Applications before taking this course.

The course provides an overview of selected topics in industrial organization. Both theories and empirical approaches will be used. Court cases and legal materials will be used to illustrate the applications of various concepts in industrial organization.

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. Students are recommended to take ECON5010/5011/5012 and ECON5120/5121/5122 before taking this course.

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 is designed to enhance students' exposure to and understanding of a wide variety of real world economic and financial issues in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and the world to strengthen their ability to analyze policy issues. Distinguished economists, business leaders, and/or government officials will be invited to deliver lectures on a wide range of leading economic and financial issues in the global economy. Through these lectures, students are trained to strengthen their capability of conducting innovative analyses of these issues with significant policy implications. Students are required to write research papers for the course. The papers demonstrate students' own analyses and understanding of the course content.

This is a course on special topics in Economics. The topic may change from one year to another. Some recent topics are international trade, and monetary and financial economics.

ECON5821 Special Topics in Economics I : Data Science for Economists (Offered in 2024/25)

ECON5831 Special Topics in Economics II : China Financial Markets (Offered in 2024/25)

ECON5831 Special Topics in Economics III : History of Economic Thought (Offered in 2024/25)

This is a special research course that allows students to develop research skills and advanced knowledge on a topic of choice of the students. Students may enroll in this course with the permission of the instructor, who will supervise the students from the choice of topics to the carrying out of analytical work and finally the writing up of a report. The student must submit a final report at the end of the course.