Learning outcomes

The concepts and methods course is a review of basic economics. Its goal is to facilitate the mastering of the concepts and methods in more advanced courses, seminars and in the development of a personal study project. The course covers 4 topics: macroeconomics, microeconomics, quantitative methods and econometrics.

Content

1/ Macroeconomics - Review of basic concepts and mechanisms :

  • National accounts, balance of payments, exchange rates systems ;
  • Equilibrium and macroeconomic policies ;
  • Introduction to macroeconomic data analysis with two softwares (Macrobond and Matlab).

2/ Microeconomics - Fundamental microeconomic models :
Consumers' choices, producers' choices, competitive equilibrium, monopoly and characterisation of resulting allocations

3/ Quantitative methods - Review of the analytical tools for economists

4/ Econometrics - Review of basic econometrics using Stata :

  • Basic statistics ;
  • OLS : hypothesis, quality and biased estimation ;
  • Interpretation of results ;
  • Use and interpretation of dummy variables.

Assessment method

Each topic will be evaluated separately and is worth one quarter of the final grade.

For QM:

- 20% of the final grade: assignments

- 10% of the final grade: participation to the online or in-class sessions

- 70% of the final grade: written, in-class exam

For Macro:

- 20% of the final grade: project

-80% of the final grade: written, in-class exam

For Micro:

- 20% of the final grade: assignments

- 80% of the final grade: written, in-class exam

For Econometrics:

- 20% of the final grade: assignments

- 80% of the final grade: written, in-class exam

Sources, references and any support material

Videos of the recorded lectures and slides will be made available to the students.

Language of instruction

Français