Economics

Primary objective of this course is to introduce students with the process of economic growth and the long run sources of differences in economic performances across nations. Emphasis will be placed on developing theoretical toolkit in understanding growth mechanics. It is intended that this course will make students learn some of the workhorse models in modern macroeconomics, namely - Solow-Swan model, endogenous growth models, Keynesian and heterodox models, etc.

This is an advanced level course in trade. The objective of this course would be to give adequate training to graduate students in economics (and related disciplines) to bring them to the forefront of knowledge in international trade and prepare them to undertake independent work in the areas of trade theory and policy.

This module introduces students in economics and other social sciences to game theory, a theory of interactive decision making. This module provides students with the basic solution concepts for different types of non-cooperative games, including static and dynamic games under complete and incomplete information. The basic solution concepts that this module covers are Nash equilibrium, subgame perfect equilibrium, Bayesian equilibrium, and perfect Bayesian equilibrium. This module emphasizes the applications of game theory to economics, such as duopolies, bargaining, and auctions.

On successful completion of this course, a student should be able to understand the important economic reasons for enormous worldwide disparities in income levels and standards of living. Using a selection of the most important papers currently on the frontier of in this field, we will explore two particular questions: 1) Why do people in some countries live prosperous lives, while those in others reel under poverty? and 2) What are potential policies which can improve the lives of the poor? Topics of particular interest are those relating to institution, culture, gender, health, political economy, corruption and conflict.

Basics of sample survey; variance and covariance; correlation coefficient; simple regression analysis; Gauss-Markov theorem; estimation of regression coefficients; confidence intervals and hypothesis testing in regression analysis; type-I and type-II errors; transformation of variables; multiple regression analysis; multicollinearity, heteroscedaticity, dummy variables, basics of time-series analysis.

Economics has a significant component of experimentation and data analytics. This course introduces students to experimental methods and computational techniques using real life data. Data analysis and experimental methods of analysis feature prominently in this course.

The aim of the course is to make the students familiar with the
most fundamental concepts and results of game theory. This forms the first part of a sequence of two courses on game theory. On successful completion of this course (and the subsequent second part of the course), the students are expected to make clear how game theory and mechanism
design can be applied to their own research. Our intention is
to present the theory with formal proofs of the main theorems including a number of
examples and short questions to enliven the presentation. The course will also include
a number of elaborate exercises, enabling the students to apply these concepts in problem settings.

The course is aimed at developing an understanding of the economic issues in a range of economic activities in the Indian economy. The themes that can be covered include performance of the Indian Economy since 1951, agricultural growth in India, inter-regional variation in growth of output and productivity, farm price policy, recent trends in industrial growth, industrial and licensing policy, policy changes for industrial growth, economic reforms and liberalization, population growth, unemployment, food and nutrition security, and education. It will also include some contemporary issues.

The course provides a graduate level introduction to Industrial Organization. It is designed to provide a broad introduction to topics that current researchers are studying in the areas of industrial organization. It will expose students to a wide variety of techniques in the area of industrial economics and applied game theory. The course will try to integrate theoretical models as well as empirical studies on industries.

Basic concepts of national income accounting, money, and balance of payments; output and exchange-rate determination under fixed and flexible exchange-rate regimes; fiscal and monetary policies in an open economy; international capital movements and their impacts; Case Studies: East Asian crisis, global financial crisis; theories of international trade including factor-proportions and economies of scale; the international trading regime and its implications for developing countries.

The course aims to introduce the students to broad issues of development, particularly from an Indian or developing country context. The topics covered in the course relate to not only issues of economic development but also other hurdles faced by developing societies, which have deeper historical and political roots. The course will equip the students with a good understanding of the problems of development, and provide them a larger perspective to the economic theories they will learn in other courses.

Major economic problems. National income accounting. Expenditure and income approaches to GNP. Measuring inflation and unemployment. Determination of the equilibrium level of income. Consumption function. Investment demand. Aggregate demand and equilibrium output. The multiplier process. Government sector. Fiscal policy. Tax receipts and Transfer payments. Foreign spending. Money, interest and income. Functions of money. Definition of money. Reserve Bank of India and Commercial Banks. Creation of money. The instruments of monetary control. The demand for money. Investment expenditure and rate of interest. The IS curve. Money market and the LM curve. Liquidity trap. The IS-LM model. Derivation of the aggregate demand curve. Monetary and fiscal polices. Keynesian versus monetarist views. The aggregate supply function: Keynesian and classical. Inflation and unemployment. Stagflation. The Phillips curve. The long-run Phillips curve. Inflation expectations. The rational expectations.

This course aims to introduce advanced macroeconomic theory and policies. It deals with the main principles of the determination of real income, employment, price level and exchange rates. It provides an understanding of the contending macroeconomic theories, including the Classical, Keynesian and Monetarist analyses. The course discusses macroeconomic policies, as also the challenges in implementing them in a globalized economy.

Primary objective of this course is to introduce students with the process of economic growth and the long run sources of differences in economic performances across nations. Emphasis will be placed on developing theoretical toolkit in understanding growth mechanics. It is intended that this course will make students learn some of the workhorse models in modern macroeconomics, namely - Solow-Swan model, endogenous growth models, Ramsey and dynamic macroeconomic models, heterodox models, etc.

This course aims to introduce the students to formalization of individual decision making and various facets of it under different perspectives- when the individual is a consumer (consumer's choice, demand, dilemmas etc.) or when she is a producer (profit maximization or cost minimization, characterization of different market structures under various degree of market power). Finally, the course discusses different aspects of decision-making under uncertainty.

This course aims to provide various perspectives on India’s economic development. Development debates on India’s economic transformation from the colonial period will illuminate the discussions. The primary concern will be on contemporary issues, including social inequalities, constraints to agricultural and industrial growth, and the revolution in the services sector. The coursework will emphasize on a set of readings, classroom interactions and debates.

This course provides a political economy perspective on economic growth and development, drawing both from the Indian and international experiences. It discusses development histories, contemporary economic issues, and also future economic challenges. The topics covered include industrialization, economic planning, international trade, financial crises, poverty, and labour migration.

The course is aimed at developing an understanding of the basics in Public Economics and Public Finance. Public economics is the study of government policy from the points of view of economic efficiency and equity. The course deals with the nature of government intervention and its implications for allocation, distribution and stabilization. Inherently, this study involves a formal analysis of government taxation and expenditures. The subject encompasses a host of topics including public goods, market failures and externalities. The course is divided into two sections, one dealing with the theory of public economics and the other with the Indian public finances.

This course will introduce students to methods of quantitative economic research using primary and secondary data source. The purpose is to provide training for Ph.D. scholars in the department

This course is the second (final) part of two semester long research project for M.Sc. (Economics) students. The students engage in collaborative research with a faculty guide. The objective is to prepare students in identifying research problems, formulating research questions, analysing them, and writing the final dissertation.

The course will introduce students to selected topics in Economics as decided by the instructor.

This forms the second part of two-part game theory course intended for the masters program at IIT Delhi. After formalization of standard game theory models and some examples in game theory 1, in this course, we introduce concepts of cooperative game theory and advanced topics such as mechanism design and implementation theory. After studying this course the students are expected to be comfortable in reading the journal articles on game theory, mechanism design, and implementation theory and also develop fresh models to close the gaps in the existing literature or ideate problems in these fields.