A) Microeconomics (Bellak)
• Participants gain or deepen their knowledge in microeconomics, understood essentially as a science of choice.
• Participants understand microeconomics as a way of looking at the world, rather than a collection of unrelated models.
• Participants are able to analyse individual decisions of firms as well as their consequences. Participants are familiar with the contemporary policy debate about the impact of imperfect competition in the micro- and macroeconomics realm.
• The knowledge gained should enable the participants to study and critically evaluate contemporary microeconomic models and theories.
B) Macroeconomics (Kubin)
Upon completion of the macroeconomics part of this course, students are able
• to explain and analyse macroeconomic models (in the New-Keynesian Tradition) with imperfectly competitive goods markets;
• to provide an overview of various possibilities to include imperfectly competitive labour markets in macroeconomic models;
• to explain and analyse one central macroeconomic model with imperfectly competitive goods and labour markets;
• to provide an overview of the role of money and money supply in macroeconomics models;
• to evaluate strengths and weaknesses of the above mentioned models (including their fit with empirical evidence);
• to derive and evaluate policy implications;
• to review contributions in journals of general interest (e.g. the Journal of Economic Perspectives; the Journal of Economic Literature) as well as core macroeconomics journals (e.g. the Journal of Macroeeconomics).
C) Mathematical Methods (Leydold)
Participants gain or deepen their knowledge of mathematical methods that are obligatory to the understanding of economic literature. They are able to understand and apply the formal methods required in microeconomics and macroeconomics.
These includes
• linear algebra (matrix algebra, determinants, Cramer's rule, vector space, eigenvalues)
• calculus (derivatives and integrals, implicit and inverse function theorem, Taylor series, Hessian matrix, big Oh notation)
• static optimization (convex and quasi-convex functions, stationary points, extrema, Lagrange multiplicator, Kuhn-Tucker condition, envelope theorem)
• linear systems (first order linear difference equation, cobweb diagram, first order differential equations, stability of solutions)