Course Catalog

ECO 101
Description
Introduction to Economic theory. The concept of scarcity and choice; production possibility frontier; economic systems. theory of demand and supply. Importance of market price. Consumer behavior: Theory of utility. Production: theories related to production; costs of production. Market Structure: Perfect Competition and Monopoly, and an introduction to monopolistic competition and oligopoly markets. Factor market: introduction to the labor market, Rent theory.

Credits 3; Prerequisite: None

ECO 102
Description
Macroeconomic is the policy oriented part of economics. The course will deal with the concepts and measurement of national income, inflation, unemployment, with an attempt to reveal how macro- economic variables such as national income, unemployment, inflation can be manipulated by government policies. The course will also introduce the macro economic models using a graphical approach: consumption function, investment theory, equilibrium and disequilibrium models of macro economy – classical and Keynesian theory. The focus of the discussion in the course will be on acquainting students with the macroeconomic fundamentals of an economy.

ECO 200
Description
Introduction of agriculture as an industry; economics of agricultural production, farm management, land economics, rural organization, agricultural credit and finance, agricultural law, agricultural marketing, agrarian reform, agricultural policy, agricultural prices, structure and scope of Bangladesh agricultural sector.

ECO – 260
Description
This course aims at exploring and examining human relationship with environment with special emphasis on Bangladesh. The course surveys the economic, cultural, social, and political aspects of human population dynamics, food resources and hunger, mineral and energy resources, air, land and water pollution, wilderness and wildlife resources, urban and rural land usage, and toxic waste management from environmental and conservation viewpoints. The course makes recommendations and probes possible solutions to contemporary resource and environmental problems of Bangladesh. Current issues important to the environment are stressed in class projects.

ECO 301
Description
Theory of choice and its application to consumer and producer behavior, theory of production and cost, output and input markets and their structure, equilibrium and efficiency, introduction to general equilibrium analysis. Special emphasis on perfect & imperfect competition.

ECO 302
Description
This course introduces the mainstream models in modern macroeconomics-classical models, Keynesian model of consumption and investment analysis; IS-LM models of closed and open economics dealing with unemployment, inflation and interest rates. Analysis of monetary and fiscal policies and their impact on national income, output employment & growth.

Credits 3; Prerequisite: ECO 102

Application of economic concepts and analytical tools to the health service system. Review of empirical studies of demand and supply of health services, behavior of providers in selected developing and developed countries, and relationship of health services to population health levels. Discussion of policy issues relating to financing and resource allocation to the health sector.

ECO 310

Description
The structure and activity of the financial sector of the economy; role of money in the economy especially its impact on output, employment, and prices; types of financial assets and their uses; interest rates; role played by financial intermediaries; interest-free and new concepts in banking; review of the financial sector of Bangladesh.

ECO 312

Description
Industrial Organization is the study of the structure of firms and markets and of their interaction. This course deals with how markets work (and why they sometimes fail to work) in the short, medium and long run. The focus is on how firms select their strategies to maximize profits. Although both the theoretical models and the empirical application deals with firms and product markets, the underline ideas are general and applicable to a wide variety of economic situation.

ECO 314

Description
The course examines a number of issues in public expenditure theory and taxation. Topics on the expenditure side include the economic rationale for government, provision of public goods, corrective policies to externalities. On the taxation side, topics include the question of tax incidence, efficiency effects of taxes and optimal taxation.

ECO 315

Description
Study of the expenditure and financing activities of the government. Topics include fiscal functions; public sector in the economic accounts; normative theory of government (the level and allocation of government expenditures; taxation; optimum structure of major taxes; fiscal policy and stabilization; development finance); positive theory of government (direct democracy; representative democracy; bureaucracy; voter behavior; rent seeking); government and markets; efficiency aspects of public enterprises; interest-free public finance.

ECO 328

Description
Review and analysis of international trade models, theories and tools of analysis-classical, neo-classical and alternative theories; international monetary system, its role, importance, structure and future performance; foreign exchange market, balance of payments adjustments.

ECO 329

Description
In depth analysis of selected current issues and policy problems of the international economy including (but not restricted to) the following: new approaches to the theory of international trade, reform of the international monetary systems, role of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Problems of stabilization of international commodity markets, and balance of payments problems of Bangladesh and other selected countries.

ECO 349

Description
This course is based on the role of public policy in economic development and the political context in which policy decisions are taken. Core topics are the nature of underdevelopment, growth theories, dualism, center periphery models & poverty of LDC countries, the international dimensions of development; macroeconomic stabilization; financial systems; agriculture and the microeconomics of rural organizations; labor markets and human resource development; Process of cumulative causation, population and development, development and environment, foreign assistance, debt, trade are also widely discussed.

ECO 353

Description
Background and analysis of plans and progress toward economic development in South Asia, their trends in development, economic characteristics of the area and their significance for economic development. Case studies are included on respective countries of South Asia to examine their economic trends & prospects.

ECO 354

Description
Resource availability, environmental pollution and limit to growth. Theory of optimal use and depletion of renewable, non-renewable and recyclable resources in the context of water, forest fisheries, and mineral resources. Theory of property rights regimes such as public, private and common property ownership into resource management. Market failure, externality and economics of pollution control. Economics of regional global pollution. Pollution control policies and their implications for efficiency, equity and growth.

ECO 357

Description
Economic models and equilibrium analysis, linear models and matrix algebra, differentiation and comparative statics, comparative statics of general function models, optimization and equilibrium, exponential and logarithmic functions, multi variable optimization, optimization with equality constraints, economic dynamics and integral calculus.

ECO 360

Description
It surveys the socioeconomic features and studies of the macroeconomic performance of the economy of Bangladesh within the context of the sociopolitical reality; sectoral development and analysis of the sectors in a general equilibrium framework; foreign trade and foreign aid; financial institutions and monetary management, fiscal policy, human resource development and the long term performance of Bangladesh economy.

ECO 382

Description
The principles of benefit cost analysis, shadow pricing, sustainability constraints, time, risk; techniques for non-market evaluation incorporating contingent valuation, contingent ranking, travel cost method, discrete choice, production function approach behavior, hedonic wage and property price models; modified national income accounting.

ECO 406

Description
This course offers advanced treatment of trade models covered in ECO 328 as well as incorporates new developments in international trade theory. Topics include neo-classical trade theory, industrial- organization based trade models, protection theory, regional integration and economic growth. Special attention on export promotion & import substitution policies of the developing economics.

ECO 414

Description
Applies the theory of international economics to the problems of policy design for export promotion, import substitution, exchange rate choice and management, foreign indebtedness, capital flow and balance of payments management.

ECO 433

Description
This course examines gender discrimination & gender equality as it relates to economic development. Topics include: success and failures of NGO activities that directly address women’s participation in development, womanization of poverty in under developed countries.

ECO 443

Description
This is aimed at analyzing the role of grass root organizations and NGO’s in development. Their achievements in activities like microcredit, education and awareness building is discussed. Field trips are an integral part of this course.

ECO 447

Description
This course analyses some selected issues in regulation and government intervention and their impacts. Advanced topics of macro & micro economics are included.

ECO 449

Description
Moral hazard, adverse selection in game theoretic models; Individual and social choices under incomplete and imperfect information.

ECO 450

Description
This course surveys a number of topics in labor economics, including the facts underlying the rising labor participation of women, the effects of legislation such as minimum wages and overtime regulation on wages and employment, the factors that determine wage rates paid to different individuals, and in particular the degree to which observed patterns of wages conform to the predictions of the simple competitive model versus other models of wage determination; the economics of education, discrimination in the labor market, and other selected topics.

ECO 453

Description
This course deals with the strategic interaction of economic agents. It focuses on economic modeling of strategic choices in a variety of situations such as firms in an oligopolistic industry choosing price or quality, collusive agreements and the incentive to cheat, inflation and unemployment, tariffs and international competition, etc. Topics include zero sum games, variable sum games, solution concepts, Nash equilibrium, pure and mixed strategies, repeated games, dominant strategies, sequential games, sub game perfection, and games with incomplete information.

ECO 460

Description
Scope and nature of managerial optimization, optimization techniques, risk analysis, estimation techniques, demand theory, demand estimation, demand forecasting, production theory and estimation, linear programming, market structure and pricing practice, long run investment decisions, capital budgeting, cost benefit analysis, public sector management.

ECO 465

Description
Main focus is on OLS estimate including: two-variable regression, functional form, multiple regression, rnulticollinearity, heterosecedasticity and autocorrelation, specification errors, dummy variables, lagged variables, identification and systems estimation.

ECO 467

Description
Advanced treatment of microeconomic concepts. Traditional concepts of theories about production and consumer choice will be discussed with mathematical rigor and special emphasis will be given to market structure, strategic behavior and game theory.

ECO 474

Description
Dynamic analysis and its application in economic models: Harrod model, Domar model, Samuelson’s multiplier accelerator interaction model. Dynamic
Optimization: nature of dynamic optimization. Calculus of variation : Fundamental problem of the calculus of variations-Euler Equation, some special cases & applications of second order conditions, infinite planning horizon, constrained optimization problems, optimal control theory : The maximum principle, infinite horizon problem, optimal control with constraints

ECO 475

Description
Birth of political economy, laissez faire revolution of Adam Smith, Ricardo to Mill, socialist thought and Marx, neoclassical synthesis ; theory of general equilibrium, welfare economics, Keynesian revolution & Marshall’s contribution economic discipline.

ECO 477

Description
A review of macroeconomic issues, policies and tools. Different schools of macroeconomic thought, long run economic growth, neoclassical and new growth theories. Short run economic fluctuation, modern theories of business cycle, inflation and unemployment. Sectoral analysis, consumption and investment, open economy macroeconomics, macroeconomic issues and problems stemming from Monetarist Counter revolution & Modigliani’s life cycle hypothesis.

ECO 480

Description
Aspects of urban management, location and growth of cities; system of cities & urban hierarchy, economics of urban management; management of urban environment; urban waste management. The structure of the urban government, its fiscal base and linkages with the external sectors : policy issues such as – determination and collection of local taxes, urban enterprise zones, urban land and housing policies, anti-poverty policies and social cost & benefit of externalities.

ECO 484

Description
This course deals with project choice, institutional framework, cost-benefit analysis. It also covers measuring the profitability of a project under different goals – framework of project proposal – logical framework analysis – project monitoring with special reference to project proposal system used in Bangladesh.

ECO 485

Description
Cost Benefit Analysis is the principal tool for project and policy evaluation in the public sector. Given government regulations, cost benefit evaluations are critical for many private sector activities. Real estate developers, manufacturing firms, employers of all types are required to provide evaluations of environmental impacts and of urban impacts for their proposed projects. They too must engage in cost benefit analysis, in the valuation of social benefits and costs. Government analysts, consultants, and private firms regularly carry out cost benefit analyses for major investments – bridges, roads, transit systems, convention centers, dams – as well as for regulatory activities. Topics include: conceptualization of Costs and Benefits of social projects, identifying costs and benefits, issues related to prices, shadow prices, exchange rate/shadow exchange rate, valuing environmental externalities, cost-effectiveness analysis, risk and sensitivity analysis. Monti-Carlo simulation of risks. Example includes economic valuation of social sector projects like education, transportation, etc.

ECO 486

Description
Dimensions of the energy problems, static and dynamic criteria for efficient energy resource allocation; OPEC countries; environmental issues in energy development; price control; optimum regulation structure; national security dilemma; conservation; future policy directions.

ECO 487

Description
This course discusses the classical linear regression model and its extensions including generalized least squares and the theory and application of F tests. The maximum likelihood principle is introduced, as are alternative approaches to testing, e.g. LR and Wald tests. Additional topics may be included at the instructor’s discretion. Covers the fundamental econometric technique of regression analysis and a variety of model specification issues. A central goal is to provide students with the necessary skills and knowledge to use and to correctly interpret the output from econometrics software packages such as TSP, SPSS, SHAZAM, STATA.

ECO 490

Description
Topics include purpose of scientific research; features and scopes and limitations of research; classification of scientific research; techniques of data collection and selection; various biases in data collection; preparation and presentation of independent seminar.

Credits 3; Prerequisite: ECO ECO 465, STA 217

ECO 491

Description
Topics include the distinction between normative and positive economics; the first and second fundamental theorem of welfare economics; Hicks-Kaldor-Scitovosky compensation criteria; consumer and product surplus for measuring welfare change; market failure; theory of second best and its implications for policy reforms; importance of property rights and Coase theorem; poverty and distribution of income; relationship between entitlement and welfare; the extent of inequality in Bangladesh.

ECO 492

Description
Applications of economic theory to problems and issues in both civil and criminal law and the effect of legal rules on the allocation of resources. It includes property rights, liability and negligence assignment, the use of administrative and common law to mitigate market failure, and the logic of private versus public law enforcement.

ECO 495

DescriptionIn this course, each student will write a research monograph on a topic of his/her choice. S/He will be supervised by a faculty member. It is expected that in this research s/he will be able to synthesize a research problem.

Introduction to basic concepts in statistics including the presentation of data, descriptive statistics, probability theory, discrete and continuous distributions, sampling distribution and index number. The approach of the class includes both learning the concepts behind basic statistics and also how to apply these concepts in real-life situations. Students will also be introduced to Microsoft Excel for applications of the various statistical concepts to business and economic data.

Pre-requisite: MAT100

Continuation of ECO 104. This course introduces point and interval estimation, hypothesis testing, statistical inferences, goodness of fit and related concepts required for conducing regression analysis. Students will be introduced to basic linear and multiple regressions, their applications in Microsoft Excel and how to interpret regression results. A practical project is assigned to extend student skills set in linear regression and time series techniques.

Pre-requisite: ECO 101, ECO 104

The last several decades have brought forth rapid and profound changes to the investment industry, including an almost exponential growth of newly designed securities and trading strategies. Yet many basic principles of financial economics remain important to understanding the fundamentals of financial markets. Interest rates and rates of return affect our lives on a daily basis, now as they have in the past. For example, when you take out a student loan or invest in the stock or bond markets, those rates determine the rate at which wealth accumulates and is made available for future investment. A key element of how much financial return is earned is the riskiness of assets such as stocks, bonds and loans. What is risk and how is it related to the concept of efficient markets? How does the riskiness of an asset influence rates of return and portfolio allocation, and the decision of which assets investors buy? How are equities and bonds valued in an efficient market? How are derivative assets priced? In this course, you will have the opportunity to explore what financial economics has to say about these questions. The focus of this course will be on investment analysis and asset pricing, with the aim of conveying the practical applications of investment theory.

Credits: 3; Prerequisites: ECO 301, ECO 302

This course aims to provide students with an understanding of the increasingly important role that economics plays in competition law and an understanding of when economic analysis is relevant to a particular competition law case. The focus of this course will be on Antitrust Law that primarily regulates three areas of conduct. These areas of conduct are: i) anticompetitive agreements (e.g. a cartel of firms engaged in price-fixing); ii) conduct directed at excluding a competitor from the market (e.g. a firm engaging at predatory pricing); and iii) the regulation of mergers that, if consummated, would lead to a significant reduction in competition. While other areas exist, this course will focus on these broad types of conduct.

Credits: 3; Prerequisites: ECO 301

Forecasting is constantly made in business, finance, economics, government, and many other fields, and they guide many important decisions. Another simple reason for studying forecasting is that all economic decisions are forward looking. This course will cover basic problems, issues and limitations in forecasting. Following a discussion on basic forecasting and filtering tools, the course will introduce various concepts of time series forecasting methods including both univariate and multivariate methods.

The course aims to provide students with a grounding in the main areas of behavioral economics, by focusing

on behavioral implications of theoretical models and on experimental evidence in economics. These main areas include bounded rationality, decision-making

under risk and uncertainty, other regarding preferences, intertemporal decision-making, behavioral game theory, emotions and libertarian paternalism. For each area, the focus will be on three points: (i) review of standard economic models and evidence that indicates that such models do not capture some important behavioral aspects or anomalies; (ii) study of the behavioral models that have been developed to capture these aspects; (iii) application of these models to different economic fields, especially with respect to more recent contributions.

Credits: 3; Prerequisites: ECO 101, ECO 102

This course is designed to cover many of the most important emerging markets in the world. Asia receives specific focus given its size and pivotal role in the world economy, but markets in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and Middle East also receive coverage. For the purposes of this course, “Asia” consists of China, India South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the nations of Southeast Asia belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). China’s and India’s emergence as major players in the global economy has far-reaching implications for Bangladesh and the rest of the world. Students develop an informed perspective on the economic policies and institutional changes that have shaped China’s and India’s economic emergence. In this sense, the course is very much a selected topics course with a broad range of topics covered. An important emphasis of the course is to help students develop critical thinking and rigorous analytical expertise, as well as your skills in presentation, writing, and collegial team work.

Credits: 3; Prerequisites: ECO 301, ECO 302, ECO 328

The course begins with an overview of the physical forces that drive the distribution of nutrients in the ocean. The content are: Consumer Resource Ecological Model; Predator-prey model; other ecosystem model; Concept of primary production, habitat, Growth, competition and predation influence biological populations; Human behavior and market systems; Economic effects of specific policies in areas such as ocean recreation, shipping, offshore oil and gas production, aquaculture, and coral reef protection.

Credits: 3; Prerequisites: ECO 349, ECO 360

Differential Calculus: Function, Basic concepts on Limits & Continuity, Techniques of Differentiation, Indeterminate forms, Maxima and Minima of Functions, Point of Inflection, Functions of Two or More Variables, Partial Derivatives, Homogeneous Function, Euler’s Theorem on Homogeneous Functions. Integral Calculus: Integration-the inverse of Differentiation, Integration by substitution, Definite Integral. Matrix: Different types of Matrix and Matrix operation, Identity Matrix, Minor, cofactor, Adjoin and Inverse of a Matrix. System of linear equations: Solution of a system of linear equations by using - Gauss Jordan Elimination Method, Inverse Method and Cramer’s rule. Permutation and Combination, BinomialTheorem.

Credits 3; Prerequisite: None

Number System, Functions and Graphs: Linear functions and Straight lines, Quadratic Functions and Parabolas, Exponential and Logarithmic Functions and their applications in simplex and compound interest, Effective rate, Concept of Future Value and Present Value of an Annuity. Solving a system of Linear Equations, Matrices and their applications. Static Equilibrium Analysis- Linear Model. Concept of Comparative Static and Derivatives, Partial of Differentiation and Total derivative with application. Optimization problem (Unconstrained) one or more than choice variables. Applications in Economics and Business Model.

Credits 3; Prerequisite: ECO 101, MAT 100

Equilibrium Analysis: Partial market Equilibrium, General market Equilibrium. Marginal Analysis in Business and Economics, First derivatives and graphs, Second derivatives and Graphs.

Optimization problems (Unconstrained): One or more than one choice variables. Optimization with equality constraints. Economic Dynamics and integral calculus. Linear programming: General Formulation of Linear Programming Model, Solving LP problem Using Graphical Method and Simplex Method. Duality of an LP problem.

Credits 3; Prerequisite: MAT 110