Distinguished Speakers Seminar Series
To further enhance the quality of our courses, we organize regular webinars with a distinguished speakers who engage in a dialogue with our DLP faculty on current topics in their field.
UPCOMING EVENT
Mark Britnell
Global Healthcare Expert and Vice-Chairman KPMG (United Kingdom)
Human: Solving the Global Workforce Crisis in Healthcare
DATE: TBA
In Spring 2020, the CERGE-EI Foundation launched a pilot project to live stream bachelor’s level courses to universities across Eastern Europe and Central Asia in line with its mission to strengthen economics education across the region.
The objective of the project is to provide courses which could be difficult for many institutions to offer, either because of insufficient student demand or because of a lack of faculty with the relevant expertise. The EU-based faculty (main instructors) are western-qualified and the courses are taught online in English. They are supported by faculty or PhD students at the participating institutions (local instructors): a longer-term objective of the project is to aid local capacity-building.
The simultaneous participation of several universities fosters interaction between students in different countries, encourages comparison and motivation, enables students to experience an international classroom in a home environment, and avoids the problem of low enrollment at a particular institution.
This exciting and ambitious project is funded by private donations. The Foundation is actively seeking additional funds to support its continued development.
Spring 2023: Course Offerings
Preterm
Econometrics in a Nutshell
Course Description: The course will introduce regression analysis and cover some of the most recent econometric techniques central to modern econometric practice. Successful students will gain a deeper understanding of the material discussed in other Distance Learning Program courses. At the end of this course, students will understand basic econometric concepts, basic estimation methods, and methods for testing statistical hypotheses. They will be able to apply standard methods of constructing econometric models, process statistical information, obtain statistically sound conclusions, and give meaningful interpretations to the results of the estimated econometric models. In addition, students will gain real data processing skills, using econometric packages for building and estimating econometric models in R.
Main instructor:
Ella Sargsyan, Ph.D. candidate
Main Term
Behavioral Economics
Course Description: This course aims to provide students with the basics of main behavioral theories and empirical methods commonly used to test theoretical predictions. The list of topics includes social preferences, time inconsistency, prospect theory, behavioral finance, attention and information acquisition, and other behavioral heuristics and biases. Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to understand the conceptual framework of behavioral economics and its tools, recognize behavioral biases and apply insights from psychology when predicting or analyzing economic decision-making.
Main instructor:
Aleksandr Levkun, Ph.D.
Climate Change Economics
Course Description: Energy is a basic necessity of daily life and a vital input to industry in any society around the world. New technologies, especially renewable power generators such as wind and solar are changing the industry. Also, new climate policies have a growing influence on the economics and practical functioning of energy systems, especially, the electricity industry. Firstly, the course aims to give a deeper theoretical insight into economic externalities (such as global warming). A number of classical economic instruments are presented, such as Pigovean taxes, cap-and-trade programs, subsidies, and mandates. The theory addressed has broad applications, also in the field of public finance and public policy. Secondly, the course gives an overview of the economics of new potential decarbonization technologies, such as hydrogen, heat pumps, electric cars, and gas as transition fuel. Thirdly the most recent decarbonization developments will be discussed.
Main instructor:
Silvester van Koten, Ph.D.
Development Economics
Main instructor:
Martina Miotto, Ph.D
Course Description: The goal of this course is to expose students to the newest developments in applied microeconomic research in development economics, particularly policy-oriented research. The topics covered will be especially close to the research agenda of the recent Nobel Prize Winners in Economics: Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer. A further focus of the course is on the study of infrastructure, firms, and labor markets in developing countries. Overall, the course offers a thorough understanding of current-day research in development, with a special angle on poverty reduction and private market policies. The goal is to enable students to identify promising research questions in these fields (e.g. for future studies), and to help students prepare for a career as a practitioner in government and non-government development organizations.
Education Economics
Course Description: The human capital of the population is a key determinant of labor-market success and economic growth. This brings the economics of education to the core of understanding individual and societal economic prosperity. This course introduces students to the key concepts and major issues of economics of education, placing emphasis on current empirical research in the field. Topics include the basic theory of investments in education (human capital theory) and the role of early childhood education; the returns to education and the empirical problem of disentangling the return to education from the return to innate ability; the role of class size, peer effects, and school expenditure, etc. After the course, students are expected to be able to read, understand and discuss current research in the economics of education, as well as to contribute to the discussion about the current challenges in education.
Main instructor:
Miroslava Federicova, Ph.D.
Health Economics
Course Description: This course provides an introduction to Health Economics. As such, it will cover the production and demand for healthcare, how the determinants of demand and supply affect the costs of various types of healthcare services, and the individual, family, and market investments in health. The field uses the tools of microeconomics and econometrics to examine both theoretically and empirically a number of topics, including the role of health insurance, healthcare in developing countries, and risky behavior.
Main instructor:
Eva Hromadkova, Ph.D.
Financial Markets
Main instructor:
Gabriela Kuvíková, Ph.D.
Course Description: This course aims to provide a basic understanding of today’s changing landscape of financial markets and institutions with a broad scope and emphasis on general principles. Students will study the key fundamentals of financial markets and learn how financial markets and financial institutions work. We will discuss interest rates and their role in valuation, learn about efficient market hypothesis and exchange rate determination, explore money and capital markets, identify various players in the financial institutions industry, and take a closer look at risk management in financial institutions.
Game Theory
Course Description: This course aims to acquaint students with the basics of game theory that allows studying strategic situations. By strategic situations or games, we understand general interactions in which actions of each agent affect the well-being of other agents. Game theory provides an analytic framework and a toolkit for studying such interactions and generating predictions about agents’ behavior. We will cover abstract game theoretic tools for studying static and dynamic games and consider applications of the main ideas from economics and political economy.
Main instructor:
Aleksandr Levkun, Ph.D.
Introduction to Data Science
Course Description: This course provides an introduction to data science as a profession and focuses on the theoretical methodologies of the most widely applied machine learning models. The main topics covered include data preparation (data mining, cleaning, and exploring strategies), statistical modeling with the application of appropriate machine learning methodologies (data segmentation, predictive analytics), and mathematical evaluation (test-train split and accuracy measures).
Main instructor:
Vahan Sargsyan, Ph.D.
Models in International Trade
Main instructor:
Vilém Semerák, Ph.D.
Course Description: This course focuses on applied empirical analysis of trade flows and of effects of trade policies. It is not a course in pure trade theory and we are not going to discuss delicate details of e.g. Melitz model; instead, we are going to focus on what needs to be done if we want to provide some reliable facts on actual trade flows and interesting and evidence-based insight into policy-related issues. We will start with rather traditional indicators and index-based analysis of international trade data, and then we will continue to newer and more complex approaches which will also include gravity models, network analysis, or partial equilibrium simulations of the effects of changes in import tariffs. The course will be based on a hands-on approach to learning. Throughout the course, we will be using actual and up-to-date data on trade flows and students will be calculating indicators and estimating results relevant to current discussions about international trade. Each section will be concluded with a practical demonstration of the use of the methods and concepts.
Fall 2022: Course Offerings
Energy Economics and Electricity Markets
Course Description: Energy is a basic necessity of daily life and a vital input to industry in any society. Energy also plays a central role in climate policy. The course, taking mostly the viewpoint of economic markets and economic regulation, aims at giving the student knowledge about various topics related to the energy system. The main focus will be on electricity and electricity markets, as a massive paradigmatic shift has been transforming electricity systems all over the world from centrally planned engineering systems to regulated markets over the past decade. This transformation is still underway and stirring up many new, important questions, such as the correct pricing of electricity and supporting services. Special focus will be given to gas, a fuel playing a major role in electricity generation. Moreover, electricity is expected to play a special role in the decarbonization effort of energy systems.
The course is focused on giving the tools to better understand and appraise the present policies regarding energy and electricity. Especially with regard to investment in different kinds of power plants, the use of the electricity grid, and possible supporting policies such as capacity markets or renewable subsidies.
Main instructor:
Silvester Van Koten, Ph.D.
International Trade
Course Description: This is a course about international trade, its determinants, and its consequences. We will study the ways that the patterns of international trade might be shaped by, and might in turn re-shape, a country’s available resource endowments, its technology, income distribution, economic growth, and politics.
The course starts with the concept of comparative advantage, the gains from trade, and the determinants of the patterns of trade. We will further explore the costs, benefits, and impact on the income distribution of different instruments of trade protection; the effects of free trade areas (trade creation and trade diversion); and of factor mobility. Students will learn to apply the analytical toolbox of trade theory to real-world situations in order to make qualitative predictions of the effects of measures, such as tariffs or export subsidies. Students will not only learn the theory, but they will have a chance to use and analyze actual trade data. We will also include the discussion of relevant current issues, including international supply chains, the use of network theory, and the effects of trade sanctions and embargoes.
Main instructor:
Vilém Semerák, Ph.D.
Labor Economics
Main instructor:
Jakub Grossmann, Ph.D.
Course Description: This course aims to provide students with the basics of labor economics. Theoretical models will be linked to real-life examples, making the course beneficial for subsequent studies and professional life. The tentative list of topics includes labor demand and supply, wages (equilibrium wages, hedonic wages, etc.), human capital, discrimination in the labor market, and unemployment.
Modeling Macroeconomics: How Macroeconomists Understand and Predict the World
Course Description: The aim of this course is to acquaint students with the general ideas behind structural macroeconomic modeling and how it can be applied to better understand real-world data, whether GDP fluctuations, evolution of lifetime income, or propensity to consume out of a monetary transfer. We will cover 2-3 basic macro models focusing on economic growth, the development of income and consumption inequality over the lifetime of individuals, and the differences in behavior of poor vs. wealthy households. For each model, we will define the decision problems of agents in a model (households/firms/government), acquire basic intuition on how a model works, and then describe how a model is calibrated to real data. The discussion of each model will conclude with a debate on how it compares with the real world and what it fails to explain.
Main instructor:
Daniil Kashkarov, Ph.D. candidate
Environmental Economics
Course Description: This course introduces major concepts in the field of environmental economics. It is designed to help students understand theories related to natural resources and make use of microeconomic and statistical analysis. This course will also focus on valuation techniques for environmental goods used in the real world by analysts and policy makers. There is a growing demand in economics and public sectors for individuals with quantitative skills who can understand and apply these techniques, analyze results, and produce reports. By the end of this course, students will be able to analyze economic problems related to environmental goods using rigorous valuation techniques.
Main instructor:
Vladimir Otrachshenko, Ph.D.
Innovation Economics
Main instructor:
Taras Hrendash, Ph.D. candidate
Course Description: This course covers selected topics on the economics of innovation. It helps students to answer the most common questions about the economic aspects of innovation: Why do firms innovate and why do they strive to be first in a race of research and development? How can employees be motivated to produce innovative outputs? How do innovative ideas spread and foster the creation of new knowledge? How is the intellectual property of innovators protected and what are the costs and scope of such protection? Where can innovative start-up firms get money to finance their projects?
The contents of this course are based on insights from macro- and microeconomics, contract theory, and corporate finance. Previous knowledge in these subjects will be beneficial but is not required.
Labor Economics
Course Description: This course aims to provide students with the basics of labor economics. Theoretical models will be linked to real-life examples, making the course beneficial for subsequent studies and professional life. The tentative list of topics includes labor demand and supply, wages (equilibrium wages, hedonic wages, etc.), human capital, discrimination in the labor market, and unemployment.
Main instructor:
Eva Hromadkova, Ph.D.
Public Economics
Course Description: This course covers the key concepts in public economics, a field of economics that studies the role of government in the economy. The course is designed to introduce seminal theoretical concepts and discuss the most recent empirical developments in public economics with the aim to understand: (i) why and how governments intervene in an economy, (ii) how individuals and firms react to these interventions, and (iii) what are the implications of those interventions for the overall welfare and economic development.
Main instructor:
Olga Popova, Ph.D.