PARTIALLY ANNOTATED LIST OF COURSES

PARITALLY annotated list of courses

Core Economics

   I.        ECON 400A Microeconomics I: economic behavior in a world Without money, credit and government

A.          Scarcity, work, and choice

1.          Preferences

2.          Preferences Mathematical Presentation

1.          Altruistic preferences: Finding the optimal distribution

2.          Quasi-linear preferences

3.          Angela’s choice of working hours

4.          Angela’s choice of working hours when she pays rent

3.          Opportunity costs

4.          Decision making and scarcity

5.          Working Hours

1.  The worker’s best response function

B.          the firm: OWNERS, MANAGERS, & EMPLOYEES

1.          Firms, markets, and the division of labor

1.          Other people’s money: The separation of ownership and control

2.          Other people’s labor

2.          Employment rents

3.          Work and wages:

1.          The labor discipline model

2.          Wages, effort, and profits in the labor discipline model

3.          Owners, employees, and the economy

4.          Alternative business organization

1.          Principals and agents under incomplete contracts

C.          The firm & its customers

1.  Choosing a price

1.1.           Economies of scale and the cost advantages of large-scale production

2.  Production: The cost function

3.  Demand and isoprofit curves

3.1.           Setting price and quantity to maximize profit

3.2.           profit maximization, marginal revenue and marginal cost

4.  Gains from trade

5.  The elasticity of demand

5.1.           Using demand elasticities in government policy

5.2.           Price-setting, competition, and market power

5.3.           Product selection, innovation, and advertising

6.  Prices, costs, and market failure

7.  Profit, wages, and effort mathematically

7.1.           Average and marginal cost functions

7.2.           Isoprofit curves and their slopes

7.3.           The profit-maximizing price

7.4.           Marginal revenue and marginal cost

D.         Supply and demand: Price-taking and competitive markets

1.  Demand and supply

1.1.           The market and the equilibrium price

2.  Price-taking firms

2.1.           Market supply and equilibrium

2.2.           Competitive equilibrium: Gains from trade, allocation, and distribution

2.3.           Changes in supply and demand

2.4.           The effects of taxes

3.  The model of perfect competition

3.1.           Looking for competitive equilibria

3.2.           Price-setting and price-taking firms

4.  Demand and supply mathematically

4.1.           The elasticity of demand

4.2.           The firm and market supply curves

4.3.           Market equilibrium

4.4.           Gains from trade

4.5.           Shifts in demand and supply

4.6.           Price bubbles

E.          labor market: Wages, profits, and unemployment

1.  The wage-setting curve, the price-setting curve, and the labor market

1.1.           Employment and unemployment

1.2.           Employment and real wages

1.3.           The firm’s hiring decision

2.  The price-setting curve: Wages and profits in the whole economy

2.1.           Wages, profits, and unemployment in the whole economy

2.2.           How changes in demand for goods and services affect unemployment

2.3.           Labor market equilibrium and the distribution of income

2.4.           Labor supply, labor demand, and bargaining power

3.  Labor unions: Bargained wages and the union voice effect

4.  Labor market policies to address unemployment and inequality

5.  Looking backward: Baristas and bread markets

F.          Rent-seeking, price-setting, and market dynamics

CHANGING PRICES TO GAIN RENTS & MARKET EQUILIBRIUM

1.  How market organization can influence prices

2.  Short-run and long-run equilibria

3.  Prices, rent-seeking, and market dynamics at work: Oil prices

4.  The value of an asset: Basics

4.1.           Changing supply and demand for financial assets

4.2.           Asset market bubbles

4.3.           Modelling bubbles and crashes

5.  Non-clearing markets: Rationing, queuing, and secondary markets

6.  Markets with controlled prices

7.  The role of economic rents

II.        Econ 400B: advanced topics in microeconomics ii

A.          some math tools

More math tools in each section

2.  Introducing the math pioneers

3.  The production function

3.1.           Average and marginal productivity

3.2.           Diminishing marginal productivity

4.  Concave and convex functions

4.1.           Indifference curves and the marginal rate of substitution

4.2.           Marginal rate of transformation

4.3.           Optimal allocation of free time: MRT meets MRS

5.  Modelling technological change

6.  Mathematics of income and substitution effects

7.  The Pareto efficiency curve

8.  Externalities

8.1.           External effects of pollution

8.2.           Pigouvian taxes

9.  Expected duration of the dictator or governing elite

10.     How the monopolist sets the rent-maximizing level of taxes

11.     The income and substitution effect of an increase in political competition

B.          SOCIAL INTERACTIONS:

1.  Strategic behavior

1.1.           Game theory

1.2.           Equilibrium in the invisible hand game

1.3.           The prisoners’ dilemma

1.4.           Social preferences: Altruism

1.5.           Altruistic preferences in the prisoners’ dilemma

2.  Public goods,

2.1.           free riding, and repeated interaction

2.2.           contributions and peer punishment

3.  Behavioral lab and field experiments

3.1.           Cooperation, negotiation, conflicts of interest, and social norms

3.2.           Dividing a pie (or leaving it on the table)

3.3.           Fair farmers, self-interested students?

4.  Competition in the ultimatum game

5.  Social interactions: Conflicts in the choice among Nash equilibria

C.          PROPERTY AND POWER: MUTUAL GAINS AND CONFLICT

1.  Institutions and power

1.1.           Evaluating institutions and outcomes: The Pareto criterion

1.2.           Evaluating institutions and outcomes: Fairness

2.  A model of choice and conflict

2.1.           Technically feasible allocations

2.2.           Allocations imposed by force

2.3.           Economically feasible allocations and the surplus

3.  The Pareto efficiency curve and the distribution of the surplus

3.1.           Politics: Sharing the surplus

3.2.           Bargaining to a Pareto-efficient sharing of the surplus

3.3.           Angela and Bruno: The moral of the story

4.  Measuring economic inequality

5.  A policy to redistribute the surplus and raise efficiency

D.         Markets, efficiency, and public policy

MARKET FAILURE: EXTERNAL EFFECTS OF POLLUTION

1.  External effects and bargaining

1.1.           External effects: Policies and income distribution

2.  Property rights, contracts, and market failures

3.  Public goods

4.  Missing markets: Insurance and lemons

5.  Incomplete contracts and external effects in credit markets

6.  The limits of markets

7.  Market failure and government policy

III.        ECON 401 i: Macroeconomic Theory with Search behavior

A.          Banks, money, and the credit market

1.  Money and wealth

2.  Borrowing: Bringing consumption forward in time

2.1.           Impatience and the diminishing marginal returns to consumption

2.2.           Borrowing allows smoothing by bringing consumption to the present

2.3.           Lending and storing: Smoothing and moving consumption to the future

3.  Investing: Another way to move consumption to the future

3.1.           Assets, liabilities, and net worth

4.  Banks, money, and the central bank

4.1.           The central bank, the money market, and interest rates

4.2.           The business of banking and bank balance sheets

4.3.           The central bank’s policy rate can affect spending

5.  Credit market constraints: A principal-agent problem

5.1.           Inequality: Lenders, borrowers, and those excluded from credit markets

B.          economic fluctuations and unemployment

13.1 Growth and fluctuations

13.2 Output growth and changes in unemployment

13.3 Measuring the aggregate economy

13.4 Measuring the aggregate economy: The components of GDP

13.5 How households cope with fluctuations

13.6 Why is consumption smooth?

13.7 Why is investment volatile?

13.8 Measuring the economy: Inflation

C.          Unemployment and fiscal policy

1.  The transmission of shocks: The multiplier process

1.1.           The multiplier model

1.2.           Household target wealth, collateral, and consumption spending

1.3.           Investment spending

2.  The multiplier model: Including the government and net exports

3.  Fiscal policy:

3.1.           How governments can dampen and amplify fluctuations

3.2.           The multiplier and economic policymaking

3.3.           The government’s finances

3.4.           Fiscal policy and the rest of the world

4.  Aggregate demand and unemployment

D.         Inflation, unemployment, and monetary policy

1.  Inflation

1.1.           What’s wrong with inflation and deflation?

1.2.           Inflation results from conflicting and inconsistent claims on output

1.3.           Inflation, the business cycle, and the Phillips curve

1.4.           Inflation and unemployment: Constraints and preferences

1.5.           What happened to the Phillips curve?

1.6.           Expected inflation and the Phillips curve

1.7.           Supply shocks and inflation

2.  Monetary policy

2.1.           The exchange rate channel of monetary policy

3.  Demand shocks and demand-side policies

4.  Macroeconomic policy before the global financial crisis: Inflation-targeting policy

5.  Another reason for rising inflation at low unemployment

IV.        econ 401 ii: advanced topics in macroeconomics

A.          Technological progress, employment, and living standards in the long run

1.  Technological progress and living standards

1.1.           The job creation and destruction process

1.2.           Job flows, worker flows, and the Beveridge curve

2.  Investment, firm entry, and the price-setting curve in the long run

3.  New technology, wages, and unemployment in the long run

4.  Technological change and income inequality

5.  How long does it take for labor markets to adjust to shocks?

6.  Institutions and policies:

6.1.           Why do some countries do better than others?

6.2.           Technological change, labor markets, and trade unions

7.  Changes in institutions and policies

8.  Slower productivity growth in services, and the changing nature of work

9.  Wages and unemployment in the long run

B.          The Great Depression, golden age, and global financial crisis

1.  Three economic epochs

2.  The Great Depression,

2.1.           positive feedbacks, and aggregate demand

2.2.           Policymakers in the Great Depression

3.  The golden age of high growth and low unemployment

3.1.           Workers and employers in the golden age

3.2.           The end of the golden age

4.  After stagflation: The fruits of a new policy regime

4.1.           Before the financial crisis: Households, banks, and the credit boom

4.2.           Modelling housing bubbles

5.  The financial crisis and the great recession

5.1.           The role of banks in the crisis

5.2.           The economy as teacher

C.          domestic and the world economy

1.  Globalization and deglobalization in the long run

1.1.           Globalization and investment

1.2.           Globalization and migration

2.  Specialization

2.1.           the gains from trade among nations

2.2.           factor endowments, and trade between countries

3.  Winners and losers from trade and specialization

3.1.           in the very long run and along the way

4.  Migration: Globalization of labor

5.  Globalization and anti-globalization

6.  Trade and growth

D.         economic inequality

1.  Inequality across the world and over time

1.1.           Accidents of birth: Another lens to study inequality

1.2.           What (if anything) is wrong with inequality?

1.3.           How much inequality is too much (or too little)?

2.  Endowments, technology, and institutions

2.1.           Inequality, endowments, and principal-agent relationships

2.2.           Putting the model to work: Explaining changes in inequality

2.3.           Predistribution

3.  Explaining recent trends in inequality in market income

3.1.           Redistribution: Taxes and transfers

4.  Equality and economic performance

E.          Economics of the environment

1.  External effects, incomplete contracts, and missing markets

2.  Climate change

3.  The abatement of environmental damages: Cost-benefit analysis

4.  Conflicts of interest: Bargaining over wages, pollution, and jobs

5.  Cap and trade environmental policies

6.  The measurement challenges of environmental policy

7.  Dynamic environmental policies: Future technologies and lifestyles

8.  Environmental dynamics

9.  Why is addressing climate change so difficult?

10.     Policy choices matter

F.          Innovation, information, and the networked economy

Introduction

21.1 The innovation process: Invention and diffusion

21.2 Innovation systems

21.3 External effects: Complements, substitutes, and coordination

21.4 Economies of scale and winner-take-all competition

21.5 Matching (two-sided) markets

21.6 Intellectual property rights

21.7 Optimal patents: Balancing the objectives of invention and diffusion

21.8 Public funding of basic research, education, and information infrastructure

21.9 Conclusion

21.10 References

G.         Economics, politics, and public policy

1.  The government as an economic actor

1.1.           Government acting as a monopolist

1.2.           Political competition affects how the government will act

1.3.           Why an erstwhile dictator might submit to political competition?

2.  Democracy as a political institution

2.1.           Political preferences and electoral competition: The median voter model

2.2.           A more realistic model of electoral competition

2.3.           The advance of democracy

2.4.           Varieties of democracy

2.5.           Democracy makes a difference

2.6.           A puzzle: The persistence of unfairness and market failures in democracies

3.  Economic infeasibility

4.  Administrative infeasibility

5.  Special interests

6.  Policy matters and economics works

Core Islamic economics

   I.        econ 450: critique of the neoclassical economics

The course is based on Steve Keen’s, Debunking Economics. In addition, both student and teacher must refer to:

www.debunkingeconomics.com

Lee Boldeman (2007), THE CULT OF THE MARKET: Economic Fundamentalism and its Discontents, ANU E Press, Australian National University

http://epress.anu.edu.au/cotm_citation.html

Bibliography in APPENDIX II

1.  The share of blame for repeated crises,

1.1.           How the unpredictable Great Recession was easily foreseeable almost a decade before it occurred.

1.2.           Inadequacies calling for an economics revolution.

2.  Logical flaws in the key concepts of conventional economics.

2.1.           The calculus of hedonism and the failure of the theory of demand

2.2.           Inconsistencies in the theory of the firm and the falsehood of equating marginal cost with marginal revenue to maximize profits.

2.3.           Inconsistencies in the theory of supply.

2.4.           Flaws in the theory of the labor market.

3.  Critical issues omitted from standard economics courses

3.1.           Inconsistencies in the theory of capital

3.2.           In difference with the dominant neoclassical economics, assumptions make a difference.

3.3.           The invalidity of static analysis.

3.4.           The sad state of macroeconomics.

3.5.           The failure of the economic theory of asset markets.

3.6.           The neoclassical explanation of the Great Depression and the Great Recession.

4.  Alternative approaches to economics.

4.1.           Minsky’s Financial Instability Hypothesis, and how Keen’s nonlinear and monetary models of it predicted the Great Recession.

4.2.           A monetary model of capitalism: how it can be built by considering the factors ignored by the neoclassics.

4.3.           Four non-equilibrium approaches to the analysis of asset markets, showing that finance destabilizes the real economy.

4.4.           Economics with bad and inappropriate mathematics.

4.5.           Flawed Marxism.

4.6.           Viable alternatives of economic thinking.

5.  Critique of the theory of International Trade.

5.1.           Dorman, Peter (2001). "Pourquoi la théorie internationale du commerce n'est pas une théorie du commerce international. Une confirmation du scepticisme robinsonien," Innovations, De Boeck Université, vol. 14(2), pages 159-183.

5.2.           Maneschi, Andrea (2000), How New Is The “New Trade Theory” Of the Past Two Decades? Working Paper No. 00-W27, July. Department Of Economics Vanderbilt University Nashville, Tn 37235.

5.3.           Schumacher, Reinhard (2012), Free Trade and Absolute and Comparative Advantage: A Critical Comparison of Two Major Theories of International Trade, Universitätsverlag Potsdam.

5.4.           Schumacher, Reinhard (2013), Deconstructing the Theory of Comparative Advantage, Department of Economic and Social Sciences, Universität Potsdam, Germany, World Economic Review 2: 83-105.

5.5.           Sunanda Sen, (2010). "International Trade Theory and Policy: A Review of the Literature," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_635, Levy Economics Institute.

5.6.           Vernon, Raymond (1966) International Investment and International Trade in The Product Cycle, Quarterly Journal Of Economics. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3935/67ef46dc9229d22234e3210d5d62005a6a8f.pdf 

5.7.           Williams, John H. (1929), The Theory of International Trade Reconsidered, The Economic Journal, Vol. 39, No. 154 (Jun.), pp. 195-209

6.  Critique of Monetary Theory: Monetary Theory without Money.

II.        ECON 451: Analytical Islamic Economics Ii

1.  Why Islamic Economics?

2.  The Dawn of Islamic Economics

2.1.           Islamic Economics and the 1^st International Conference, 1976

3.  Islamic Economics Methodology

3.1.           From Walras To Search-Models Realism

4.  The Theory of Demand from An Islamic Perspective

5.  The Theory of The Firm from An Islamic Perspective

6.  The Theory of Wages in Islamic Economics

7.  Factors Market

8.  Financial Markets in Islamic Economics

9.  Market Order in An Islamic Economic System

10.     Market and Society: Basic Concepts

11.     Types of Markets

12.     Gains from Trade

13.     Between Free & Controlled Markets

13.1.       Does Fiqh Prescribe A Market Structure?

13.2.       Risk-Sharing, Markets & Specialization

13.3.       Risk Sharing & Integration

III.        ECON 452: Analytical Islamic Economics 2

1.  Decision-making in Lending-Based vs Investment-Based Economies

2.  Search Models and Inefficiencies in Interest-Based Economies

3.  Transactions Classifications & permissibility

4.  The Economic Theory of Islamic Finance

4.1.           What We Can Learn from Conventional Theory

4.2.           Price and Monetary Theory

4.3.           Efficiency of Islamic Finance

4.4.           Reform Agenda for Conventional Finance

5.  Mixed Systems Hurdles

6.  Economic Policies

IV.        ECON 550: Islamic Economic Models

Issues in building an Islamic economic model

System vision and interpretation

Theory and Practice

Pure equity and equity-based models

Chapra’s Model

Abbas Mirakhor Model

Al-Jarhi’s Model

What we learn from Islamic economic models

Model hypotheses to be Empirically tested 

 V.        ECON 560 economic history of the Islamic world since the 16^th century and History of Economic Thought

This course focuses on writings and practices of Islamic economics in the Ottoman Empire.

Electives in economics

   I.        ECON 410 Monetary and financial economics, Western and Islamic Perspectives

II.        ECON 430 Public finance, Western and Islamic Perspectives

III.        ECON 440 International Trade and Finance and Economic Integration, Western and Islamic perspectives

Core courses in finance

   I.        Fin 500: Foundations of Finance Theory

An in-depth review of the basic financial concepts, such as

A.          microeconomic foundations of finance and capital markets

B.          the theory of choice

C.          basic equilibrium principles that apply to capital markets, portfolio theory and the practice of finance

D.         the financial situation of a business and drivers of the cost of capital,

E.          the evaluation of capital investment decisions, and the determination of the optimal capital structure.

F.          dividend and buy back policy,

G.         corporate restructuring, and issuance of securities,

H.         agency problems,

I.             asymmetric information,

II.        Fin 510: Project Evaluation and Financial Analysis

III.        Quantitative Finance II

A.          The use of statistical and econometric tools in finance.

1.  case analyses and problem solving in class,

2.  econometric techniques used in finances.

B.          Financial Maths Programming

numerical methodologies and computer programming as a means to solve complex financial problems.

1.  Visual Basic (Excel) and MatLab software.

2.  MonteCarlo simulation,

3.  matrices,

4.  correlation calculations,

5.  efficient portfolio theory

C.          Financial Modeling (APP)

1.  use of the spreadsheet as a basic tool for financial analysis,

2.  data modeling,

3.  construction of financial models and specific tools oriented to financial analysis.

IV.        Fin 550: advanced topics in finance

A.          Introduction to Capital Markets

B.          Financial Accounting and Analysis (FAA)

1.  Corporations’ financial statements

2.  How financial information is communicated to external parties.

3.  Consolidation policies and accounting for international corporations

C.          Valuation and Equity Research (INV)

1.  Valuation models of listed companies

2.  Practical approaches to the most common valuation methods used in equity analysts, the production of financial forecast models,

3.  Research notes and investors’ attitudes.

D.         Portfolio Management (INV)

1.  The efficient portfolio,

2.  correlation between asset classes, and risk measuring techniques applicable to the investment process,

2.1.           the information ratio.

2.2.           Asset management in main asset classes

E.          Private Equity (CFI)

1.  The private equity industry

1.1.           structure,

1.2.           financing,

1.3.           methodology and

1.4.           approach to investing and divesting.

F.          Private Banking and Managing Private Wealth (INV)

G.         Real Estate Investment (CFI)

1.  Aspects of investing in the real estate sector.

2.  The mechanisms used to select a real estate investment and monitor its performance.

H.         Project Finance (CFI)

1.  The perspective of capital provider

2.  The perspective of the user of capital.

3.  the mechanism through which

3.1.           risks and rewards are allocated in the projects,

3.2.           their valuation

3.3.           the different financing structures and their performance.

Core courses Islamic finance

 V.        IF 410 Islamic Finance I, Contracts

1.  Partnership in Profit Contracts

1.1.           Musharaka,

1.2.           Musharaka Mutanaqessa,

1.3.           Mudaraba, unrestricted

1.4.           Mudaraba, restricted,

1.5.           Mudaraba Mutanaqessa, unrestricted,

1.6.           Mudaraba Mutanaqessa restricted,

1.7.           Wakala, unrestricted

1.8.           Wakala restricted

2.  Partnership in Product Contracts

2.1.           Muzara’a

2.2.           Mugharassa

2.3.           Mussaqah

3.  Commodity finance

3.1.           Murabaha,

3.2.           Bai Bethaman 'Ajel

3.3.           Salam

3.4.           Istisna

3.5.           Istisna and Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT)

3.6.           Operating Ijarah

3.7.           Ijarah with Musharaka Mutanaqessa (commonly known as Ijarah Muntahia Bettamleek)

3.8.           Forward Operating Ijarah.

3.9.           Forward Ijarah with Musharaka Mutanaqessa

3.10.       Service Ijarah.

4.  Other products

4.1.           Shares

4.2.           Sukuk

4.3.           Investment certificates

4.4.           Fund shares

4.5.           Syndication shares

   I.        IF 400: Islamic Finance II, economics of islamic finance

1.  Economic meaning of the prohibition of Reba and how it should be implemented.

2.  Validity of transactions in Fiqh and Economics

3.  Islamic Finance Contracts & Institutions

3.1.           The economic benefits of Islamic finance

3.2.           Islamic Banks in theory and practice

3.3.           The convergence of Islamic finance practices to conventional finance

4.  Islamic Non-Banking Financial Institutions

5.  Takaful & Conventional Insurance

6.  Islamic Financial Instruments

7.  Camouflaging Reba Transactions, in Tawarruq, ‘Eina, international Murabahas, and the like.

5.    Product Structuring and the Art of Islamic Banking

6.  Topics in Islamic Finance

6.1.           regulations

6.2.           Liquidity and risk management

6.3.           Hedging

6.4.           Role of investment account holders

II.        IF 430 Islamic Finance Iii, Financial Markets and Securitization

1.  Principles of Securitization

2.  An Islamic View of the Conventional Financial Market

2.1.           Instruments

2.2.           Contracts

2.3.           Economic functions of financial markets and their being gambling casinos

3.  How Assets are securitized and Why.

4.  Salient Features of Islamic financial instruments and their economic advantages.

5.  Gambling, Speculations and the Islamic Financial Market

6.  General rules for Islamic securitization

7.  Examples of proper and invalid securitization

finance electives

   I.        fin 440 Financial Mathematics

II.        fin 450 Financial Management

III.        fin 460 Private Banking

Islamic finance electives

   I.        if 540 risk management & hedging in Islamic finance

II.        theory and practice of Islamic finance regulation

III.        Shari'ah and regulatory standards

IV.        Islamic public finance

 V.        legal and regulatory issues in Islamic finance

Quantitative analysis

   I.        Ma 200: College Algebra

II.        Ma 300: Multivariable Calculus

III.        Ma 310: Linear Algebra

IV.        econ 600: Mathematical Economics

 V.        econ 610: Inference Theory and Econometrics, I

VI.        econ: 620: Inference Theory and Econometrics II

Fiqh analysis

   I.        Introduction to Fiqh

II.        Fiqh Al-Muamalat