The Economics of Crisis

3.0 credits · Undergraduate

In this course, we examine the economic causes, dynamics, and consequences of crises affecting organizations, societies, and the global economy. Drawing on past experiences with Ponzi schemes, price wars, strikes, famines, currency crises, and trade wars, the course explores the sources of market failures, the behavioral rationales that precipitate crises, and the role of institutions in crisis prevention and recovery. This class will introduce students to concepts and tools of game theory, behavioral economics, bargaining theory, and information economics to understand individual and business behavior, as well as models of currency prices and international trade to analyze country-level and transnational economic crises. The course is designed to be hands-on. Each module is supplemented with group activities such as class experiments, data analysis, model simulations, etc.