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Case studies used to investigate the macroenvironment in which firms operate. First section develops the basic tools of macroeconomic management: monetary, fiscal, and exchange rate policy. Second section evaluates different strategies of economic development, with topics ranging from trade and industrial policy to reliance on natural resources. Third section discusses recent emerging market crises and examines the causes of these crises as well as how best to address them and prevent them from reoccurring in the future. Final section evaluates several major challenges currently faced by developed countries, such as global integration, inequality, and asset-price bubbles.

This course focuses on the technological and cost fundamentals of emerging energy technologies, including solar, wind, biomass, oceanic, geothermal, hydropower, fuel cell (hydrogen), nuclear, and other more exotic energy sources. A major premise in the course is that a sustainable energy technology must both be technically feasible and economically viable. We consequently investigate the technological promise and progress of each technology, as well as its economic opportunities and challenges. At the conclusion of the course, students will have a solid technical and economic understanding of these energy technologies. Questions that will be answered include: What are the technical and economic (cost) fundamentals of important and emerging sustainable energy technologies? How can the economic and technical performance of sustainable energy technologies be measured and compared? What are the technical and economic obstacles to the widespread use of sustainable technologies? Which sustainable energy technologies show the greatest long-term economic promise? Which sustainable energy technologies are closest to commercialization?

In the mixed economy, society's productive resources are allocated by a mixture of planning (government and firms) and decentralised decision making (individuals and markets). The module provides an introduction to the economic analysis of resource allocation at the level of individual consumers, firms, markets and the overall economy to show how these alternative economic principles can be used to promote the optimal allocation of resources for society as a whole. In the first part of the course, we examines issues such as the role and objectives of business, comparing and contrasting traditional models of profit maximisation with alternative models, and discuss the role of stakeholders in these models. We then examine the market mechanism, and how potentially social welfare can be optimised through efficient market operation, but highlight, using the case of food price inflation, how the combination of scarcity and inter-related markets can have adverse consequences in other markets. We also examine market failures, such as externalities, information asymmetry, public goods, where the social optimum is not achieved. We examine the tools and mechanisms to correct for these market failures- ranging from CSR (voluntary initiatives through to public provision of goods. Applying these theories, we examine climate change to understand and critique mechanisms such as the Kyoto principles. In the second part of the module, we examine the issue of firms’ stewardship: how firms and their industries, as important resource allocators, contribute toward societal welfare. Firms are entrusted with a nation’s productive resources and need to be relied upon to use these, for a fair return that covers their economic costs, to produce those goods and services society needs efficiently. In particular, we examine how market structure influences whether firms’ behaviour contributes positively to market performance and to what extent government policy may be needed to regulate their activities. In this context, we examine barriers to competition which may be innocent (profit maximising responses to structural market features) or strategic, i.e. designed by firms to reduce competition. The economic theory of business provides a range of models and concepts, both at the micro and macro level, for the analysis of business activity to generate key insights into the operation of the market economy. Familiarity with the economic way of thinking about business and the economist’s toolkit of principles and models is indispensable for today’s successful business practitioner. The aim of the module is to introduce economic theory applicable to business and to enable participants independently to apply the theory to practical issues.

Students learn about the Kenyan business environment in the broad contexts of the Southern African sub-region, the African continentand the global economy to the extent that some of the seminar participants are interested Global Development as a career path, understand the challenges and complexities of sustainable "development" in a classic semi-periphery economy/society, and how to tackle them. Participants will learn some of the challenges that managers, expatriates, firms, consultants, and organizations routinely face in the rapidly evolving and complex South African emerging market.

In the 21st century, companies, despite their size, are willing to work in a global market with global procedures. During this course we analyze international markets’ financial mechanisms, paying special attention to developing countries. Studying the international payment schemes, currency insurance and credit mechanisms as "Factoring", will give us a global view as how to create a financial structure to our projects in international markets. We pay close attention to the 21st century tendencies that every company has to take into account. These trends include social impact management and how business is done in different countries, paying close attention to social responsibility and reputation. More specifically, we will handle environmental protocols under the United Nations, what they establish as well as the financial commitments that countries have to implement to fulfill them.

This course focuses on how firms interact with others in their industry and with government agencies enforcing policies designed to promote competition. The objectives of this course are to understand the effects of firm tactics and strategies on the firm's customers and rivals and their likely reactions, and to see how antitrust laws affect the feasibility of firm’s actions. Companies with market power must be aware of potential domestic and international legal constraints on their actions. We will compare U.S. and European approaches to competition policy and the implications for business. We will apply the analytical tools of economics in our examination of firm decisions and industry competition. The dimensions of competitive strategy that we cover will include horizontal mergers, tacit and explicit cooperative pricing, product differentiation, and strategies to deter entry. The concepts in the course will be developed using a mix of lectures, business cases, and antitrust case material.