Coordinator: Kyle Chauvin, kpc9148@nyu.edu
Today, amidst the vibrant landscape of social platforms and digital payments, markets play a crucial role in our daily transactions more than ever before. For economists, these markets are arenas of complex interactions that facilitate the allocation of resources and the processing of information, driving businesses to innovate and enabling consumers to fulfill their wants efficiently. As an economic analyst specializing in markets and institutions, you will possess the unique ability to discern market dynamics in scenarios that might elude others. We provide you with a series of courses to enhance your understanding and prediction of corporate behavior, especially the analysis and exploration of competitive strategies of firms, as well as systematic analytical perspectives and tools to understand the relationship between corporate behavior and public policy making. We also offer the opportunities to cultivate your ability to explore the timing and modalities of public policy interventions from a holistic perspective, via examining the interactions between political institutions and economic outcomes. You will also learn to utilize game theory and empirical tools to understand collective decision making, a trendy issue that has become even more important today as the abundance of information has increased the motivation of and eased the access to market transaction by its participants.
Career Paths:
- Consultant (e.g., McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Bain, Accenture, Charles Rivers Associates, Mathematica, NERA)
- Legal profession by going to law schools (e.g., antitrust and competition attorney)
- The economics major is one of many common paths to law schools. Many careers in law involve shaping economic decisions. Writing and interpreting contracts, supporting mergers and acquisitions, dealing with the tax system, addressing disputes of workers, landlords, and vendors; all involve decisions with significant economic content and implications.
Course Descriptions:
This course studies principles and tools used in designing efficient markets, including matching theory, auction theory, and mechanism design. Students explore how market rules impact exchanges, platforms, and allocation problems, focusing on key objectives of market stability, strategy-proofness, and efficiency. The course combines theoretical modeling, empirical evaluations, and case studies of real-world market designs. Each week dives deep into one or two literature papers. Students are expected to actively participate in discussions, deliver presentations throughout the course, and complete two midterm exams.
This class combines insights from neuroeconomics, experimental economics, behavioral economics, and political economy to examine the challenges of cooperation, coordination, and collective action. Students will use key concepts and methodologies from game theory as well as empirical tools to analyze social dilemmas. The class investigates how individuals and groups can work together or fail to do so, analyzing scenarios from small-scale social dilemmas to larger issues like climate change. Students complete two midterm exams and a final project on a real-world example of collective action failure.
This course examines antitrust and competition policy, collusion, mergers, and antitrust regulation, with a particular focus on challenges posed by digital platforms. The course includes both theoretical concepts and empirical case studies, enabling students to connect economic concepts to real-life antitrust issues such as major technology acquisitions and pricing strategies. Students are expected to participate in group discussions, complete three problem sets, a midterm exam, and a presentation on individually chosen case studies.
This class studies how firms make strategic decisions regarding production, pricing, and interaction with competitors. Students will learn about pricing strategies, game theory, and methods for achieving market dominance through dynamic competition. Classes feature a combination of lectures, discussions, and debates. In addition to actively participating in class, students are expected to complete several problem sets, case study reflection essays, and two exams. This course is well-suited for those interested in consulting, marketing, and economics-related legal issues.
This course explores the role of the public sector in market economies, focusing on government intervention, taxation, and welfare economics. Students will learn when and why government intervention is necessary, its impact on markets, and the political and economic factors that shape public policy. Key topics include tax policy, social insurance, and public goods, with an emphasis on issues like healthcare and education reform. The course aims to provide a framework for analyzing public policy debates through the lens of welfare economics. Students complete two midterms and a final exam.
To earn an AOC, students must complete four economics electives related to their chosen AOC.
Among these, at least one must be an Advanced Elective taken at NYU Shanghai, and no more than one elective may be taken at other NYU sites.
