4000

The student may choose between ECON4212 or ECON4213. The following course is given in the first semester of each year ECON4213 and ECON4212 is given in the second semester. Most topics presented are mainly (although not exclusively) focused on economic-cycle related issues. The first part of the course deals with the unemployment theory, natural unemployment rate, dilemma between inflation and economic activities, inflation and disinflation costs, target inflation schemes, monetary rules, delegation and reputation of central banks, as well as some interesting topics of today’s economic circumstance, as deflation and liquidity tramps, monetary policy and globalization, optimal accumulation of international reserves and costs and benefits of the monetary unions and the dollarization. The second part of the course is devoted to studying the basic elements of dynamic macroeconomics. The main objective is to make students understand the numerical theory and methods to write simple computer programs (MATLAB) and use them to solve quantitative questions concerning macroeconomics, public finances, money, growth, labor market, etc., within the framework of general dynamic equilibrium. The driving theory to be followed is that of the 1985 Novel Price Winner in Economics, Robert Lucas: "One of the functions of the theoretical theory is to provide artificial economic systems that may serve as laboratories in which different policies – otherwise very difficult to assess in the real world – and be tested at lower costs " (Lucas, 1980, p. 696).  

This course addresses long-term macroeconomics emphasized on micro-based models of inter-temporal choice. The course intends to analyze the main available empirical evidence related to the theories discussed. The course is divided into two sections. The first section deals with the consumption theories, especially the permanent income theory and the basic theory of inter-temporal choices, the classical theory of capital accumulation and the investment theory that integrates fixed costs and intermittent investment. Besides, the class will study the labor market, creation and destruction of work and the main sources of economic friction in the market adjustment. The first section ends with the study of efficiency in the allocation of resources and the growth of added productivity and also focuses on topics as the breakdown of productivity growth, factor adjustment and market choices. The second section of the course addresses the most recent and important contributions to the economic growth theory. This section is also concerned with the neoclassical model of growth (with and without dynamic optimization), the first endogenous growth models based on constant yields of the accumulable factor, apart from endogenous growth models based on the quality increase of intermediate goods, human capital formation, and those based upon technological innovations. The last section of the course presents some recent developments in the long-term economic growth theory focused on topics as income distribution, human capital formation, demographic transition and industrial revolution.

This course elaborates on econometric topics: time series models, econometric management with non-stationary variables, stationarity and co-integration, vector autoregressive models, and system co-integration. This course is complemented with a weekly workshop in which the theoretical concepts studied in the master class will be applied. Students will conduct econometric estimations by handling databases in statistical packages. ECON4310 Advanced Econometrics is the code for the students of the Coterminal Plan.

Summer School Course. Areas of Emphasis: History, Theory and Economic Thought - Public Policies - Macroeconomy. The main topic of this course is the analysis of factors that determine the economic and political development of Latin America in the long term. The course explains in detail the differences between determining development factors among countries, as well as the relevant changes inside such countries that may have led to a specific form of development. After analyzing various hypotheses regarding determining development factors, the course will focus on the study of the political economy of institutions.

In this course the student should finish his/her dissertation only counting on the tutor´s collaboration. When this process is finished and with the tutor´s approval, the student shall defend the Publishable Paper before a jury appointed by the School Council.

The purpose of this course is to introduce undergraduate and graduate students of the Economy School or from similar professions to the use of historical sources to rebuild databases and analyze phenomena pertaining to the economic, social and cultural situation of the Colombian and Latin American history between the XVI and XIX centuries. Students may select research objects based on production units or on the accounts of the Royal Treasury or the National Treasury (XIX Century) to rebuild, at local, regional or national level, in the light of tax values, internal markets, import and export operations, public administration salaries, metal remittances, nature of tobacco monopolies, card games or aguardiente, among others. They may also opt to rebuild problems related to property, population, internal and external debt, economic costs of the Independence War and the civil wars of the XIX Century, social indicators or agriculture production trends or other basic sectors of regional economies.