Global Economics - Senior

Course # ECON 4136

Credits 6

Prerequisites: Intermediate Microeconomics, Intermediate Macroeconomics and Econometrics I 

Course Description

This is the capstone colloquium in Central Asian economics. Each week asks one question about how the region’s economies actually work: what the Soviet system left behind; whether transition could have gone better; what drives growth today; whether natural resources are a blessing or a curse; whether the region can meet its energy and resource needs; what happened to migration and remittances after 2022; whether the Middle Corridor moment is real; why inflation is so hard to tame; who actually runs these economies; who feeds Central Asia; whether growth reaches households; and whether Central Asia can act as one region.

The course treats the post-Soviet world as a natural experiment: in 1991, fifteen economies left the same system from the same starting line, and then geography and choices diverged. Alongside the five Central Asian republics, we study four comparators (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Estonia): every weekly question is asked of countries that answered it differently. Comparator desks always answer toward Central Asia: their briefings and final briefs end in lessons for the region.

Each question is answered twice: through the instructor’s lecture on the region as a whole (Session A), and through published research on specific countries, presented and debated by the students responsible for those countries (Session B). Assessment is dominated by two in-room written examinations built around real data, which is the professional skill this course exists to teach.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Characterize the structure, performance, and outlook of each Central Asian economy using current data and institutional reports (IMF, World Bank, EBRD, ADB, national statistics), and benchmark them against other post-Soviet economies.
• Explain how the Soviet economic system shaped its successor states and evaluate the strategies and costs of the transition to market economies.
• Analyze the role of natural resources, energy, water, and land in the region’s development.
• Assess the causes and consequences of migration and remittances, including the post-2022 reconfiguration of flows.
• Evaluate the region’s trade and integration arrangements and the record of regional cooperation.
• Interpret, compute from, and critique economic data — distinguishing measurement from claim and correlation from causation.
• Present and critique published economic research, and produce a concise, defensible country policy brief

Course Assessments and Grading

Course # ECON 3133E

Credits 6

TBA

Course # DMNS 4186E

Credits 6

Prerequisite: Linear Algebra

Course Description

Linear programming is one of the most versatile and powerful mathematical programming techniques that can be employed for efficiently solving a stylized class of decision problems.

Linear programming has been used with marked success to solve optimization problems in areas such as economics (including banking and finance), business administration and management, agriculture and energy, contract bidding, nutrition (diet) planning, health care, public decision making, facility location, transportation, strategic planning, and so on.

In this course, students will study mathematics that deals with various real-world situations which leads to mathematical models involving linear optimization problems, geometrical solutions of two-variable problems, simplex algorithm, dual problems, sensitivity analysis and transportation problems.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Formulate a mathematical model of real-life problems.
• Solve the formulated mathematical problem with the use of different algorithms.
• Translate the results back into the context of the original problem.
• Solve linear programming problems with R studio.

Course Assessments and Grading

Course # 4016E

Credits 6

Prerequisites and/or Corequisites: None

Course Description

"Strategic Management" is an elective course for the Bachelor of Arts in Global Economics. It brings together economics, organizational theory, and applied decision-making into a single framework for understanding how firms compete and sustain advantage in dynamic global markets. The course follows the same structured process used in professional practice: analyzing a firm's environment, generating and comparing strategic alternatives, and deciding on a course of action — then carrying that decision through implementation and evaluation. Because industries and technologies are never static, the course treats classical and more contemporary approaches to strategy as complementary rather than competing, and pays close attention to the governance and global forces shaping firm competitiveness today. Through case discussion, live simulations, and a company strategy project, students practice the same complete cycle of analysis, choice, and evaluation that senior managers and strategy consultants use to set organizational direction in a global context.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Analyze the external and internal environments of an organization using PESTEL, Porter's Five Forces, the VRIO framework, and value-chain analysis.

  • Formulate corporate-, business-, and functional-level strategies that align with an organization's mission, objectives, and stakeholder interests.
  • Evaluate the effectiveness, governance implications, and ethical dimensions of alternative strategic choices, including quantitative tools such as the Balanced Scorecard.
  • Apply strategic management concepts — including global and digital strategy — to real-world business scenarios through case analysis.
  • Construct and interpret the full set of strategy-formulation matrices (SWOT/TOWS, SPACE, BCG, IE, Grand Strategy, and QSPM) to generate, compare, and select among competing strategic alternatives.
  • Build pro forma financial statements, ratio analyses, and an EPS/EBIT capital-structure analysis to evaluate the financial feasibility of a strategic recommendation.
  • Collaborate effectively in teams to research, develop, and professionally present a strategic recommendation to a business audience.
  • Communicate strategic analysis clearly in written and oral form, using evidence and industry data to support recommendations.

Course Assessments and Grading

Course # ECON 4123E

Credits 3

TBA

Course # DMNS 4143E

Credits 3

Course Description

This course is a senior-level elective for BA in Global Economics students, providing a comprehensive and applied understanding of Human Resource Management (HRM) within a global business context. Students examine how organizations strategically manage their people through the full employee lifecycle — from workforce planning and recruitment through learning and development, performance and reward, and employee relations. Working through current research, real-world practice, and two hands-on projects — a Comprehensive HR Strategy Project and a group-based Recruitment Simulation — students diagnose organizational people-management challenges, design and execute HR processes, and communicate recommendations in professional written, oral, and video formats. As an elective, the course connects HR decision-making to the broader economic and organizational context students study across the Global Economics major, building analytical and practical competencies relevant to management, consulting, and HR-adjacent careers.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Apply strategic HRM frameworks to diagnose organizational people-management challenges within a global business context.
• Design and conduct an end-to-end recruitment and selection process, including job design, sourcing, interviewing, and selection decisions.
• Develop a training and development plan using established instructional design and evaluation models.
• Evaluate performance management and total rewards systems against organizational goals and motivation theory.
• Formulate a comprehensive HR strategy for an organization, integrating workforce planning, talent management, and employee relations considerations.
• Present HR analysis, strategy recommendations, and recruitment outcomes in professional written, oral, and video formats.

Course Assessments and Grading

Course # ECON 3146E

Credits 6

Course Description

This course provides an introduction to the main anthropological approaches to economic life, emphasizing intricate relationships between culture, society, and economics. The first part of the course provides an overview of anthropology and classical analytical frameworks for understanding how people live and organize their social lives in different ways. The subsequent part discusses contemporary issues surrounding value creation and contestation. Students should be aware that this course is not intended to be an economics course, but it looks at the economic aspects of human life from an anthropological perspective. The course is grounded in the comparative and ethnographically-based discipline of anthropology - it brings together a wide range of regional, cultural and historical material. We examine traditional non-market economies, gift giving and commodity exchange, state and alternative currencies, and human and posthuman economies. Thus, the course aims to explore the economy of societies, which integrates both formal, informal/ traditional ones embedded in the culture of the respective society. By the end of the course, students will have a nuanced understanding of how anthropological theories can help and offer insights into the interaction between human societies, their culture and mode of economy.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of the course, students will be able to:

• analyze and discuss the core concepts and principles of economic anthropology
• apply concepts of cultural variation and the diversity of perspectives, practices, and beliefs found within each culture
• critically examine traditional and modern economic systems, focusing on how cultural patterns influence consumption and economic structures
• apply anthropological research methods such as participant observation, thick description, fieldwork, and interviewing to investigate and analyze economic practices, including production, exchange, distribution, and consumption, in relation to their cultural, social, and global contexts

Course Assessments and Grading

Course # EAES 4751E

Credits 6

Prerequisites and/or Corequisites:  Information Technology course

Course Description

Programming in Python is an introductory course that covers programming techniques and tools to manipulate, manage, and analyze relevant data. The course focuses on the Python programming language that students will use to solve statistical analysis and GIS problems, apply Machine Learning and Deep Learning techniques, and create a website using Django framework. The tasks will be accomplished by identifying and using existing Python packages as well as appropriate open-source software extensions. The course introduces basic to advanced statistical functions, data visualization, and data manipulation techniques. The relevant functions in data science are explained. The main goal of this course is to give students an understanding of the breadth of different programming applications. In particular, students will be taught how to design and write effective code using Python to perform routine and specialized data manipulation, management, statistical analysis, GIS analysis, and web application development tasks.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, every student will be able to:

• Explain the theoretical concepts of different data types
• Conceptualize and create loops and if/else statements in Python
• Create specialized functions in Python to handle results
• Manipulate data for descriptive statistical analysis in Python
• Use Django framework for development of different types of websites, in particular, a highly customizable app, such as an internet magazine website
• Use special packages, such as panda, to create graphs and convert plain text to formatted text.
• Using the packages NumPy, Matplotlib, Pandas and Skikit-Learn for various mathematical calculations, data manipulation, graphing and creating machine learning algorithms.
• Course Assignments and Grading

Course # 4126E

Credits 6

Prerequisites and/or Corequisites:Principles of Microeconomics or an equivalent course

Course Description

This course introduces undergraduate students in the Global Economics program to the economic, social, environmental, and political realities of mountain regions around the world. It explores how mountain economies are shaped by globalization, tourism, migration, infrastructure, climate change, and regional development policies. Through case studies, class discussions, qualitative analysis, and introductory quantitative exercises, students examine both the challenges and opportunities across mountain regions. The course also encourages research-oriented learning by helping students develop the ability to interpret data, critically discuss development strategies, and connect economic theory with real-world regional issues related to sustainability and territorial development.

Course Learning Outcomes 

Upon the completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Explain the main economic, social, environmental, and political characteristics of mountain regions in a global context.

  Analyze how globalization, tourism, migration, climate change, and public policies influence mountain economies and regional development.

  Compare development trajectories across mountain regions using economic reasoning and empirical evidence.

  Apply basic qualitative and quantitative approaches to examine issues related to sustainability and mountain development.

  Interpret socio-economic and environmental data related to mountain regions and discuss development inequalities and sustainability trade-offs.

  Evaluate policy interventions aimed at promoting sustainable and inclusive development in mountain territories.

  Communicate economic arguments effectively through presentations, discussions, and written analytical work.

Course Assessments and Grading

Course # DMNS 3005E

Credits 6

• TBA