Course Catalogue

This course is designed for graduate students interested in international trade, labor economics, development economics, applied econometrics, and the Chinese Economy. Our first goal is to provide an introduction to a set of important topics related to the economic development of China so that students have a good understanding of the Chinese Economy and China’s impact on the rest of the world. A tentative list of topics includes China’s trade liberalization, the US-China trade war, China’s population control policy and its impact on China’s economic development, labor market dynamics (wage, employment, and human capital accumulation), agricultural reforms, and firm reforms. The second goal is to present the empirical tools used to test related economic theories in the context of China and to discuss the empirical relevance of related theories. We will emphasize the conceptual issues and basic statistical techniques, such as instrumental variable strategy and differences-in-differences-type strategies. Students will also get familiar with several widely used Chinese datasets and learn how to conduct empirical analysis. Our third goal is to introduce frontier researches to students. We will draw on some recent academic papers from international trade, labor economics, finance, development economics, macroeconomics, and economic growth, which will allow students to have a good understanding of cutting-edge researches and help students outline future research questions.