İSTANBUL 29 MAYIS UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES
THE UNDERGRADUATE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
ECON 101: Principles of Economics I
The primary objective of this course is to introduce to the students the fundamental concepts of economic analysis. At the beginning of the course, scarcity will be emphasized as the key concept providing the rationale for economics as a social science. Afterwards, problems that have to be solved by an economic system will be enumerated and the role of the price system in the solution of these problems will be highlighted. This will set the stage for the discussion of opportunity cost, the production possibility frontier, marginal cost and marginal benefit. Subsequently the standard topics of microeconomics such as market supply and market demand, elasticity of demand and supply, theory of the consumer, theory of production, theory of cost and the theory of the perfectly competitive firm will be discussed in succession. The course will end with a brief discussion of different types of market structures such as monopolistic competition, monopoly, oligopoly and their welfare implications.
ECON 102: Principles of Economics II
The primary objective of this course is to introduce to the students the key concepts underlying macroeconomics. While microeconomics investigates the conditions necessary to attain an efficient allocation of resources, macroeconomic policy aims to attain the full utilization of resources. Moreover, inflation control, the proper management of the balance of payments and the maintenance of a sustainable rate of economic growth are the other key objectives of macroeconomic policy. The course is structured in the framework of an aggregative general equilibrium model consisting of the product, labor, asset and foreign exchange markets. Each of these markets will be investigated in depth and the welfare implications of alternative economic policies will be highlighted. The course will end with a discussion of the unemployment-inflation trade off and the effectiveness of fiscal and monetary policies under different scenarios.
ECON 103: Management I
This course covers the fundamentals of management and focuses mainly on the technical skills in management. The theories and principles of organization and management as well as their application in business and industry are discussed. The functions of management and the relative merits of different forms of business ownership are a part of the course coverage. The main topics covered in the course are the management environment, strategic management, organizational structure and functions of management such as planning, organizing, staffing, directing and control.
ECON 104: Management II
In view of the fact that, in the current business environment, managing people with various backgrounds and motives is a challenging issue, this course focuses mainly on the soft skills needed to perform well in a management position. These can be enumerated as analytical thinking, decision making and human skills such as managing individuals and allowing them to realize their potential. The course aims to provide students with an understanding of effective team formation and skills to manage the team members’ performance.
ECON 105: Mathematics for Economists I
Introduction of basic mathematical tools used in economic analysis; present value and discounting; multivariate differential calculus; unconstrained and constrained optimization; difference equations; dynamic optimization.
ECON 106: Mathematics for Economists II
Economic dynamics and integral calculus, differential equations; simultaneous differential and difference equations and their applications to economic problems, business cycles and growth models.
ECON 201: Intermediate Microeconomics
A mathematical treatment of contemporary theories of consumer demand, firm behavior, price and wage determination in different market structures, strategic interaction among economic agents, decision making under uncertainty; welfare economics. The input markets, where economic resources are bought and sold, will be investigated by studying the monopsonistic market power of a resource buyer. Subsequently, general equilibrium analysis will be introduced, where economic interaction among different markets is formally analyzed. Several causes of market failures such as asymmetric information, market power, consumption and production externalities and public goods will also be studied. Some of the policy measures that attempt to rectify these failures will also be discussed along with many real world examples that illustrate these theoretical models.
ECON 202: Intermediate Macroeconomics
The course is a survey of macroeconomic theory at the intermediate level, emphasizing a model building approach. After a review of national income accounting, the ISLM model will be introduced. This model will set the framework for the analysis of fiscal and monetary policies. Aggregate demand and aggregate supply curves will be derived so as to analyze the inflation-unemployment trade off under different behavioral assumptions. Subsequently the course focuses on a dynamic analysis including the factors that affect the growth of output, capital stock and technology, saving, investment, technology, human capital, research and development and social and political institutions.
ECON 203: Statistics for Economists I
The course deals with frequency distributions, measures of central tendency and variability, basic theorems of probability, independent and joint events, conditional probability, discrete probability distributions, normal distributions, sampling distributions and sample drawing techniques necessary for economic analysis.
ECON 204: Statistics for Economists II
The course deals with principles of point estimation, properties of point estimators, techniques of estimation, optimality criteria in estimation, interval estimation, hypothesis testing, comparison tests for independent and paired samples, multiple comparisons, non-parametric methods, regression, correlation, analysis of variance and elementary time series analysis necessary for economic analysis.
ECON 205: Current Topics in Economics I
This course aims to teach students to examine current economic issues through consideration and application of basic microeconomic and macroeconomic concepts. Specifically, students will learn to research, integrate, and communicate qualitative and quantitative information about national, regional and global economic problems and policies. Further, students will be expected to compose and present their seminar paper and to discuss the research results with their classmates.
ECON 206 Current Topics in Economics II
This course is intended to teach students how to integrate the material from diverse areas linked to economics while dealing with economic issues; and to use the preparation and presentation techniques of written research reports. Students will subsequently deliver to the seminar an oral presentation of their research results of a selected economic subject. Other students will be expected to write a critic on the research results.
ECON 207: Fundamental Concepts of Law
The course aims to teach students the basic principles of law and the legal system of Turkey. The legal rules and their difference from other rules of social conduct will be analysed. Sources of law and the hierarchy of enacted law will be explained within the framework of Turkish and continental European legal systems. Types of sanction according to the different branches of law will be discussed. After examining the basic principles of law, different branches of law will be introduced and briefly discussed. Especially, constitutional law, administrative law, law of persons, law of obligations, criminal law and law of civil procedure will be studied in the framework of the Turkish legal system. Comparative legal systems will be discussed while examining various legal issues during the term.
ECON 208: Business Law
Legal transactions, classification of contracts, formation of contracts, offer and acceptance, contractual capacity, reality of consent; fictitious transactions; voidable contracts: mistake, fraud, duress, unconscionable bargain; subject matter of the contracts (illegal bargains). Representation, performance of contracts, remedies for breach of contracts, modalities of obligations: conditional contracts, joint liability and rights; third party beneficiary contracts.
Scope of commercial law, commercial enterprises, commercial transactions, assignment, commercial papers (drafts, checks, notes), partnerships (ordinary and general), stock corporations, different kinds of contracts (sale, agency, leasing, factoring, etc.), law of torts, quasi contracts (unjust enrichment), introduction of law of property and succession; conflict of laws.
ECON 209: Financial Accounting I
Introduction to basic concepts and principles of accounting, accounting and bookkeeping; the balance sheet equation, effects of transactions on the accounting equation, double-entry bookkeeping, concept of debit and credit, the general journal and posting of transactions, preparing a trial balance, adjusting the accounts and preparing the income statement and balance sheet, merchandising concern, detailed analysis of basic accounts: cash, accounts receivable and notes receivable, inventories and inventory valuation methods.
ECON 210: Financial Accounting II
Accounting for tangible and intangible assets, accounting for natural resources, depreciation theory, depreciation methods, depreciation applications in Turkey, current and long-term liabilities, payroll accounting and its applications in Turkey, partnership and corporations, cash flow and analyzing financial statements.
ECON 301: Public Finance
The main objective of the course is to provide an understanding of government intervention in the economy when faced with market failure. The course has two complementary pars: Part I focuses on the analysis of public goods versus private goods, externalities, decreasing costs. There will be an in depth analysis of the causes of government expenditure growth and the budget system along with a detailed discussion of cost-benefit analysis. Part II begins with a discussion of taxation principles, tax incidence and optimal taxation. Subsequently, fiscal policy and stabilization and fiscal multiplier models will be discussed. The course will also focus on the effectiveness of stabilization policies in the open economy. Finally, the debate on the effectiveness of fiscal versus monetary policy will be taken up.
ECON 303: Econometrics I
The Simple Regression Model: basic assumption, estimation and tests of hypotheses, the coefficient of determination, regression through the origin, prediction, functional forms and the problem of choosing between them. The Multiple Regression Model: Estimation, hypothesis testing and prediction, functional forms and specification error analysis, multicollinearity.
ECON 304: Econometrics II
Dummy Variables: testing structural change, estimating the prediction error variance, seasonal adjustment and pooling cross sectional and time series data. Lagged Variables: the polynomial distributed lag and the geometric distributed lag. Autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity. Simultaneous equations: identification and single-equation estimation.
ECON 305: International Economics I
The objective of this course is to introduce to the students the basic concepts in the pure theory of international trade. Topics covered will include the Ricardian theory of international trade (law of comparative cost), the standard theory of international trade, demand, supply, offer curves and the terms of trade, factor endowments and the Heckscher-Ohlin theory, trade restrictions such as tariffs and nontariff trade barriers and forms of economic integration such as customs unions and free trade areas.
ECON 306: International Economics II
The objective of this course is to introduce to the students the monetary theory of international trade and the policies that emanate from this theory. Topics covered will include balance of payments analysis under different exchange rate regimes, income determination in a small open economy and the the basic Keynesian and Mundell-Fleming models. The relative merits of fixed, flexible and hybrid exchange rate regimes will be discussed. The course will end with a discussion of the evolution of the international monetary system and the prospects for its future.
ECON 401: Economic Growth and Development
The course will focus on a comparative analysis of developed and developing countries, models of growth and development, planning techniques, development policies, investment criteria and resource allocation. A key objective of the course is to identify major economic problems affecting less developed economies and to show how economic analysis can be used to identify the obstacles to development and to formulate appropriate policies for their removal.
ECON 402: International Political Economy
The rationale for international political economy (IPE) arises from the fact that many important issues facing the international community cannot be understood properly within the boundaries of the traditional disciplines such as economics, political science or sociology. IPE transcends these boundaries by invoking an interdisciplinary approach appropriate to the problems under consideration. The course will begin by a survey of the IPE paradigms which have held sway over the last several hundred years, focusing on the mercantilist, liberal and Marxian paradigms. This will be followed by a study of the evolution of the international monetary system in the postwar period, culminating with the collapse of the Bretton Woods system and the emergence of globalization. The changing roles of the IMF and the GATT/WTO regimes after globalization will be emphasized. Finally, the issue of sovereign debt will be investigated in a comparative framework with reference to the debt crisis of the less developed countries in the 1980s and the current debt crisis facing Greece as a member of the European Monetary Union.
ECON 403: Money and Banking I
The course will begin with an introduction of the definition, functions and classification of money. Subsequently, there will be a discussion of the determination of the supply of and the demand for money and the theories aiming to explain changes in the price level. This will be followed by a discussion of money creation, the money multiplier, velocity of circulation of money and the money base. The course will end with a historical overview of the international monetary system and exchange rate regimes.
ECON 404: Money and Banking II
The course will begin with a discussion of the financial system. Financial institutions will be examined in two categories as commercial banks and other financial institutions. The financial markets where financial institutions are situated will be examined under the headings of money and capital markets. The derivative markets involving futures, forward transactions, options and swaps as well as the regulatory authorities empowered to ensure the smooth functioning of financial institutions and financial markets will also be discussed. Subsequently, the focus will shift to the discussion of the structure and functioning of the central bank which holds a key position in the conduct of monetary policy. Central bank balance sheet analysis will be strongly emphasized to reinforce a good understanding of central bank operations and monetary policy. To this end, an effort will be made, in addition, to teach the analysis of balance of payments statistics and monetary and economic data published by various institutions in terms of examples.
Area Elective Courses
ECON 321: Principles of Islamic Economics
Islamic Economics has widely been accepted as a discipline in many universities in Muslim countries. Nevertheless, the progress in Islamic Economic Theory is still very limited. Muslim scholars try to underline economic principles, to develop interest-free financing and investment models. Provisions in Islamic Law regarding economical and financial issues do still form the backbone of the field. This course being introductory will include Islamic Economic System, Islamic Economic Theory, History of Islamic Economic Thought, and Islamic Economic Policy. Islamic Finance, and Economic History of Muslim Peoples will be excluded.
ECON 323: States, Markets and Global Capitalism
This course provides a broad analysis of comparative political economy and it helps to understand the global capitalist marketplace in the 21st century in different forms. The course relies on broad-ranging empirical examples throughout and relates classical issues to current international affairs.
ECON 325: History of Financial Crisis
The primary objective of this course is to examine the financial crisis beginning from The Tulip Mania of 1637 and ending with the Great Meltdown of 2008. The course allows students, on the one hand, to observe that the studied financial crisis follow a historical pattern and have a recurring nature and, on the other hand, to seek an answer to why can’t we avoid making the same mistakes over and over again if history repeats itself? The lessons should help students approach contemporary problems and economic policy with an open mind and widen their perspective. The historical evidence enables students to see the big picture in a very long-run perspective.
ECON 327: Competition Law and Policy
This course is designed to teach students an understanding of the economics of anti-trust (or competition) policy as well as provide students a general overview of legal terminology with regard to competition law in Turkey compared to Europe and the United States.
ECON329: Data Mining and Visualization
Topics include Data mining theory and algorithms, Programming data mining algorithms, Acquiring, parsing, filtering, mining, representing, refining and interacting with data, Data visualization. The goal of this course is to understand and to be able to programmatically apply the basic concepts of data mining.
ECON331: Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence and Block Chain
Introduction to Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence and the concept of Block Chain. Analysis of the technological developments in the context of Industry 4.0. Analysis of the effects of contemporary advancements in the areas of Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence and Block Chain systems on the state, government’s economic policies and market economy. This course aims at providing an analytical introduction to the topics of Industry 4.0, Artificial Intelligence and Block Chain systems with relevant examples of applications within a wide range of domains.
ECON 322: Principles of Islamic Finance
Following a brief on the economic principles of Islam and economic history of Islamic society, the theory, practice and problems of Islamic finance will be examined. A particular attention will be given to the use of Islamic financial instruments and their relative market performance. Finally, Islamic finance in the world and the future of Islamic finance will be discussed.
ECON 324: Introduction to Marketing
The objective of the course is to introduce students to the basic principles underlying marketing theory and practice. Marketing principles are examined in relation to wide variety of products and services.
ECON 326: Economics of Innovation and Technological Change
This course will provide an in depth analysis of the fundamental features and role of innovation and technical change in the contemporary economies. It will cover subjects about innovation economics and technological developments including the impact of innovation on growth and development, industrial dynamics, business strategies, and public policies, among others.
ECON 328: Corporate Law
This course is designed to teach students the legal structure and regulation of commercial organization and in particular registered companies. It will also provide an understanding of the corporate governance and provide a general overview concerning Merger and Acquisitions law in Turkey compared to Europe and the United States.
ECON 330: Principles of Financial Management
The student examines the general nature of financial management, financial system worldwide, taxes, and the major financial decisions of corporations. Specific attention is given to present value and capital budgeting; risk and asset pricing; financial analysis and forecasting; financial decisions and market efficiency; and capital structure. Problem-solving methodology is used to illustrate the theories and tools in financial decision making.
ECON 332: Big-Data Analytics
This course is designed to introduce students the big-data ecosystem (involving storage, processing and analyze of big-data), to provide essential skills to evaluate and apply appropriate principles, techniques and theories to large-scale data problems, and to teach the use of common machine learning algorithms in predictive analytics with open source analytic tools such as Python.
ECON 421: Game Theory
The course covers the core concepts in game theory. Game theory is, simply, a method of studying strategic situations, in which the welfare of one agent depends not only on her/his own action but also on other agents’ actions - more precisely on their ‘strategies’. Besides economics, the application and use of game theory can be observed also in business, political science, law and international relations, which make game theory an important subject.
ECON 423: Business Forecasting
This course is dedicated to teaching students tools in econometrics that are especially useful in forecasting business time series such as sales, expenditures as well as financial time series such as stock exchange, currency market.
ECON 425: Mathematics of Finance and Valuation
The course will provide the student with an introduction to the concepts of the base of the financial computation such as financial mathematics, portfolio theory, capital asset pricing. This course addresses both the theory and application of investment topics. The course addresses the differences between the basic types of capital market instruments and how they fit in the total portfolio picture. The course also covers how to analyze capital market assets, decide if they should be included in an investment portfolio, and how to buy and sell them.
ECON 427: Natural Resource Economics and Policy
The course will provide a policy oriented coverage for natural resource economics and related policy making. Some of the subjects that will be covered include valuing the environment, externalities, and environmental problems, sustainable development, the population problem, stationary-source local and regional air pollution; climate change; transportation; water pollution; managing waste; development, poverty, and the environment; the quest for unsuitable development.
ECON 429: Applied Macroeconomics
This course is intended to apply time series and panel data analysis methods to macroeconomic models. Throughout the semester students will design and work on projects to apply econometric techniques for GDP forecasting or currency rate prediction with real life data.
ECON 431: Turkish Economy
The structural characteristics of the Turkish economy will be briefly discussed. Then in-depth analyses of current topics and problems in Turkish economy will be undertaken. The focus will be given on the place of Turkish economy in the World and on the expectations for its future. In this framework, Turkish economy will be examined through the indicators such as growth and development dynamics, main sectoral contribution to national income, cyclical growth performance, employment issues, unemployment problem, the inflationist trends, well-being and social security level, public finance performance, development in monetary policy and credit market, external economic relations, , balance of payment and current account deficit.
ECON433: Applied Machine Learning
This course provides a broad introduction to machine learning based on an intensive application oriented, real-world scenario. Topics include: (i) Supervised learning (Regression: GLM, Ridge, Lasso, ElasticNet; Classification: KNN, Bayes, Logistic Regression, Decision Trees, Random Forest, SVM, Kernel and Neural Networks), (ii) Unsupervised learning (Clustering: K-Means, Hiearchical clustring; Association Rules: Apriori; Dimention Reduction: PCA and Deep Learning), (iii) Model evaluation (bias/variance theory; evaluation metrics).
This course aims at providing a theoretical basis for machine learning and its use with examples of applications within a wide range of domains.
ECON 422: Behavioral Economics
The course aims to provide students a grounding in the main areas of behavioral economics, by focusing on behavioral implications of theoretical models and on experimental evidence in economics. These main areas include bounded rationality, decision-making under risk and uncertainty, preferences, intertemporal decision-making, behavioral game theory and emotions. For each area, the focus will be on the important outcomes of the previous empirical and experimental studies.
ECON 424: Financial Econometrics
Financial Econometrics deals with estimating the parameters of the behavior of financial time series, testing hypotheses on how financial markets generate the series of interests, and forecasting future of financial time series. This course covers essential tools for working with financial data (asset prices, exchange rates, interest rate, etc.) including the return forecasting, volatility and econometrics of asset pricing, such as testing the market models. We focus on the empirical techniques which are mostly used in the analysis of financial markets and how they are applied to actual data.
ECON 426: Portfolio Management
The course examines the theory and practice of investment and portfolio management. Successful completion of the course will allow students to make use of available information on financial markets, at both the macro and micro levels. It will also give students the ability to construct an investment portfolio that is sound in terms of investment principles and portfolio performance.
ECON 428: The Economics of the European Union
This course will investigate the economics of the European Union (EU) in three parts. The first part deals with regional integration theories where the economic effects and the fundamental dynamics of regionalization, static and dynamic effects of customs unions and the customs union treaty between Turkey and the EU will be discussed. The second part will be devoted to a study of the EU institutions, the emergence of the single market and the structure of the EU budget. The third part will investigate theoretical issues such as economic and monetary union and optimum exchange rate areas in the historical context of “snake in the tunnel”, the European Monetary System (EMS) and the Maastricht Treaty. Finally, a cost- benefit analysis of a single currency will be discussed in the context of the European Monetary Union (EMU), highlighting the recent problems faced by the Eurozone countries.
ECON 430: Labor Economics
To introduce the concepts, issues and policies related to the labor market by analyzing the operations of the labor market and its results from a theoretical and an empirical perspective.
ECON 432: Industrial Organization
Industrial Organization studies the causes and effects of different market structures, and analyses strategic interactions among firms in imperfectly competitive markets. The firms’ choices of price, quantity, quality, capacity and other strategic variables in imperfectly competitive markets to acquire market power, and the assessment of those choices on market efficiency will be the focus of the course. The issues that will be covered include oligopoly, cartels, anti-competitive practices, network industries, mergers, anti-trust and regulation.
ECON434: Digital Marketing, Web and Social Media Analytics
The effect of web and social media analytics in digital marketing; the use of information and data flow over the web and social media to measure and model the online consumer behavior; evaluation of customer data in decision-making processes; the common open source tools used in web and social media analytics; and case studies with these tools are the main topics of this course.
