A four year honours degree is normally required to obtain the necessary exposure to the appropriate range of specialist courses in economics and the necessary research experience in order to take up a career as an economist.

Economics honours consists of a research project plus EIGHT course modules from the following.
COMPULSORY COURSES

CODE, COURSE, SEMESTER OFFERED

ECO 401, Research project, 1 & 2
ECO 418, Microeconomics , 1
ECO 403, Macroeconomics, 1
ELECTIVE COURSES

SIX courses are selected from the following list:

CODE, COURSE, SEMESTER OFFERED

ECO 402, Mathematical Economics, 2
ECO 404, Econometrics, 2
ECO 405, Monetary Economics, 1
ECO 406, Growth and Technology, 1
ECO 407, Financial Economics, 2
ECO 408, Labour Economics, 1
ECO 409, Development Economics, 2
ECO 410, Environmental & Resource Economics, 1
ECO 414, Derivatives, Financial Market Regulation and Efficiency, 2
ECO 415, Public bet36体育投注_bet36体育在线—激情赢盈中√, 1
ECO 416, Industrial Organization, 1
ECO 417 Any other paper approved by the Department

NB: Not all the above courses will be offered in any one year. Economics Honours can be taken full-time or part-time.

TWO compulsory and TWO elective courses will normally be taken per semester. Examinations are written in June and November. The research project is completed over the whole year (full-time) and over 2 years (part-time) and should be handed in by 1 October in order to be examined in November.

A student is permitted to take a paper from another department to the maximum weight of 0,2.

Students who have not done Econometrics at the third-year level, are allowed to take ECO 315 in lieu of one of the elective honours courses
INTERDISCIPLINARY HONOURS DEGREE IN
DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

The degree consists of FOUR papers and a long research essay from participating departments.

ECO 401 - RESEARCH PROJECT

* A research project of limited scope (of not more than 15 000 words) on an approved topic in economics to be selected by 31 March, handed in by 1 October, involving either a a theoretical analysis or an application of economics
* Empirical work is strongly recommended
* A presentation of results is to be made at a departmental seminar
* Candidates are encouraged to present a paper at an economic conference

ECO 402 – MATHEMATICAL ECONOMICS

* Analytic and mathematical models in economics
* linear models
* Leontief input-output analysis
* Optimisation - single and several variables with constraints
* Consumer theory
* Demand theory
* Expenditure minimisation
* Production theory
* Profit maximisation
* Equilibrium and its basic welfare properties
* Dynamical models of economic processes

ECO 403 – MACROECONOMICS

* The evolution of ideology and the economy in the 20th Century: South Africa and the world economy through the lens of macroeconomic thought
* Growth theory
* Keynes and the Keynesians
* Neo-Walrasian economics (new Classical and new Keynesian economics)
* Policital economy

ECO 404 – ECONOMETRICS

* Dummy dependent variables: LPM, logit, probit and tobit models
* Panel data regression models: fixed versus random effects approaches
* Dynamic econometric models: distributed-lag and autoregressive models
* Time series econometrics: stationarity, unit roots, cointegration and the error correction mechanism
* Simultaneous equation systems: simultaneous equation bias
* The identification problem
* The methods of indirect and two-stage least squares

ECO 405 - MONETARY ECONOMICS

* The monetary sector
* Money and credit
* Monetary theory (classical, Keynesian, portfolio models and post Keynesian)
* The demand for money
* The transmission mechanism
* The money supply process
* Theory and application of the definition of money
* Monetary policy
* Monetary control in South Africa
* Monetary vs inflation targeting

ECO 406 - GROWTH AND TECHNOLOGY

* Technology and macroeconomic growth models
* Technical change and the economic system
* The sources of innovation
* The new manufacturing technologies
* International differences in growth and technology
* National systems of innovation
* Foreign direct investment and multinational corporations in developing countries
* Technology and industrial policy: government intervention in the market
* South Africa: a case study

ECO 407 - FINANCIAL ECONOMICS

* Financial markets and the economy
* Portfolio theory
* Interest rate theory
* Capital market theory and the valuation of assets (the capital asset pricing model and arbitrage pricing)
* Pricing of bonds and equities
* The cost of capital, corporate finance and investment
* Money, bond and equity markets

ECO 408 - LABOUR ECONOMICS

* Perspectives on labour
* Neoclassical fundamentals
* Monopoly, monopsony and the economics of information
* Traditional systems of industrial relations
* Labour and the law in South Africa
* Trade and labour
* New workforms
* Global trends in flexible labour
* Labour and the law in the global economy

ECO 409 - DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS

* Meaning and measurement of development
* Theories of economic development: classical perspective and alternative perspectives on development (dependency theory etc)
* human rights; poverty
* Famine
* Entitlement and deprivation
* Role of the state in development
* Role of foreign aid
* The debt crisis
* Structural adjustment programs
* Post-Washington consensus
* Globalization
* Urban bias theory and rural development

ECO 410 - ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS

* The application of economic principles to the valuation of environmental services and of degradation;
* The Environmental Kuznets Curve
* Global Warming
* Natural resource valuation issues
* Economic sustainability
* The development of Environmental Economics and of Ecological Economics

ECO 414 - DERIVATIVES, FINANCIAL MARKET REGULATION AND EFFICIENCY

* Types of futures contracts
* Pricing of futures and the futures market
* Options
* Pricing of options including the Black-Scholes model
* The regulation of financial markets
* Banking supervision and financial market efficiency

ECO 416 - INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION

* Origins of industrial organization.
* The Principle of total costs.
* The active firm, transaction costs and the firm market entry barriers
* Product differentiation
* Absolute cost advantages
* Economies of scale
* Imperfections in capital markets
* Theory of contestable markets.
* The paradigm of market Structure – Conduct – Performance
* Alternative theories of a complex firm
* Organization and economic efficiency
* Behavioural theory of the firm
* Agency theory
* Economics of transaction costs
* Evolutionary theory
* Recent developments in industrial organization

ECO 418 – MICROECONOMICS

* Introduction to game theory, oligopoly and bargaining
* Bounded rationality and private information
* Moral hazard and performance incentives
* Risk sharing and incentive contracts, rents and efficiency, ownership and property rights
* Production, information costs and economic organization
* Auction theory
* Intertemporal microeconomics
* Outlook on industrial organization and on recent developments in microeconomics

CAREER INFORMATION

Combining the Honours electives for a focused career as economist

•Economic Growth & Development Economist
Development Economics
Growth & Technology
Labour Economics
Capita Selecta from Economic History

•Banking and Financial Markets Economist
Financial Economics
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Industrial Organisation

•Public Sector Economist
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Development Economics
Growth & Technology

•Economic Planner/Forecaster
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International Trade Policy
Growth & Technology
Industrial organisation

•Specialist in International Economic Affairs
International Trade Policy
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Financial Economics
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•Labour Economist
Labour Economics
Development Economics
Growth & Technology
Capita Selecta from Economic History

Last Modified: Thu, 25 May 2017 16:28:58 SAST