Syllabus for
Master of Arts (Applied Economics)
Academic Year  (2023)

The MA Applied Economics programme of the Department of Economics in CHRIST (Deemed to be University) aims to form ethically well-grounded students with the ability for incisive reasoning, deep knowledge of economic theory and skill in empirical methodology. One of the highlights of the academic programmes is the emphasis on research-based curriculum and experiential learning. The Programme seeks to strike a sound balance between theory and application along with an interdisciplinary dimension without diminishing the focus on economics. This approach is meant to help students face the dynamic challenges in terms of the market and academics. In line with this approach the programme has a combination of papers related to economic theory, methodology and three streams of specialisations which, on the one hand meet the needs of corporate employment and on the other create the ability of applying economic theory to development problems of the world. More specifically students will be equipped to take up careers in academics, teaching, research, business consulting and analytics, civil society and activist organisations, the public sector, government services and international civil services.

Programme Outcome/Programme Learning Goals/Programme Learning Outcome:

PO2: Identify and critically examine the issues concerning economic, institutional and social structures by problematising and raising reflective questions for academic inquiry.

PO3: Exhibit ability to independently carry out a research project using tools and skills acquired through research methodology, statistics, and econometrics.

PO4: Demonstrate expertise in soft skills that will enable them to communicate effectively and engage with their peers, work spaces and community at large.

PO5: Engage with societal problems through informed and active citizenry by undertaking field assignments and projects.

PO6: Recognise and accept plurality of values and understand how individual choices have ethical and wellbeing implications for oneself and others.

PO7: Work with environmental consciousness and gender sensitive values by critically engaging with theories and policy debates in the areas of environmental and gender concerns.

CIAs are composed of three components and carry 50% weightage CIA 1 and 3 are faculty-initiated ones, CIA 2 is the Mid-semester examination. End Semester Exam carries 50% weightage.

The MA Applied Economics programme of the Department of Economics in CHRIST (Deemed to be University) aims to form ethically well-grounded students with the ability for incisive reasoning, deep knowledge of economic theory and skill in empirical methodology. One of the highlights of the academic programmes is the emphasis on research-based curriculum and experiential learning. The Programme seeks to strike a sound balance between theory and application along with an interdisciplinary dimension without diminishing the focus on economics. This approach is meant to help students face the dynamic challenges in terms of the market and academics. In line with this approach the programme has a combination of papers related to economic theory, methodology and three streams of specialisations which, on the one hand meet the needs of corporate employment and on the other create the ability of applying economic theory to development problems of the world. More specifically students will be equipped to take up careers in academics, teaching, research, business consulting and analytics, civil society and activist organisations, the public sector, government services and international civil services.

Programme Outcome/Programme Learning Goals/Programme Learning Outcome:

PO2: Identify and critically examine the issues concerning economic, institutional and social structures by problematising and raising reflective questions for academic inquiry.

PO3: Exhibit ability to independently carry out a research project using tools and skills acquired through research methodology, statistics, and econometrics.

PO4: Demonstrate expertise in soft skills that will enable them to communicate effectively and engage with their peers, work spaces and community at large.

PO5: Engage with societal problems through informed and active citizenry by undertaking field assignments and projects.

PO6: Recognise and accept plurality of values and understand how individual choices have ethical and wellbeing implications for oneself and others.

PO7: Work with environmental consciousness and gender sensitive values by critically engaging with theories and policy debates in the areas of environmental and gender concerns.

CIAs are composed of three components and carry 50% weightage CIA 1 and 3 are faculty-initiated ones, CIA 2 is the Mid-semester examination. End Semester Exam carries 50% weightage.

(1) Locate economics data and provide meaningful economic analysis of this data using
Excel to produce charts, scatter plots, descriptive statistics and simple linear regression.
(2) Understand and interpret tables that present such analysis.
(3) Provide a bridge between introductory statistics and more advanced data analysis courses 

The course is intended to provide a good understanding and base for the students to apply the concepts and methods of microeconomics in the practical field.  A good grasp of microeconomics is vital for managerial decision-making, designing and understanding public policy. The objective of the course is to provide the students with a thorough knowledge and understanding of the foundations of modern economic analysis. This course will equip the students to understand the various aspects of the traditional Microeconomic theory as well as the latest developments in this field and the applications of theories in analysing current economic problems and to develop the ability to synthesize knowledge.

This paper aims at strengthening the knowledge of important macroeconomic variables and their role in determining the equilibrium level of output and employment and provides insights into the factors influencing the capital inflows and outflows in an open economy model. It helps the students to understand the theoretical foundation of macroeconomics and the contribution of different schools of thought to the further development of macroeconomics. The students will be able to critically evaluate the consequences of basic macroeconomic policy options under differing economic conditions.

This course aims to provide basic ideas on how to think as a researcher, the various considerations involved in the practice of social research and how these relate to the strategy and design of research.

The objective of the paper is to make students familiar with theory and application of statistical methods.  This course covers the statistical foundations of data analysis including the statistical theory and its applications in Economics. In particular, this module broadly covers the descriptive statistics, theory of probability, statistical distributions, estimation and hypothesis testing, and non-parametric tests.

This course aims to make students familiar with the famous thinkers and their thoughts that form the basis for current practices and policies; to demonstrate that knowledge is created by the successive building of ideas on earlier ones, and to show how most of the theoretical concepts in economics and policy today have their roots in ideas born centuries before.

Financial economics is the branch of economics concerned with the working of financial markets, such as the stock market and the finances of companies. The course focuses equally on the theoretical framework as well as the practical aspects of the functioning of financial markets. The course is intended to provide an in-depth understanding of the operational issues of the capital and debt market network along with its regulatory framework.

The course aims to deepen students understanding of how economic theory can be applied to policy problems of the agricultural sector; the course is structured based on three stages of Agricultural Productions, namely Pre-production, Production and Post Production so that the students get an overall understanding of the agricultural issues and policy thereof.

The curriculum provides a framework through which students learn data analytics skills, expand their knowledge of Business Analytics, and gain a strategic perspective of the industry. The course is designed around the real-world integration of business disciplines.

The main objective of the paper is to introduce both traditional as well as modern ideas and theoretical concepts in microeconomics. It also deals with a fundamental understanding of market theory, theory of factor pricing, theory of general equilibrium, and welfare economics. It also includes understanding the role of institutions by focusing on transaction costs, absolute property rights, and relative property rights.

This paper aims at strengthening the knowledge of important macroeconomic variables and their role in determining the equilibrium level of output and employment and provides insights into the factors influencing the capital inflows and outflows in an open economy model. It helps the students to understand the theoretical foundation of macroeconomics and the contribution of different schools of thought to the further development of macroeconomics. The students will be able to critically evaluate the consequences of basic macroeconomic policy options under differing economic conditions.

The main objectives of the paper are to train the students to grasp the use of mathematical techniques and operations to analyse economic problems and to initiate students into various economic concepts which are amenable to mathematical treatment.

The course is designed to impart the learning of principles of econometric methods and tools.  This is expected to improve student’s ability to understand of econometrics in the study of economics. This course is intends to provide a thorough and sound understanding of the essential theoretical base, an introduction into the important and useful techniques of modeling and also an understanding of the broad applications of econometrics.

This paper is designed to prepare the students with training in theoretical and practical aspects of Banking and Insurance Science. This paper develops the caliber of the students to understand the banking procedure with its command on money inflow in the market and thereby be more adept in taking up banking sector-related careers. The paper also delves deeply into the working and it intends to equip them to work in life and non-life insurance companies (designing insurance products, valuing financial contracts and investing funds); consultancy (offering advice to occupational pension funds and employee benefit plans); government service (supervising insurance companies and advising on the national insurance)

Course Description 

This course intends to provide knowledge to the students on the basic issues such as productivity, efficiency, capacity utilization and debates involved in the industrial development of India. Industrial Economics is to develop the students’ comprehension of both industry models and their links with practice with a special accent on government policy.

Course Objectives

The objective of the course is to provide a thorough knowledge about the economics of industry in a cogent and analytical manner, particularly in the Indian context. 

This course aims to provide knowledge of the fundamental differences between genders from the economic, biological, anthropological, psychological and feminist perspectives. It also provides the necessary analytical tools to analyze differences in bargaining positions of men and women within households alongside explaining consequences of marriage and declining fertility rates on women’s education, career choices and wellbeing. The course also examines ways in which gender interacts in the labour market realm in addition to describing the position of women in credit markets and entrepreneurial activities.

The objective of the course is to appoint students with open-access software for data analysis. This course covers the usage of Python for data analysis. Students will be appointed with hands-on training on data processing, data visualization, statistics and econometrics analysis, and interpretation.

The basic objective of this course is to deepen their understanding of problems and challenges facing Indian Economy. The course aims to familiarise the students with the structure and concepts of Indian Economy with rigorous application of economic theories.

The course is intended to impart a practical orientation to understanding the developmental issues in developing countries based on theoretical foundations; the course helps to create the skills in identifying issues of underdevelopment and generate practical solutions to them.

The course aims to explain the principles and methods of behavioral economics while contrasting them with standard economic models. It will also provide an understanding of the policy implications of behavioral approaches through case studies.

This course covers time series and panel data econometrics with focus on applications in the field of macroeconomics, international finance and societal issues. The course covers univariate and multivariate models of stationary and nonstationary time series in the time domain. The objective of the course to develop a comprehensive set of tools and techniques for analyzing various forms of univariate and multivariate time series, and for understanding the current literature in applied time series econometrics.

• The students are able to:

  ·         CO1: Demonstrate an understanding of the essential theoretical basis of econometric modeling and broad applications of time series and panel data econometrics in the field of macroeconomics, international finance, and to address societal issues

  ·         CO2: Construct research question into an estimable equation and identify an appropriate econometric method for analyzing the data to get a meaningful explanation.

  ·         CO3: Experiment with EViews statistical package extensively to analyse the time series, panel data models and validate the ability to conduct independent research

This paper is offered as an elective paper in the third semester of MA Applied Economics. It teaches the decision making tools in Quantitative Techniques that are applied in economics and business analysis.

The course aims to cover the broad approaches of ethical inquiry as an essential component of critical thinking in Economics. It would also explore and critique the economic welfare models with its emphasis on efficiency based ethics and outcomes. 

This course aims at:

Introducing the students to the core concepts of health and education in economics. It also provides theoretical and practical knowledge about the components of human capital in the framework of economic theory. The course also helps the students identify and analyze the potential research areas related to health and education, focusing on the India scenario.

The students MA Applied are expected to complete an internship with an Academic (Research) institute/NGO/firm during the summer vacation before joining the programme in the third Semester. This internship provides the students an opportunity to be a part of these productive enterprises in order to understand the organizational structure and to participate in the work that is being carried out. The students are expected to expand their theoretical understanding to the practical scenario of production, marketing, distribution and consumption

This course explores how labor processes operate and how market forces, institutions and sociological forces shape labor market performance and outcomes from a theoretical and empirical perspective.

This course helps to understand the role of government in the economy in the context of business activity, income distribution, economic growth, globalisation, and market failure. The focus of this course is to throw light upon the fundamental public policy questions and the key theoretical and empirical tools of policy analysis in economics. Students also will gain an understanding of the theoretical basis for the arguments for the extension of the public sector. 

CO1: Recognise the relevance of government intervention in the context of market failure.

CO2: Demonstrate knowledge about the various fiscal policy instruments and their relevance in economic stabilization.

CO3: Analyse various issues in the effectiveness of the fiscal policy.

CO4:  Evaluate and compare different fiscal policy interventions and suggest suitable public policy

This course aims at a detailed treatment of the linkage between environment and the natural resource endowment. The economics of exhaustible and renewable resources and their linkages with development also is dealt with in this paper. A detailed understanding of the methodology of economic evaluation is expected from the student.

• They are also expected to be familiar with the practical aspects of pollution abatement

The first part of the course is designed to familiarize students with discussions in international trade theory and policy, reviewing classical theories of international trade and recent developments in the economic literature based on the new trade theories. In addition, it further evaluates the justification usually given for trade restrictions, describes the importance and effects of economic integration and explains the political economy of trade agreements.

The second part of the course aims to familiarize students with concepts and theories related to international finance. The course deals with balance of payments, foreign exchange markets and exchange rate determination. Besides presenting the theory, the course also examines the actual operation of foreign exchange markets. Therefore, it is of great practical relevance for the students.

To inculcate in students the rigour of research work; To imbibe in students the spirit of inquiry; To encourage students to do academic reading of journal articles; To be informed about new developments in the field of economics research.

Service learning is an experiential learning course that combines academic instruction with community service. It is designed to give students the opportunity to apply their knowledge (theoretical) and analytical skills in the field of economics to real-world situations in the arena of skill enhancement, capacity building and raising awareness of programs while addressing community needs. The course aims to develop students' critical thinking, communication, leadership, and social responsibility skills by engaging them in meaningful community service projects.

The course involves a combination of classroom instruction, supervised service projects, and reflective assignments. Students will work with community partners to identify and address the community’s needs in the area of environment, health, finance and other areas of development, develop solutions, and evaluate the impact of their service. They will also participate in classroom discussions, readings, and assignments that explore the social, economic, and political contexts of their service projects.

Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to reflect on their experiences and connect them to their academic learning. They will be asked to critically analyse the needs of the community that their service projects address, reflect on their personal growth and development, and explore the ethical and moral dimensions of their service work.