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Spring 2023 Call for Participation: Live-Streamed Courses in Economics
The University of Central Asia's (UCA) Institute of Public Policy and Administration (IPPA), in cooperation with the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education's Economics Institute (CERGE-EI) Foundation, invites all master level students, faculty members, applied researchers, and other interested individuals to participate in a live-streamed economics course starting in March 2023. Courses will be delivered online from CERGE-EI’s Digital Media Center in Prague and coordinated by UCA from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to allow live streaming to multiple locations. Teaching Assistants from UCA will also provide basic assistance in course delivery.
Costs and Tuition Fees
Courses are offered free of charge to course participants.
Language
The language of instruction for all courses offered by the CERGE-EI Foundation is English. However, we allow for flexibility in using native language when delivering exercise sessions by local instructors.
Course Schedule
In Spring 2023, courses will be offered on Behavioral Economics, Climate Change Economics, Education Economics, Health Economics, Introduction to Data Science. All courses will be conducted in 6-week modules, with the final exam scheduled for Week 7 and the make-up exam scheduled for Week 8. Participants who successfully complete courses will be awarded CERGE-EI Foundation certificates.
Admission Requirements
The program is intensive and rigorous, advanced BA/introductory MA level of Economics knowledge is required. Participants should expect to be challenged and should be able to demonstrate self-motivation. UCA reserves the right to select only those applicants that it believes to have the necessary qualifications and experience to succeed. All courses will require the active participation of all students. Teachers will utilize modern technology to engage students, encourage their active involvement in the course work and class discussions.
Registration
To register for Behavioral Economics and Health Economics courses (registration for the other courses is now closed), please fill in the registration form until March 23, 2023, following the link below:
Courses
Part 1: Climate Change Economics, Education Economics, Introduction to Data Science
Classes: March 6 – April 14, 2023
Final exam week: April 17 – 21, 2023
Make-up exam week: April 24 – 28, 2023
Climate Change Economics
Brief description: Energy is a basic necessity of daily life and a vital input to industry in any society around the world. New technologies, especially renewable power generators such as wind and solar are changing the industry. Also, new climate policies have a growing influence on the economics and practical functioning of the energy systems. , especially the electricity industry. Firstly, the course aims to give a deeper theoretical insight regarding economic externalities (such as global warming). A number of the classical economic instruments are presented, such as Pigovean taxes, cap-and-trade programs, subsidies and mandates. The theory addressed has broad applications, also in the field of public finance and public policy. Secondly, the course gives an overview of the economics of new potential decarbonization technologies, such as hydrogen, heat pumps, electric cars and gas as a transition fuel. Thirdly, the most recent decarbonization developments will be discussed.
Prerequisites: Microeconomics, specifically the topics of consumption, production, supply & demand.
Main instructor: Silvester van Koten, Ph.D.
Silvester is an economist specializing in Economics Experiments and Energy Economics with a special interest in the economics of regulation, market design and energy markets. He holds a Ph.D. in economics (from CERGE-EI) and a MA in Psychology (Utrecht University). Presently, Silvester is a senior researcher at the Department of Economics at the Jan Evangelista Purkyně University, and a research associate at CERGE-EI in Prague. Silvester’s current research appraises the effect of the structure of spot market prices on the forward premium in electricity markets and the effectiveness of self-regulating organizations using theory, computer simulations and economics experiments. In previous research, Silvester analyzed the effects of more transparent financial markets on competition and prices in the EU electricity markets. His work was published in journals such as Energy Economics, Energy Policy, European Economic Review and the Journal of Regulatory Economics.
Teaching assistant: Mariia Ianova
Mariia Ianova is a Research Associate at the Institute of Public Policy and Administration of the University of Central Asia. She holds a BA in Economics from the American University of Central Asia. Her research expertise includes but not limited to the socio-economic development, food security and nutrition, gender, and development economics.
Dates:
Classes: March 6 – April 14, 2023;
Final exam week: April 17 – 21, 2023;
Make-up exam week: April 24 – 28, 2023.
Education Economics
Brief description: The human capital of the population is a key determinant of labor-market success and economic growth. This brings the economics of education to the core of understanding individual and societal economic prosperity. This course introduces students to the key concepts and major issues of economics of education, placing emphasis on current empirical research in the field. Topics include: the basic theory of investments in education (human capital theory) and the role of early childhood education; the returns to education and the empirical problem of disentangling the return to education from the return to innate ability; the role of class size, peer effects and school expenditure, etc. After the course, students are expected to be able to read, understand and discuss current research in economics of education, as well as to contribute to the discussion about the current challenges in education.
Prerequisites: Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Econometrics at introductory level.
Main instructor: Miroslava Federicova, Ph.D.
Miroslava Federicova is a Researcher at CERGE-EI and at IDEA Think Tank. She received her Ph.D. from CERGE-EI in 2016 and holds also MA in Mathematics of economics and finance from the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. Miroslava’s research is focused on economics of education, applied microeconomics and microeconometrics, specializing in inequalities in education with a special interest in the effect of school system on inequalities in educational opportunities.
Teaching assistant: Madina Junussova, Ph.D.
Madina Junussova is a Senior Research Fellow at UCA's Institute of Public Policy and Administration and a CERGE-EI Foundation Teaching Fellow. She is a member of the International Public Policy Association and the International Society of City and Regional Planners (Isocarp). Dr. Junussova holds a PhD in Public Policy from Carleton University and degrees in architecture, urban and regional planning awarded by the Ministry of Education and Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Dates:
Classes: March 6 – April 14, 2023;
Final exam week: April 17 – 21, 2023;
Make-up exam week: April 24 – 28, 2023.
Introduction to Data Science
Brief description: This course provides an introduction to data science as a profession and focuses on the theoretical methodologies of the most widely applied machine learning models. The main topics covered include: data preparation (data mining, cleaning and exploring strategies), statistical modeling with the application of appropriate machine learning methodologies (data segmentation, predictive analytics), and mathematical evaluation (test-train split and accuracy measures).
Prerequisites: Statistics and Econometrics at introductory levels, experience with at least one programming language for statistical data analytics (Python, R, or others).
Main instructor: Vahan Sargsyan, Ph.D.
Vahan Sargsyan is a full time Data Scientist working with big data and implementing machine learning technologies in a cloud-based computer software company. He received his Ph.D. from CERGE-EI in 2019 and also holds a Master degree in Economics from the International School of Economics at TSU, Georgia, and a Master degree in marketing from the Armenian State Agrarian University, Armenia. Vahan also held a 6-month traineeship at the European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA) in 2017-2018, where he was enrolled in data analytics and scientific evaluation of research applicants. During his Ph.D. studies, his research was focused on empirical economics, migration and labor economics, specializing in work discrimination.
Teaching assistant: Baimat Niiazaliev
Baimat Niiazaliev, Junior Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Policy and Administration of the University of Central Asia. He holds MSc in Economic Analysis from the Corvinus University of Budapest in Hungary. His expertise includes agricultural economics, food security, poverty.
Dates:
Classes: March 6 – April 14, 2023;
Final exam week: April 17 – 21, 2023;
Make-up exam week: April 24 – 28, 2023.
Part 2: Behavioral Economics, Health Economics
Classes: May 1 – June 9, 2023
Final exam week: June 12 – 16, 2023
Make-up exam week: June 19 – 23, 2023
Behavioral Economics
Brief description: This course aims to provide students with the basics of main behavioral theories and empirical methods commonly used to test theoretical predictions. The list of topics includes social preferences, time inconsistency, prospect theory, behavioral finance, attention and information acquisition, and other behavioral heuristics and biases. Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to understand the conceptual framework of behavioral economics and its tools, recognize behavioral biases and apply insights from psychology when predicting or analyzing economic decision-making.
Prerequisites: Microeconomics, Probability theory and Statistics at an introductory level.
Main instructor: Aleksandr Levkun, Ph.D.
Aleksandr Levkun is an economic theorist specializing in Information Economics. He received his Ph.D. from the Economics Department at the University of California San Diego in 2022. Aleksandr’s research focuses on the strategic mediation of information.
Teaching assistant: Madina Junussova, Ph.D.
Madina Junussova is a Senior Research Fellow at UCA's Institute of Public Policy and Administration and a CERGE-EI Foundation Teaching Fellow. She is a member of the International Public Policy Association and the International Society of City and Regional Planners (Isocarp). Dr. Junussova holds a PhD in Public Policy from Carleton University and degrees in architecture, urban and regional planning awarded by the Ministry of Education and Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Dates:
Classes: May 1 – June 9, 2023;
Final exam week: June 12 – 16, 2023;
Make-up exam week: June 19 – 23, 2023.
Health Economics
Brief description: This course provides an introduction to Health Economics. As such, it will cover the production and demand for healthcare, how the determinants of demand and supply affect the costs of various types of healthcare services and the individual, family, and market investments in health. The field uses the tools of microeconomics and econometrics to examine both theoretically and empirically a number of topics, including the role of health insurance, healthcare in developing countries, and risky behavior.
Prerequisites: Intermediate Microeconomics and Basic Econometrics.
Main instructor: Eva Hromadkova, Ph.D.
Eva Hromadkova is an Expert Analyst of the Economy at the Czech National Bank, the Monetary and Statistics Department since 2011. She received her Ph.D. from CERGE-EI, spending more than a year of her studies as a visiting researcher at the National Bureau of Economic Research in New York. Between 2017 and 2022, she served as Program Director of the Master’s in Applied Economics Program at CERGE-EI. Ms. Hromadkova’s research has concentrated on health care systems, in her work she focuses on analyses of household behavior and firm credit. She has taught a variety of subjects, including health economics, labor economics, and advanced macroeconomics.
Teaching assistant: Saule Chalbasova
Saule Chalbasova is a Research Associate at the Institute of Public Policy and Administration (IPPA) of University of Central Asia (UCA). She holds a Master’s degree in International Law and Economics from the World Trade Institute, University of Bern, Switzerland. Saule’s research focuses on Central Asian socio-economic development, international trade and agriculture.
Dates:
Classes: May 1 – June 9, 2023;
Final exam week: June 12 – 16, 2023;
Make-up exam week: June 19 – 23, 2023.
About the University of Central Asia (UCA) and UCA's IPPA
The University of Central Asia (UCA) was founded in 2000 as a private, not for profit, secular university through an International Treaty signed by the Presidents of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan, and His Highness the Aga Khan; ratified by their respective parliaments and registered with the United Nations. As a university focused on the development of mountain societies, UCA's undergraduate programmes are located at its purpose-built world class residential campuses in Naryn, Kyrgyzstan, and Khorog, Tajikistan near the Tien Shan and Pamir mountains respectively. Established in 2011, UCA's Institute of Public Policy and Administration (IPPA) strengthens public policy making in Central Asia. It provides in-depth analysis of current and emerging policy issues facing the region and works on improving the analytical capacity of governments and civil society to use evidence-based decision-making through professional development. IPPA is part of University of Central Asia’s GraduateSchool of Development.
About CERGE-EI and the CERGE-EI Foundation
The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education (CERGE) was established in 1991 in the Czech Republic to offer a western-style PhD in Economics to students from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It subsequently formed a joint workplace with the Economics Institute (EI) of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Today, CERGE-EI offers two additional master level programs: one-year long Masters in Applied Economics and two-years long Masters in Economic Research. All faculty are western-trained and CERGE-EI graduates receive degrees that are recognized in the EU and in the US. The CERGE-EI Foundation is a major financial supporter of CERGE-EI and, through its Teaching Fellows Program, supports western-trained economists teaching at universities across the region.
