Advanced Seminar Economics, Policy & Econometrics: Productivity, Efficiency and Risk

The performance of various economic units (firms, departments, organisations etc.) is a key question in microeconomics. Such performance can be measured based on various concepts (as e.g. productivity, efficiency, technical change) applying various methods (as e.g. non- parametric data envelopment analysis, parametric stochastic frontier analysis) and different microdatasets. The applied productivity and efficiency literature is constantly evolving, however, seminal contributions are still highly relevant for current scientific work in the field. Hence, this seminar will cover key topics within the field of applied production analysis and performance measurement, such as: production/cost/profit/revenue functions, econometric modelling and estimation of performance functions, empirical requirements in terms of data and framing, interpretation of empirical performance results and quality checks, derivation of management and policy recommendations etc.

Students will study the key concepts in the research field of production economics and quantitative efficiency analysis also considering related risk concepts. The overall aim is to understand and reflect upon the role of microeconomic analysis and modelling in a production context as well as being able to apply stochastic and non-stochastic empirical measurement techniques to produce evidence with regard to the productivity of economic units, various forms of efficiency at firm and sectoral level and related management and policy implications. The seminar uses advanced original economic and empirical research articles for illustrating these concepts and for deriving fundamental insights and recommendations.

Coursework will be based on reading and discussing selected scientific papers. In addition academic elaboration and research on a specific topic related to the seminar's overall theme will be used. Students will be required (i) to summarize the key insights on one of the seminar topics by a written essay (seminar paper), and to (ii) to present their findings in class in a 15-20 minutes presentation. The course examination will consist of these two parts: (i) written seminar paper, and (ii) oral in- class presentation and discussion.

Principles of Economics, Applied Statistics and Econometrics

Students will study selected academic articles related to the assigned topics. Students will be coached by the instructor(s) and perform their own in-depth research of related material, methods and data. Students will identify key research questions, methodological approach, required datasets and derived results and recommendations. Hence, a key objective is to enable students to aquire the ability to comprehend and reflect scientific work in related areas as well as communicate and effectively work in teams.