M.Phil. (Economics) Course - Syllabus and Subjects

Units

Subjects of Study

I

Demand Analysis –Revision of demand theory by Hicks; Characteristics of goods approach; consumer’s choice involving risk; Indirect utility functions (duality theory); Recent developments in demand analysis (pragmatic approach and linear expenditure systems).

II

Alternative Theories of the Firm -Critical evaluation of marginal analysis; Baumol’s sales revenue maximization model; Williamson’s model of managerial discretion; Marris model of the managerial enterprise; Full cost pricing rule; Bain’s limit pricing theory and its recent developments including Sylos-Labini’s model; Behavioural model of the firm; Game theoretic models.

III

General Equilibrium-Production without consumption-two sector model, the relationship between relative commodity and factor prices (Stolper-Samuelson theorem), the relationship between output mix and real factor prices, the effect of changes in factor supply in a closed economy (Rybczynski theorem), production and consumption.

IV

Economics of Uncertainty-Individual behaviour towards risk, expected utility and certainty equivalence approaches, risk and risk aversion-sensitivity analysis, gambling and insurance, the economics of insurance, cost and risk, risk pooling and risk spreading, mean-variance analysis and portfolio selection, optimal consumption under uncertainty, competitive firm under uncertainty, factor demand under price uncertainty, the economics of search-different models, the efficient market hypothesis, stochastic models of inventory demand; Market with incomplete information, search and transaction costs, the economics of information.

I

Comparative Statics in a Closed Economy:

(i) The IS-LM Model: The Interaction of the Real and Monetary Sectors: The Keynesian Version, the Neoclassical Version, Comparative Static Analysis: The Keynesian Model: The Neoclassical Model.

(ii) Relative efficiency of Fiscal and Monetary Policies in an IS-LM Model-The Crowding-out Effect.

(iii) Unemployment and the Labour Market, the Neo-classical Labour Market Equilibrium, Keynesian Unemployment.

II

Supply of Money- Different approaches to the supply of money-Redcliffe committee approach, an approach of Gurley and Shaw, R.B.I’s. approach to money supply.

III

Macro-economic Policy: Rational expectations and the theory of macro economic policy (Lucas, Sargent, and Wallace), Mundell-Fleming model-Asset markets, expectations and exchange rates; Monetary approach to balancing of payments.

IV

Theory of Inflation-Structuralist theory of inflation; Phillips curve analysis-Short run and long run Phillips curve; Samuelson and Solow-the natural rate of unemployment hypothesis, Tobin’s modified Phillips curve; Policies to control inflation.

V

Business Cycles-Theories of Schumpeter, Kaldor, Samuelson and Hicks model; Control of the business cycles-relative efficacy of monetary and fiscal policies.

VI

New Classical Macroeconomics-The new classical critique of micro foundations, the new classical approach; Policy implications of the new classical approach-empirical evidence.

I

Meaning and Significance of Social Research - Difficulties in Social Research. The difference between Social Research and Research in Physical Sciences, Scientific Methods.

II

Research design and research process

III

Formulation of a Research Proposal

IV

Data collection - Nature of data (primary & secondary data), Methods of primary data collection: observation, interview techniques and questioner, experimentation, and surface and Questionnaire & Interview Methods of Collecting Primary Data.

V

Statistical Inference - Testing of Hypothesis, Concepts of Null and Alternative Hypothesis, Sampling Distribution and Standard Error, Confidence Interval and Level of Significance.

VI

Linear Regression Model – Estimation of parameters and tests of their significance

VII

Data Sources: C.S.O., National Sample Surveys, National Accounts Statistics, Indian Public Finance Statistics, R.B.I. publications, C.M.I.E. data bases, Annual Survey of Industries, Census, and other government publications, major International Data Sources.

VIII

I

India’s Economic Reforms.

II

Growth, Sectoral Composition, Poverty and Unemployment.

III

Agricultural Development: Technological change, Price Policy & Land Reforms.

IV

Industrial Development

V

Intellectual Property Rights TRIPs and their implications

VI

Foreign Trade, Trade Policies and Balance of Payments.

VII

Foreign Direct Investment

VIII

Fiscal Policy and Fiscal Reforms

IX

Indian financial system.