PGPM Elective

Applied and Behavioral Economics

This course is a sequel to the core courses economics. It will build on the fundamentals and will
draw heavily from the ongoing global economic events and real-world evidence. The course will
also introduce behavioral finance/economics and discuss how little nudges lead to better decision
making. The course will use the flipped classroom approach, whereby participants are intensely
engaged in discussions and debates in the classroom. You will get to role play a central bank, a
government, a firm strategist, a global leader so on. Following are some of the topics that will be
covered in the course.

Growth, prosperity and inequality

How the fundamental structural of the world economy is changing and what it means

Cutting age growth v/s Catch-up growth, Growth miracles v/s growth disasters

Prosperity divergence and growing inequality – should be worry?

Globalisation, trade wars – who will lose the most?

Can China ever replace the US as the global economic leader?

Modinomics – Has it taken India to a higher growth path?

Employment

Immigration and redistribution

Ageing world population with a demographic dividend in India

Prices – of currency and of goods and services

Where is Rupee headed?

The real costs of inflation and what it means for a business

Behaviorial Finance and economic nudges

Loss aversion and the problem of inertia – how behaviorial biases affect investment decisions,
nudges for financial health

Making salad the default option over chips – how changes to default choices and use of social
norms change the outcomes