Courses Taught:
I have been teaching at NUS economics department since 2009 (as a tutor or lecturer). I have taught the following courses:
- International Finance (EC3343). The textbook is "International Economics: Theory and Policy" (Paul Krugman, Maurice Obstfeld, and Marc Melitz)
- Foundations For Econometrics (EC2303). The textbook is "Statistics for Business and Economics" (James McClave, George Benson, and Terry Sincich)
- Macroeconomics Analysis I (EC2102). The textbooks can be "Macroeconomics" (Stephen Williamson) or "Macroeconomics" (Abel, Bernanke, and Croushore).
- Macroeconomics Analysis II (EC3102). The textbook is "Macroeconomics" (Olivier Blanchard and David Johnson).
- Money and Banking (EC3332). The textbook is "The Economics of Money, Banking, and Financial Markets" (Frederic Mishkin).
- The Economy of Modern China (EC2374). The textbook is "The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growths" (Barry Naughton).
I have been teaching at NUS economics department since 2009 (as a tutor or lecturer). I have taught the following courses:
- International Finance (EC3343). The textbook is "International Economics: Theory and Policy" (Paul Krugman, Maurice Obstfeld, and Marc Melitz)
- Foundations For Econometrics (EC2303). The textbook is "Statistics for Business and Economics" (James McClave, George Benson, and Terry Sincich)
- Macroeconomics Analysis I (EC2102). The textbooks can be "Macroeconomics" (Stephen Williamson) or "Macroeconomics" (Abel, Bernanke, and Croushore).
- Macroeconomics Analysis II (EC3102). The textbook is "Macroeconomics" (Olivier Blanchard and David Johnson).
- Money and Banking (EC3332). The textbook is "The Economics of Money, Banking, and Financial Markets" (Frederic Mishkin).
- The Economy of Modern China (EC2374). The textbook is "The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growths" (Barry Naughton).
For Students Who Are Interested in Macroeconomics:
There are many great economics educators in the world. Among others, Greg Mankiw of Harvard University is without doubt a very influential one. You can follow his Blog, in which many useful tips are documented for economics students.
On the use of textbook at entry level, if your syllabus follows Stephen Williamson's "Macroeconomics", it means you will see how macroeconomics is built on micro principles (macro with micro foundation). You will learn three types of agent in the economy, as well as their respective maximization problems. Specifically, the households maximize their utility by choosing consumption and hours to work (labor supplied); the firms maximize their profit by choosing capital and labor input of production; the government, though not too much emphasized in the book, is supposed to maximize the welfare of the whole economy by choosing policy options (such as taxation). You will also learn how to solve these maximization problems and find the optimal choice for each agent. After that, you can define a competitive equilibrium, in which supply equals to demand and market-clearing prices prevail. For a student, knowing these is very useful since they are the building blocks of modern macroeconomic modelling.
On the use of textbook at intermediate level, I would recommend you to read through Olivier Blanchard and David Johnson's "Macroeconomics" (see above). This book has a clear structure and is well organized. There are two main logic flows: the first one is from the short run to the medium run, then to the long run; the second one is from the closed-economy to the open-economy environment. In addition, the IS-LM framework are coherently used throughout the book, particularly when incorporating expectation and open-economy elements (such as Uncovered Interest Parity) into the analysis. The best feature of this book, in my opinion, is that it has a good presentation of macroeconomic policies. For example, it documents comprehensive summaries of fiscal and monetary policy in the last few chapters. I am pretty sure that you will find them very useful.
On supplementary readings, I would recommend you David Moss' book "A Concise Guide to Macroeconomics: What Managers, Executives, and Students Need to Know". It is a truly concise summary of important concepts in macroeconomics, and you can finish reading it within one or two days.
There are many great economics educators in the world. Among others, Greg Mankiw of Harvard University is without doubt a very influential one. You can follow his Blog, in which many useful tips are documented for economics students.
On the use of textbook at entry level, if your syllabus follows Stephen Williamson's "Macroeconomics", it means you will see how macroeconomics is built on micro principles (macro with micro foundation). You will learn three types of agent in the economy, as well as their respective maximization problems. Specifically, the households maximize their utility by choosing consumption and hours to work (labor supplied); the firms maximize their profit by choosing capital and labor input of production; the government, though not too much emphasized in the book, is supposed to maximize the welfare of the whole economy by choosing policy options (such as taxation). You will also learn how to solve these maximization problems and find the optimal choice for each agent. After that, you can define a competitive equilibrium, in which supply equals to demand and market-clearing prices prevail. For a student, knowing these is very useful since they are the building blocks of modern macroeconomic modelling.
On the use of textbook at intermediate level, I would recommend you to read through Olivier Blanchard and David Johnson's "Macroeconomics" (see above). This book has a clear structure and is well organized. There are two main logic flows: the first one is from the short run to the medium run, then to the long run; the second one is from the closed-economy to the open-economy environment. In addition, the IS-LM framework are coherently used throughout the book, particularly when incorporating expectation and open-economy elements (such as Uncovered Interest Parity) into the analysis. The best feature of this book, in my opinion, is that it has a good presentation of macroeconomic policies. For example, it documents comprehensive summaries of fiscal and monetary policy in the last few chapters. I am pretty sure that you will find them very useful.
On supplementary readings, I would recommend you David Moss' book "A Concise Guide to Macroeconomics: What Managers, Executives, and Students Need to Know". It is a truly concise summary of important concepts in macroeconomics, and you can finish reading it within one or two days.
For Students Who Are Interested in International Trade:
The field of international trade has a long literature. The theoretical ground took root since David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage, followed by the famous Heckscher-Olin model and Stopler-Samuelson theorem. These theories are often referred as classical trade theories, whose main idea is that countries with differentiated factor endowments would specialize in their comparative-advantaged industries and trade with each other. The next wave of theory was pioneered by Paul Krugman, who incorporated the assumptions of increasing return to scale and monopolistic competition into classical trade models. With these changes, intra-industry trade (or trading of similar products between countries with identical factor endowments) can be explained. The more recent breakthrough was made by Marc Melitz, who demonstrated that firm heterogeneity could play an important role in trade. The main takeaway from his theory is that opening to trade can lead to resource reallocation within- and between industries, which eventually raises the aggregate productivity of the liberalizing country.
The empirical branch mainly involves testing of theoretical predictions. For example, in recent years, many works are devoted to study the effects of trade liberalization on the liberalizing country or industry's productivity, innovation, and technology adoption. There are also some studies whose primary goals are to answer policy inquires. For instance, there is a large strand of research examining the behaviour of foreign-invested firms in the host country and drawing policy implications based on the empirical results.
The standard undergraduate textbook is "International Economics: Theory and Policy" (Paul Krugman, et al.). For more advanced knowledge, you can refer to Robert Feenstra's book "Advanced International Trade: Theory and Evidence".
The field of international trade has a long literature. The theoretical ground took root since David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage, followed by the famous Heckscher-Olin model and Stopler-Samuelson theorem. These theories are often referred as classical trade theories, whose main idea is that countries with differentiated factor endowments would specialize in their comparative-advantaged industries and trade with each other. The next wave of theory was pioneered by Paul Krugman, who incorporated the assumptions of increasing return to scale and monopolistic competition into classical trade models. With these changes, intra-industry trade (or trading of similar products between countries with identical factor endowments) can be explained. The more recent breakthrough was made by Marc Melitz, who demonstrated that firm heterogeneity could play an important role in trade. The main takeaway from his theory is that opening to trade can lead to resource reallocation within- and between industries, which eventually raises the aggregate productivity of the liberalizing country.
The empirical branch mainly involves testing of theoretical predictions. For example, in recent years, many works are devoted to study the effects of trade liberalization on the liberalizing country or industry's productivity, innovation, and technology adoption. There are also some studies whose primary goals are to answer policy inquires. For instance, there is a large strand of research examining the behaviour of foreign-invested firms in the host country and drawing policy implications based on the empirical results.
The standard undergraduate textbook is "International Economics: Theory and Policy" (Paul Krugman, et al.). For more advanced knowledge, you can refer to Robert Feenstra's book "Advanced International Trade: Theory and Evidence".
For Students Who Want to Know More About Economic Policies:
One place where you can find a rich documentation of policy-orientated research and discussions is the International Monetary Fund (IMF). You can check the IMF Publications to get a sense of how the Fund economists understand contemporary macro- and international economics issues, and how they identify the risks and policy challenges faced by each country. My favourite IMF readings are the World Economic Outlook (WEO) and the Finance and Development (F&D). The former provides bi-annual assessments of the global economy, while the latter often documents insightful articles on selected policy-related topics. If you want to know more about the Fund's assessment on a particular country, you can refer to the IMF Article IV Consultation Report of that country.
Another well-established policy-driven research institution is the World Bank (WB). While the IMF focuses on macroeconomic and financial issues in the short and medium run, the World Bank specializes in more structural problem in the long run. You can check the World Bank Publications and find out how the World Bank economists view economic development and provide policy recommendations for the member countries.
One place where you can find a rich documentation of policy-orientated research and discussions is the International Monetary Fund (IMF). You can check the IMF Publications to get a sense of how the Fund economists understand contemporary macro- and international economics issues, and how they identify the risks and policy challenges faced by each country. My favourite IMF readings are the World Economic Outlook (WEO) and the Finance and Development (F&D). The former provides bi-annual assessments of the global economy, while the latter often documents insightful articles on selected policy-related topics. If you want to know more about the Fund's assessment on a particular country, you can refer to the IMF Article IV Consultation Report of that country.
Another well-established policy-driven research institution is the World Bank (WB). While the IMF focuses on macroeconomic and financial issues in the short and medium run, the World Bank specializes in more structural problem in the long run. You can check the World Bank Publications and find out how the World Bank economists view economic development and provide policy recommendations for the member countries.
Some Economics Books That I've Read and My Ratings:
"A Concise Guide to Macroeconomics: What Managers, Executives, and Students Need to Know", by David A. Moss, 4.5
"Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China", by Ezra F. Vogel, 5
"Demystifying the Fed", by Jian Wang, 4.5
"Fault Lines", by Raghuram Rajan, 4.5
"Financial Crises: Causes, Consequences, and Policy Responses", edited by Stijin Claessens, et al., 4
"Lean In", by Sheryl Sandberg, 3.5
"Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises", by Charles Kindleberger and Robert Aliber, 3.5
"Milton Friedman: A Biography", by Lanny Ebenstein, 4
"Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion", by Joshua D. Angrist and Jorn-Steffen Pischke. 4.5
"On China", by Henry Kissinger, 5
"Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent", by Eduardo Galeano, 3.5
"Steve Jobs", by Walter Isaacson, 4
"Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises", by Timothy Geithner, 4.5
"The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World", by Alan Greenspan, 4
"The Dollar Trap", by Eswar Prasad, 5
"The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics: Lessons from Japan's Great Recession", by Richard Koo, 4
"The Quest for Prosperity: How Developing Countries Can Take Off", by Justin Yifu Lin, 3.5
"The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of The Great Economic Thinkers", by Robert Heilbroner, 5
"This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly", by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, 3.5
"What Have We Learned? Macroeconomic Policy after the Crisis", edited by George Akerlof, et al., 4.5
"Why Nations Fail: The Origin of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty", by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, 3.5
"Wu Jinglian: A Biography", by Xiaobo Wu, 4
5 = Masterpiece and recommended, 4.5 = Very resourceful, 4 = Good reading experience, 3.5 = Some points taken, 3 = Average
"A Concise Guide to Macroeconomics: What Managers, Executives, and Students Need to Know", by David A. Moss, 4.5
"Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China", by Ezra F. Vogel, 5
"Demystifying the Fed", by Jian Wang, 4.5
"Fault Lines", by Raghuram Rajan, 4.5
"Financial Crises: Causes, Consequences, and Policy Responses", edited by Stijin Claessens, et al., 4
"Lean In", by Sheryl Sandberg, 3.5
"Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises", by Charles Kindleberger and Robert Aliber, 3.5
"Milton Friedman: A Biography", by Lanny Ebenstein, 4
"Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion", by Joshua D. Angrist and Jorn-Steffen Pischke. 4.5
"On China", by Henry Kissinger, 5
"Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent", by Eduardo Galeano, 3.5
"Steve Jobs", by Walter Isaacson, 4
"Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises", by Timothy Geithner, 4.5
"The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World", by Alan Greenspan, 4
"The Dollar Trap", by Eswar Prasad, 5
"The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics: Lessons from Japan's Great Recession", by Richard Koo, 4
"The Quest for Prosperity: How Developing Countries Can Take Off", by Justin Yifu Lin, 3.5
"The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of The Great Economic Thinkers", by Robert Heilbroner, 5
"This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly", by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, 3.5
"What Have We Learned? Macroeconomic Policy after the Crisis", edited by George Akerlof, et al., 4.5
"Why Nations Fail: The Origin of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty", by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, 3.5
"Wu Jinglian: A Biography", by Xiaobo Wu, 4
5 = Masterpiece and recommended, 4.5 = Very resourceful, 4 = Good reading experience, 3.5 = Some points taken, 3 = Average