Alberto Ortiz

Teaching

The objective of this course is to give you the tools to understand how financial markets work and what the consequences of the institutional arrangement for their well functioning are. Financial markets promote economic growth by allocating savings into productive investments. Financial intermediaries play a key role in increasing economic efficiency by reducing transaction costs and asymmetric information in financial transactions. Financial intermediaries provide liquidity services and help individuals to reduce their exposure to risk improving their well being. The design and proper regulation of financial institutions could help to guarantee that financial markets play these important activities.

Economic Development

The objective of this course is to give you an introduction to the theory and evidence on economic development from both a macroeconomic and microeconomic perspective. Topics include economic growth, income distribution, poverty, instability, the economic role of institutions, the political economic determinants of macro policies, and the effects of international markets integration. The course will also look at how market fragmentation, incomplete information, and incentive problems affect the markets for land, labor, and credit markets.

Market Failure in Financial Markets

The seminar will examine the theoretical framework used by economist to understand many financial phenomena such as credit rationing, bank runs and panics, and solvency problems. Market failure, a situation where market equilibria fail to be Pareto optimal, often occurs when asymmetric information, market power, externalities, and/or public goods are present. Market failure explains why financial intermediaries exist and provides an economically defensible justification for financial markets regulation.

Intermediate Macroeconomic Analysis

The objective of this course is to give you the tools to understand the factors and mechanisms that determine a society's standard and cost of living. First, we will review the main concepts and data of macroeconomics: national income, price level, and employment. Once we refresh these topics, we will take a classical approach and assume that prices are flexible to learn how these variables are determined in the long run. After this, we will develop an intertemporal analysis to understand the process of economic growth. Later, we will deviate from the classical approach and assume that in the short-run some prices are rigid to analyze economic fluctuations and stabilization policy. We will cover two chapters that go deeper on the microeconomics behind consumption and investment determination. We will finish with an overview of open economy macroeconomics.

International Financial Policy

This is an advanced seminar for students who want to develop an in-depth understanding of the implications and policy challenges posed by financial integration both for developed and developing countries. The objective is to build expertise and facility with the major economic models used to examine these issues. Readings and discussions will focus on a number of key areas: the problem of global imbalances, quantifying the benefits of financial integration, understanding the determinants of equilibrium real exchange rates, dealing with currency crises, evaluating the choice of exchange rate regimes and monetary policy, inflation stabilization, and sovereign debt and defaults.

Back