Ph D in Humanities in IIT Guwahati

Can you provide me the syllabus of Ph D in Economics offered by Department of Humanities and Social Science of IIT Guwahati?

[pawan]

The syllabus of Ph D in Economics offered by Department of Humanities and Social Science of IIT Guwahati is as follows:

HS 705: Growth and Development
The Challenge of Development: Concept and scope of economic development, Economic Growth in Historical perspective, Recent questioning of GNP growth orientation and issues related to income distribution and poverty, Some empirical studies and lessons drawn. Human Resources, Finance and Trade: Population debate and economic development, Unemployment : Issues, dimensions and analysis, Education and Economic development, The domestic and external financing of economic development, Foreign investment, Balance of payments and external debt, trade strategy. Industrialisation and Agriculture: Promoting industrialisation, technology choice and implication on employment, Agricultural transformations and rural development. Development Planning:
Limitations of price mechanism and case for economic planning, the public sector as an instrument for policy intervention in developing economies, Choice of projects from a social point of view and social cost-benefit analysis

HS 706 Issues in Indian Economy (Seminar course)
The Broad issues in this course will be as under :
• Agriculture and Economic development ;
• Industrialisation, Policy and controls ;
• Population and related issues ;
• Unemployment problems in the States ;
• Commercial banking in India after nationalisation ;
• Development banking in India and industrial development ;
• Inequality and regional imbalance in the development process in India ;
It is required to work on any two broad areas and present at least two seminars during the semester. The necessary guidance and supervision will be there by the course supervisor.

HS 709 Industrial Economics
Theory of Industrial economy : Rationale of Industrialisation, Form of Industrial Organisation, Size and Scale of operation, Industrial location, Industrial productivity, Rationalisation. Problem of Industrialisation : Industrialisation in the developing countries ; Problems of industry in Under-developed economy, Balanced industrial development, Industrial Sickness, Industrial Finance Policy : Industrial policy, Public Sector Undertakings. Industrial Labour : Industrial Relations, Trade Unionism, Wages and wage policy, Workers participation in Management.

HS 710 Research Methods in Social Sciences (Economics)
Social Science Research – meaning, scope, objectivity and limitations ; Types and Methods of Research ; Review of literature ; Planning of Research ; Sampling ; Methods of Collection of Data ; Field Work ; Processing of Data ; Analysis of Data ; Writing and documentation.

HS 743 Ecological Economics
Pre-Analytic Vision: history of ecological economics, difference between neoclassical and ecological economics, societal challenges and paradigm shift; Ecological systems: resource of nature and nature of resources, current status of resources and systems thinking ; Human subsystem: Human behavior and its relevance to resource allocation; Principles and policy: principles of ecological economics, alternative policies, institutions, and instruments to implement ecological economics principles

HS 744 Labour Markets in Developing Countries
Scope of labour economics; Labour demand: theories, employment decisions by firms, competitive and non-competitive labour markets, capital-labour substitution, short-run and long-run demand; Labour supply: utility maximizing choices, income and wealth effects, hours of work and participation in labour force, inter-temporal labour supply; Wage and employment determination: neoclassical models, wage structures, labour theory of value; Labour markets and developing countries: demographic structure, unemployment and underemployment, formal and informal sectors, labour market institutions; Rural labour markets: dual labour market, sectoral linkages, policies; Urban labour markets: informality in the urban sector, rural-urban migration, segmented labour markets, self-employment, international migration; Income distribution, poverty and child labour: measures of income distribution, measures of poverty, determinants and consequences of child labour; Social security measures.

HS 750 Mathematical Method for Economists
Introduction: Sets, functions, graphs and proofs, Linear Algebra: matrices, vectors, determinants, system of linear equations, eigenvalue and eigenvectors; Differentiation: partial and total derivatives, concave and convex functions, maxima and minima of functions of one and several variables, Classical optimization: Lagrange and Kuhn-Tucker methods, Integral calculus: methods, solution for ordinary differential equation.

HS 751 Advanced Public Economics
Introduction: role of government in a market economy; Basic tools: indirect utility function, compensating and equivalent variation, consumer surplus; Public good: two welfare theorems in presence of exchange and production economy, public good provision a la Samuelson, club goods and local public goods, private provision of public goods, free riding, Vickrey-Clarke-Groves mechanism; Principles of taxation, basic concepts, optimal income and commodity taxation; Political economy: median voter, probabilistic voting and citizen candidate models; Fiscal federalism, economic rationale of sub-national entities, grants and transfers, tax competition and harmonization, the recent GST debate; Fiscal deficit and debt dynamics, intergenerational issues.

HS 754 Dynamic Methods in Economics
Difference and differential equations: system of equations, solution and stability, application : business cycle, Solow growth model; Optimal control: Hamiltonian, Dorfman’s economic interpretation of maximum principle, open loop and closed loop solutions, phase diagrams and stability, endpoint problems, equality constrained problems, infinite horizon and transversality conditions, application : extraction of renewable and non-renewable resources, pollution control and political business cycle models; Dynamic programming: optimality principle, value function, Bellman equation, optimal strategies, finite and infinite time horizon, relationship between optimal control and dynamic programming, Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, application: the Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans growth model, overlapping generation model, debt dynamics; Calculus of Variation: brief introduction, Euler equation, relation between Calculus of Variation and Optimal Control, application: classical planning models.

HS 755 Introduction to Econometrics (2-0-2-6)
This Course is Open to MA(Development Studies) students.
Brief review of random variables: expectation, variance, covariance, estimation and inference; Classical Linear Regression Model: least squares estimation: unbiasedness and efficiency, Gauss-Markov theorem, hypothesis testing, goodness of fit; Nonlinear models, Dummy variables; Heteroscadasticity, Autocorrelation and Multicollinearity: detection, implications and possible remedies; Omitted variable, measurement errors and instrumental variables.

HS 756 Explorations in Food Security Research
Food security: Concepts, indicators, measurements; Food and agriculture: links between nutrition and agriculture, historical progress, policy challenges; The role of governments versus MNCs; The dietary transition; Malthusian concerns: demographic projections, numbers of people versus diets of people; World Food Crisis: The 1972-1974 crisis, FAO projections, the 2008 crisis, international foodgrains market, food riots, WTO and food; Green Revolution: implications for food production, poverty, hunger and environment; Comparative impact analysis: Asia, Latin America and Africa; Globalization and food security: farmers and consumers in developing countries, farm subsidies, arguments for and against farm subsidies; Food prices and energy prices links; International Policy Responses to Hunger; Gender and food security.