Bachelor of Arts in Economics

Credit: 2

Pre-requisite: None 

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Explain how an entrepreneurial mindset supports and accelerates innovation and growth in the contexts of businesses, industries, and countries.
2. Evaluate the multifaceted nature of entrepreneurship in Vietnam and internationally, and how it impacts the economy, society, and environment. Have access to insights on VinGroup’s governance principles (the 6 Hóa).
3. Recommend strategies to evaluate the entrepreneurial mindset, values, and behaviors, and to further develop the entrepreneurial mindset, both individually and organizationally.
4. Grow your own entrepreneurial mindset and innovation-related skills, including identifying and evaluating opportunities, taking calculated risks, solving problems creatively, communicating effectively, and influencing stakeholder groups.
5. Demonstrate the ability to work productively in teams to collaboratively explore opportunities, generate ideas, and find and communicate solutions to a predefined challenge during the course hackathon.

Credit: 2

Pre-requisite: None

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Define foundational concepts of leadership traits, leadership styles, values, and trends, and their applications to real-life situations, especially in a turbulent world.
2. Describe and evaluate the differences and similarities between management and leadership, and their application in an organizational setting.
3. Evaluate the multifaceted nature of leadership in Vietnam and internationally, and their impact on work environments, particularly in a VUCA context. Have access to insights on Vingroup’s mission, vision, and core values.
4. Develop your own leadership mindset by setting a vision, developing self-awareness, understanding others’ perspectives, understanding situational contexts, communicating effectively, and making informed decisions. setting a vision, accepting accountability, understanding self and others’ limits, inspiring and motivating others, and creating the collaborative conditions for success
5. Apply basic leadership values and skills through action-based learning, building self, interpersonal, and team leadership during the leadership bootcamp.

Hours: 165

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Understand and articulate knowledge of the National Defense and Security policies of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
2. Understand basic concepts of national defense and security work.
3. Understand and practice the fundamental rules and disciplinary regulations in military organization.
4. Practice the fundamental techniques and tactics of infantry combat

Credit: 2

Pre-requisite: N/A

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Explain the history, contemporary nature, and purpose of the Vietnamese legal system, including its key institutions, doctrines, and principles.
2. Describe and evaluate key differences and similarities between legal system management in Vietnam and internationally.
3. Understand the mechanisms of legal duty, justification of punishment, and the roles of courts and juries.
4. Apply fundamental legal rules and principles in a wide range of selected areas of the law, demonstrating critical thinking and ethical considerations.
5. Develop a mindset of compliance and appreciate the importance of adhering to legal standards in professional and personal context

Hours: 45

Pre-requisite: None

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Define and understand the essential components of service learning, including benefits, impact, and key attributes.
2. Critically reflect on social issues and UNESCO’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) with reference to a planned service project
3. Plan and implement a service project in accordance with local laws and regulations
4. Reflect on the outcomes of that service project and how it could have been improved
5. Develop sensitivity and empathy to local community members

Credit: 2

Pre-requisite: None

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Appreciate the purpose and importance of creative and critical thinking.
2. Identify, develop, and criticize claims and arguments in accordance with principles of logical reasoning and scientific evidence
3. Apply creative and critical thinking with supporting tools and techniques for problem-solving.
4. Embed creative and critical thinking in workplace idea generation.
5. Build foundations for enhancing individual and team effectiveness.

Credit: 2

Pre-requisite: N/A

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Identify and analyze problems from life and business in order to determine computational solutions.
2. Break down problems into logical steps and data requirements.
3. Use basic data structures and algorithms for problem-solving.
4. Design simple algorithms and computational models.
5. Implement solutions using basic programming skills.
6. Evaluate and optimize computational solutions.

Credit: 2

Pre-requisite: NA

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Identify and explain core attitudes, values, and practices of academic culture and how academic writing reflects these.
2. Reflect critically on the differences between academic and opinion writing and apply this understanding in the composition of academic essays, including referencing, quoting, and paraphrasing.
3. Evaluate the differences between academic and professional writing in terms of style, purpose, target audience, and techniques.
4. Develop your clear, concise, and well-structured writing skills, focusing on the most critical documents and situations in academic and professional work such as academic essays, newspaper articles, business reports, proposals, speeches…
5. Use AI to develop, enhance, and revise writing in both academic and professional contexts.

Hours: 45

Pre-requisite: NA

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Cultivate self-leadership, enhancing self-confidence, self-esteem, self-determination, and self-control.
2. Self- acquire and apply college readiness skills, life-long learning, effectively adapting to academic, social, and personal challenges of university life
3. Self- develop essential career skills, preparing for personal and professional success.
4. Embrace community involvement by actively participating in community service, demonstrating a commitment to positive societal impact and a pay-it-forward spirit.
5. Regularly reflect on personal growth and practice self-leadership throughout your university life, from the initial enrollment CV to the Individual Development Plan (IDP) and the pre-graduation CV, ensuring ongoing development and readiness for life after graduation.

Hours: 45

Pre-requisite: None

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Understand the important principles of a healthy lifestyle, including balanced nutrition, regular physical activity, and mental well-being.
2. Understand your own health, develop your own personal health strategies, including techniques for managing stress effectively and maintaining a balanced life.
3. Engage in self-discipline for nutrition, exercise, and rest, and actively participate in various physical and mental well-being clubs at the university.
4. Recognize the impact of lifestyle choices on long-term health and well-being, and make informed decisions to enhance your quality of life.
5. Be motivated to promote well-being within communities through various means such as research, awareness campaigns, and participation in health clubs.

Credit: Depending on College Program

On successful completion of the internship, students will be able to:

1. Develop work habits, skills and attitudes necessary for job success
2. Identify, record, and carry out performance objectives (agreed upon by the employer, or supervisor) related to their job assignment
3. Develop communication, interpersonal and other critical skills needed to function successfully in the role and similar roles
4. Develop industry-specific technical skills and knowledge needed to function successfully in the role and similar roles
5. Acquire employment contacts leading directly to a full-time job following graduation from college.

Credit: 3

Pre-requisite: NA

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Understand the basic philosophical foundations of Marxism-Leninism, including dialectical materialism and historical materialism
2. Explain its significance in the development of Vietnam’s state ideology and relevance to other areas of society including history, politics and economics
3. Know that Vietnamese philosophy features elements of syncretism and be able to describe those elements (e.g., Marxism-Leninism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, etc.)
4. Describe, evaluate and compare different answers to foundational philosophical questions such as “what exists?”, “what is knowledge?”, and “what is right and wrong?”
5. Understand and assess different approaches to the nature of science and scientific progress

Credit: 2

Pre-requisite: NA

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the complexity of how the world is interconnected through the political economy.
• Develop an informed understanding of conceptual terms and theoretical approaches used in understanding the global economy.
• Understand the transformation of Vietnam in the context of the global political economy.
• Cultivate a critical-minded awareness of major trends in the global political economy.
• Acquire an informed understanding of the rise of China and India and the resulting impacts on Vietnam, ASEAN, and the world.

Credit: 2
Pre-requisite: NA

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Describe and explain the concepts of politics and social change of Vietnam and around the region, and acquire some lexicon of the subject;
2. Understand how politics and political systems are key to socio-economic developments, including but not limited to the Marxist-Leninist views;
3. Understand the ways politics affects economic management, and help determine national success
4. Compare Vietnam’s national development with national efforts elsewhere in Asia;

Credit: 2

Pre-requisite: NA

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Know the major events, persons, and historical conditions the led to the creation and development of Ho Chi Minh Ideology and engage Ho Chi Minh Ideology as both a historical and living body of thought.
2. Consider the ongoing transformation of Ho Chi Minh thought and its significance in history and for Vietnam’s future.
3. Critically review historical artifacts, including textual documents, art, literature, archeology, and accounts of informants and grasp the historical factors and precedents that relate to contemporary issues
4. Gain ability to apply historical and cultural knowledge to understanding and analyzing contemporary problems
5. Present historical evidence-based arguments and conduct probing discussions about challenging historical subjects
6. Explore multiple perspectives about the past, especially the past as understood from the vantage of former historical actors.

Credit: 2
Pre-requisite: NA

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Know the major events, persons, and historical conditions the led to the creation and development of the Vietnamese Communist Party
2. Critically review historical artifacts, including textual documents, art, literature, archeology, and accounts of informants.
3. Grasp the historical factors and precedents that relate to contemporary issues and gain the ability to apply historical and cultural knowledge to understanding and analyzing contemporary problems
4. Present historical evidence-based arguments
5. Explore multiple perspectives about the past, especially the past as understood from the vantage of former historical actors.

Credit: 2

Pre-requisite: None

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Understand the ways in which individual identities, values, and perceptions and biases are shaped by cultures and different forms of life
2. Know the theories and practice related to the impact of culture in our daily ecologies in local and global contexts
3. Identify and understand the intersection of one’s own and others’ cultural identities
4. Apply knowledge of practice, theory, and personal reflection of different cultures to a particular issue that requires collaboration or cooperation between individuals or groups from different cultural backgrounds

Credit: 2

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Know the main actors, structures, and processes of international relations
2. Understand the basic theoretical principles of international relations and compare the competing underlying frameworks on human and social nature
3. Identify the respective objectives of international organizations in international politics, collaboration, and cooperation
4. Explore a case study, problem-solving scenario or dilemma involving international relations and devise a strategy/solution supported by theory and solid argumentation
5. Critically assess alternative strategies and points of view on complex scenarios requiring international relations

Credit: 2

Pre-requisite: NA

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of arts and visual arts in general, including their function, and historical, religious, cultural, social, and environmental contexts and relevance;
2. Understand and define the basic principles of arts, visual arts, and design; explain and analyze a work of art from an informed and objective viewpoint, its physical attributes and formal construction;
3. Identify how art works are created and processed;
4. Make a reference to the significance and application of the arts in students’ own field of studies and interests;
5. Analyze Vietnam arts and situate Vietnam arts in the global context.

Credit: 2

Pre-requisite: NA

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Show improved skill in their chosen artistic field (e.g., music, dance, theatre, visual arts) and express their creativity and individuality through performance(s).
2. Evaluate and discuss different forms of artistic performance, identifying key elements and techniques, and write reflective assessments on their personal artistic development.
3. Work well with peers to create and perform artistic pieces, and effectively give and receive constructive feedback.
4. Clearly communicate the artistic vision and choices behind their performances both verbally and in writing (if required) and develop their skills in presenting artistic work to an audience, including stage presence and audience engagement.
5. Explore and appreciate a variety of artistic traditions from around the world, with a special focus on Vietnamese culture, and place their own artistic work in a wider cultural and historical context.
6. Plan, organize, and complete an artistic performance project from start to finish, demonstrating good time management and organizational skills.
7. Understand and apply ethical considerations in artistic performance, including respecting intellectual property and cultural sensitivities, and behave professionally during rehearsals, performances, and collaborative projects.

On successful completion of the study abroad program, students will be able to:

1. Develop skills and self-confidence for interacting with people from a different location and culture
2. Competently navigate living, studying and potentially working in a different location and culture
3. Understand how different backgrounds and cultures impact one another’s views, values, behaviours, and biases
4. Reflect on how the experience has produced a global mindset and the values of being a global citizen
5. Build life-long connections and a network of partners for academic study, professional and personal life

Prerequisites: None
Credits: 2
This course exposes and engages students with a variety of different global perspectives on important issues of the day. Each week the seminar will be led by a different faculty member or guest speaker who will choose a topic, assign pre-class reading, and organize the class activities. Potential contemporary issues include Chat GPT and AI, the aging crisis, immigration, globalization, the new space race, Industry 4.0, etc.

Prerequisites: None
Credits: 2
On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Identify and explain a range of ethical concerns across different professional and real-world domains of human interaction.
2. Apply ethical theories and offer rational justification to moral dilemmas.
3. Understand the moral stakeholders involved and the ethical obligations required for certain professional standards/codes, as well as the rationale behind them.
4. Apply ethical theories and offer rational justification to moral dilemmas where no professional standards/codes are established

Prerequisites: None
Credits: 2
This course introduces students to more advanced topics in reasoning, logic, and the topics of evidence and testing in science. In deductive reasoning students advance in topics in critical thinking to include first-order predicate calculus and modal logic. In statistical reasoning students learn the axioms of probability theory, Bayesian confirmation theory and issues in the confirmation of scientific theories including advanced topics from the Hypothetical-Deductive Method and
Falsificationism.

Prerequisites: None
Credits: 2
This course introduces and elaborates on the concept of development and the role of sustainability. The course would engage the ideas of development from an interdisciplinary and multi dimensional perspective. The course content aims to answer questions such as: what is development? How does development happen? What contributes to development? Why do the development stories differ at the country, regional, and global levels? Besides the theoretical
explanation of development, practical insights would be provided via real-world exposure, case studies, contemporary reading material, and capstone projects. The course would focus on the interaction and interrelationship between environment and development by exploring the role of sustainability.

Prerequisites: None
Credits: 2
As more information becomes digitized, researchers can use powerful AI tools to better analyze that data and visualize it for communication. This course introduces students to the main advances in digital humanities, how to code for basic research and scholarship with an eye to potential
application in the areas: communications, psychology and economics.

Prerequisites: None
Credits: 3
This course explores the fundamentals of microeconomics. It analyzes individual economic agents, firms, and markets, focusing on supply and demand, consumer behavior, production, costs, market structures, and government intervention. Through theoretical concepts and real-world examples, it develops critical thinking skills applicable to economic decision-making. Ideal for business majors and those seeking a foundational understanding of microeconomic principles.

Prerequisites: None
Credits: 3
The Basic Econometrics course provides students with an essential introduction to the application of statistical methods in economics. This undergraduate-level offering focuses on equipping students with the fundamental tools necessary for empirical analysis and hypothesis testing. Through theoretical concepts and hands-on applications, participants will learn to model and analyze economic relationships using real-world data.

Prerequisites: None
Credits: 3
This course embarks on an exploration of macroeconomics. It focuses on the study of aggregate economic phenomena, including national income, unemployment, inflation, and economic growth. It analyzes the role of government policy, monetary systems, and international trade in shaping the overall economic landscape. Through a mix of theory and real-world applications, it develops a solid understanding of the macroeconomic forces that influence societies and impact decision making at a national level. Ideal for students interested in economics, business, or anyone seeking a foundational grasp of macroeconomic principles.

Prerequisites: None
Credits: 3
The Quantitative Analysis and Forecasting course offers students a comprehensive exploration of statistical methods tailored for time series analysis. In this undergraduate-level offering, participants will learn about modeling and forecasting economic trends, financial data, and various time-dependent phenomena. The curriculum covers essential topics such as time series decomposition, autoregressive
integrated moving average (ARIMA) models, and advanced forecasting techniques. Through a combination of theoretical concepts and practical applications using statistical software, students
will develop proficiency in analyzing time series data and making informed predictions. Ideal for students with an interest in economics, finance, or data science, this course equips participants with the skills necessary to interpret and forecast trends, enhancing their ability to
contribute valuable insights in various professional domains.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 3
The Intermediate Microeconomics course is designed for students who have a foundational understanding of microeconomic principles and are ready to explore more advanced concepts. Building upon the basics, this undergraduate-level course delves deeper into the analysis of individual economic agents, firms, and markets. The course emphasizes the application of theoretical frameworks to real-world scenarios, honing analytical skills crucial for assessing market dynamics and policy implications. Course content includes core topics of consumption, production, and decision-making by firms, both with and without market power, under perfect and imperfect information, as well as the analysis of market failure due to externalities and public
goods. Through a combination of lectures, case studies, and interactive discussions, students will develop a more sophisticated understanding of microeconomic concepts and their implications. This course is ideal for economics majors or those pursuing fields that require a deep understanding of microeconomic theory and its applications in diverse settings.

Prerequisites: None
Credits: 2

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Describe and explain a “big idea”, which may be a new solution to a problem, a disrupting technology, or an innovative method or way of doings things
2. Identify the implications of a big idea for everyday life or a professional setting
3. Develop a strategy for using a big idea to improve an existing approach or create a new application
4. Evaluate the application of a big idea, including an assessment of its positive impacts, negative impacts, and mitigating strategies for the theme of the year

Prerequisites: None
Credits: 3
The Introduction to Economics course provides an overview of economic science, including microeconomics and macroeconomics. The Microeconomics part examines the following issues: the fundamental principles of economics; supply and demand analysis; production, cost and industry structure. The Macroeconomics part examines the Macroeconomic perspective as well as basic concepts such as Economic growth, Unemployment, and Inflation. Moreover, the role of the government in the economy is also discussed. The duration of the course is 15 weeks, students will have 3-hour weekly class during the course.

Prerequisites: None
Credits: 3
This course introduces the fundamental concepts and techniques of statistical analysis. The focus is on developing skills in descriptive and inferential statistics, including data collection and analysis, probability theory, hypothesis testing, and regression analysis. Students will also learn how to use statistical software to perform data analysis.

Prerequisites: TBD

Credits: 3
In this course, students will learn popular machine learning algorithms, principal component analysis, and regularization by building a movie recommendation system. The student will learn about training data, and how to use a set of data to discover potentially predictive relationships. In building the movie recommendation system, the student will learn how to train algorithms using training data so you can predict the outcome for future datasets. The student will also learn about overtraining and techniques to avoid it such as cross-validation. All of these skills are
fundamental to machine learning.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 3
This course illustrates the transformative power of “big data” in comprehending and tackling critical societal and economic challenges. It serves as an accessible introduction to cutting-edge research and practical applications in economics and social science, tailored for students without prior experience in Economics or Statistics. Whether you’re new to Economics or have a more advanced background, this course covers diverse topics such as equality of opportunity,
education, innovation, entrepreneurship, healthcare, climate change, and crime. In addition to exploring these themes, the course provides a foundational understanding of fundamental data science methods, including regression, causal inference, and machine learning.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 3
The Development Economics course explores the foundations of policy making in developing countries. The goal is to spell out various policy options and to quantify the trade-offs between them. We will study the different facets of human development: education, health, gender, the family, land relations, risk, informal and formal norms and institutions. This is an empirical class. For each topic, we will study several concrete examples chosen from around the world.
While studying each of these topics, we will ask: What determines the decisions of poor households in developing countries? What constraints are they subject to? Is there a scope for policy (by government, international organizations, or non-governmental organizations (NGOs))? What policies have been tried out? Have they been successful?

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 2
The purpose of this course is to extend students’ understanding of economic theory and empirical research in key areas of economic theory and empirical research in key areas of health economics and enable students to leverage that knowledge and apply it to timely issues in health policy and management.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 3
This course focuses on science and technology policy—it will examine the science and technology innovation system, including case studies on energy, computing, advanced manufacturing, and health sectors, with an emphasis on public policy and the federal government’s role in that system. It will review the foundations of economic growth theory, innovation systems theory and innovation organization, and the basic approaches to science and technology policy, building toward a sophisticated understanding of these areas. The class will
review a theory of direct and indirect economic factors in the innovation system, study the varied models for how federal science and technology mission agencies are organized, and examine the growth of public-private partnership models as a way for science mission agencies to pursue mission agendas.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 3
The Artificial Intelligence course introduces students to the basic knowledge representation, problem solving, and learning methods of artificial intelligence. Upon completion of the course, students should be able to develop intelligent systems by assembling solutions to concrete computational problems; understand the role of knowledge representation, problem solving, and learning in intelligent-system engineering; and appreciate the role of problem solving, vision, and language in understanding human intelligence from a computational perspective.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 2
This course is a global survey of the great transformation in history known as the “Industrial Revolution.” Topics include origins of mechanized production, the factory system, steam propulsion, electrification, mass communications, mass production and automation. Emphasis on the transfer of technology and its many adaptations around the world. Countries treated include Great Britain, France, Germany, United States, Sweden, Russia, Japan, China, and India.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 3
The purpose of this course is to discuss how an economic outcome can be evaluated from society’s point of view. Society, in the context, consists of individuals with different tastes, endowments and expectations. It will be assumed that the society in question takes into account the choices of all its members in making decisions. This problem is particularly important for evaluating economic policies.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 3
The Competitive Strategy and Industrial Organization covers the foundations of the field of industrial organization, including the theory of the firm, models of competition, market structure, pricing, and dynamic models. The course emphasizes theory with support from specific industries, including telecommunications, retail, and airlines.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 3
Game Theory, also known as Multiperson Decision Theory, is the analysis of situations in which the payoff of a decision maker depends not only on his own actions but also on those of others. Game Theory has applications in several fields, such as economics, politics, law, biology, and computer science. This course introduces the basic tools of game theoretic analysis, with some of the many applications of Game Theory, primarily in economics.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 3

The course covers recent topics in behavioral economics, with an emphasis on applications to other fields of economics. Topics include deviations from the standard neoclassical model in terms of (i) preferences (time and risk preferences, reference dependence, and social preferences), (ii) beliefs and learning (overconfidence, projection bias, and attribution bias), and (iii) decision-making (cognition, attention, framing, and persuasion), as well as (iv) market
reactions to such deviations. Applications will cover a wide range of fields, including labor and public economics, industrial organization, health economics, household finance, political economy, and development economics.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 3
The Strategy and Information course is an advanced course in game theory. We begin with a rigorous overview of the main equilibrium concepts for non-cooperative games in both static and dynamic settings with either complete or incomplete information. We define and explore properties of iterated strict dominance, rationalizability, Nash equilibrium, subgame perfection, sequential, perfect, and proper equilibria, the intuitive criterion, and iterated weak dominance.
We discuss applications to auctions, bargaining, and repeated games. Then we introduce solution concepts for cooperative games and study non-cooperative implementations. Other topics include matching theory and networks.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 3
The course analyzes the framework of rules and institutions for economic activities and transactions, including emergence and working properties of different institutions and classical and contemporary approaches to economic theory of institutions.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 2
The course explores the role of government in the economy applying tools of basic microeconomics to answer important policy questions such as government response to global warming, school choice by students, social security versus private retirement savings accounts,
government versus private health insurance, setting income tax rates for individuals and corporations.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 3
The Competitive Strategy and Industrial Organization covers the foundations of the field of industrial organization, including the theory of the firm, models of competition, market structure, pricing, and dynamic models. The course emphasizes theory with support from specific industries, including telecommunications, retail, and airlines.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 3
The Real Estates Economics explores key policy issues, their economic impact on real-estate decision-making, and identifies indicators used to track economic and real estate performance. The course also examines the economic structure of major metropolitan areas, the impact of local governments on urban economic growth, the impact of urban economic growth on supply and demand identification for specific property types, and conditions under which certain regions
thrive while others decline. Building upon the concepts and tools of economic analysis, this course introduces appropriate data sources and techniques useful in analyzing and forecasting real estate demand and supply in different markets for specific property types at specific
locations.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 3
The Finance and Society course provides students with a broad historical and social-scientific introduction to a central aspect of modern economic life: Finance. By drawing upon a variety of
disciplinary perspectives from the humanities and social sciences, the course offers a multidimensional picture of finance, not only as an economic phenomenon, but as a political, cultural, intellectual, material, and technological one. The course offers an introduction to foundational financial concepts and technologies and will help students understand finance as a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. This course also provides students with the opportunity to improve skills in written communication, and to learn tools for historical analysis and textual interpretation.

Prerequisites: TBD
Credits: 2
The Financial Crisis course is an introduction to the economic theories of financial crises. It focuses on amplification mechanisms that exacerbate crises, such as leverage, fire sales, bank runs, interconnections, and complexity. It also analyzes the different perspectives on the origins of crises, such as mistaken beliefs and moral hazard, and discusses the optimal regulation of the financial system. The course draws upon examples from financial crises around the world, especially the recent subprime financial crisis.