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Ashoka University’s undergraduate course curriculum is taught across three semesters: Spring, Summer and Monsoon (Fall). Courses are broadly divided into three categories – Foundation Courses (core curriculum), Major & Minor Courses and Co-Curricular Courses.
You may search courses offered at Ashoka here. Please use the drop down menu to choose the specific semester and subject to see the full list of courses under each department. Foundation courses are offered in all semesters and do not have prerequisites. Offerings in other categories differ in each semester. Some higher level major/minor courses may have prerequisites.
To view Summer Semester Courses-2024: Click here
Why should any good economics major aspire to have a degree of command over economic theory? What role does theory play in our ability to meaningfully answer important economic and socio-political questions? How has theory influenced the culture of economics?
This course is motivated by the desire to engage with these questions. Rather than giving abstract answers, we will address these questions by working through some of modern economic theory's most important ideas and models. Indeed, our approach to answering what is (good) theory would be to focus on what theory does, and a key goal of this course is to present this doing as an ever-evolving, sometimes contested, and very often hegemonizing process that shapes the culture of professional economics. In this regard, the course hopes to show that areas in economics that have flourished in thought and practice are invariably those built on one or two dominant foundational models. Conversely, many equally compelling areas of economic inquiry have failed to realize their potential because such foundational theorizing was not forthcoming.
In terms of pedagogical style, the goal of the course is not to cram models in a cookbook style but to work through them foundationally. Specifically, in the context of the models we will engage with, we would like to ask such fundamental questions as: What gap in the literature and questions was the model motivated by? How did it go about answering these questions? How did it contribute to the subsequent growth of economic thought and research? In other words, we will focus on motivating and situating models in their proper context. The course will strongly emphasize understanding both the methodological underpinnings and the substantive empirical content of the models we will encounter.
Some of the broad themes around which we will organize the course are the following:
