Dear Colleagues

I would be very grateful if you would make the following information
available to your students and colleagues.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Yours sincerely
Geoff Hodgson

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UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE

MASTERS DEGREE IN INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS  

Starting in September 2000, this degree will be offered in part-time mode
only.

The course is now designed so that students need to attend the University
for short periods of intensive study and weekend courses only, allowing
part-time study to be combined with full-time employment.

Students will be supported through a self-guided study package enabling
preparation and assignments from home.

LECTURERS

Lecturers on the MA Institutional Economics will include:

Professor Geoff Hodgson
Professor Tony Dnes

Guest lecturers will include Dr Tony Lawson from the University of Cambridge.

COURSE PROGRAMME

Year 1 (2000-2001)

Semester A				Semester B

Paradigms in Economics		Institutional and Evolutionary Economics
Economics Methodology		Economics as Realist Social Theory
Research Methods Course		(Dissertation Preparation)

Year 2 (2001-2002)

Managing in Complexity		Economics and Law
International Development		Managing Innovation and Change
Dissertation			Dissertation

MODE OF ATTENDANCE

The MA has been designed to be taken on a part time basis over two years.
You will only need to attend the University for short periods of intensive
teaching each semester. The course is structured so that you can complete
it successfully, even if you are in full-time employment, or live at some
distance or abroad.

The University's academic year is broken into two teaching semesters that
run from September until January, and from February until June.

At the beginning of the semester you will attend for a short introduction
(normally over a weekend), where you will be given a study pack and
readings for each of the courses you are taking. You will then attend a
residential taught course for a week in the middle of the semester for each
course, and will submit your assignment for assessment on each course by
the end of the semester.

There will be a designated web site for the MA, and regular contact can be
maintained with lecturers through email, fax, mail or telephone. 

Over the two years you will take two taught courses per semester. In
addition in the first year you will attend a weekend residential Research
Methods course. In the second year you will also complete a dissertation,
to be submitted by September of that year.

An annual workshop on Institutional Economics will also be held, to which
leading outside speakers will be invited. The workshop will be open to MA
students as well as a wider range of participants.

Guide to timing of course:

Semester A:	September -	Two day workshop plus weekend introductory session
October	-	Weekend Research Methods Course
		October	-	One Week Residential Course
		February	-	Submission of Semester A Assessment

Semester B:	February	-	Weekend Introductory Session	
		March	-	One Week Residential Course
		June	-	Submission of Semester B Assessment
		September-	Submission of dissertation (final year only)

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

You can apply for the programme if you have the equivalent of a UK degree
at 2.2 level or above in a relevant subject area.  Professional experience
may also be taken into account in deciding admission. If you are an
overseas student, for whom English is not your first language, you will
also need to have passed IELTS (6.5) or TOEFL (580).

FACILITIES

Residential courses and workshops will either be held at the University, or
in hotel or conference facilities in Hertfordshire or an adjacent locality.
The location will be chosen in order that students can stay and study
within close proximity, in order to encourage group interaction and support. 

Hertfordshire is within easy access of London, the M25 and M1 motorways, as
well as Heathrow, Stansted and Luton airports. 

The Hertford campus of the University provides advanced computing and
library facilities in its newly equipped Learning Resources Centre. An
integrated learning support electronic system is provided by the Learning
Information System.  The facilities are open in the evenings and at
weekends to provide access for all full-time and part-time students.

The Business School is set in idyllic parkland surroundings, and has good
sports facilities, including tennis courts and a swimming pool. The
Hertford campus is just north of London, with easy access by road or train.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Contact:

The Admissions Office
University of Hertfordshire
College Lane, Hatfield
Hertfordshire AL10 9AB, UK

Tel: +44(0) 1707 284 800
Fax: +44(0) 1707 284 870
Email: [log in to unmask]

WHAT IS INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS?

Institutional economics constitutes one of the most exciting and topical
developments in contemporary social science. Companies, governments and
international organisations (such as the United Nations and World Bank) are
giving increasing attention to sound institutional arrangements for
economic development and future prosperity.

A primary concern of Institutional Economics is to make economics relevant,
operational and practical, instead of the pursuit of mathematical modelling
for its own sake. It brings the study of key social institutions - such as
the firm, the state, the market and the family - into the spotlight of
analysis. 

Within Institutional Economics there is a strong focus on such factors as
the role of culture, custom and routines in economic behaviour and
development. It addresses economic and institutional change, usually
ignored by other approaches and is thus an ideal analytical approach in a
complex and rapidly changing world.

The study of institutions is necessarily interdisciplinary, combining
insights from economics, sociology, philosophy, psychology, history and
complexity theory. Modern institutional economics is fully engaged with
leading developments in the social sciences as well as management and
business organisation. It combines theory with real world data, in an
attempt to explain underlying processes and relations.

Modern institutional and evolutionary economics is now developed to the
point where it has extensive theoretical and policy applications - in areas
such as technical change and technology policy, the theory of the firm and
corporate strategy, and the economics of development and transition.

The following institutional economists have been awarded the Nobel Prize in
Economics: Douglass North (1993), Ronald Coase (1991), Gunnar Myrdal
(1974), and Simon Kuznets (1971).

The MA in Institutional Economics will study both the 'old' institutional
economics of Thorstein Veblen, John Commons, Wesley Mitchell and Gunnar
Myrdal and the 'new' institutional economics of Ronald Coase, Douglass
North and Oliver Williamson. The merits and limitations of each tradition
will be examined.


Geoff Hodgson
Research Professor
University of Hertfordshire
http://www.herts.ac.uk/business/esds/hodgson.htm


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