Economic Principles

Our Economic Principles short course will give you a solid foundation in national and international economic policies and issues, and the analytical skills to discuss contemporary problems of both principle and policy.

We begin the Economic Principles course with an introduction to the main schools of thought in economics along with a brief survey of the types of evidence economists use to support their arguments. Following this, we introduce you to the basic ideas of microeconomics (the study of parts of the economy such as markets and firms) and macroeconomics (the study of the whole economy, including causes of growth, recession, inflation and unemployment). Finally, our scope widens to include the international economy and topics such as development and environmental issues.

By the end of the course, you will be familiar with key terminology and themes in public policy debate and be able to apply basic principles to real-world economic behaviour.

Teaching is through a combination of lectures, seminars and class presentations, either individually or in groups, and topics include:

• economic methodologies and the analysis of the market, buyers and sellers and price
• the economics of the firm
• the labour market and income distribution
• allocative efficiency and market failure
• macroeconomics - basic models and measurement
• fiscal and monetary analysis and policy, inflation and unemployment
• international trade and development.

The course is assessed by two 1500-word assignments (30% each) and an in-class assessment (40%).