EC107: Economics 1

Amira Elasra
Module Leader

30 CATS - Department of Economics

Introduction

This module allows students to develop an understanding of fundamental and intermediate concepts in micro and macroeconomic analysis by equipping them with a range of appropriate analytical skills, including descriptive, graphical and mathematical methods. This allows students to develop the capacity to apply analytical techniques to real world problems.

Principal Aims

• To develop in students an understanding of fundamental and intermediate concepts in micro and macroeconomic analysis

• To equip students with a range of appropriate analytical skills, including descriptive, graphical and mathematical methods; and

• To develop the capacity to apply analytical techniques to real world problems and build economic models that enable students to better understand the world around us

Principal Learning Outcomes

Subject Knowledge and Understanding:... demonstrate knowledge of economic behaviours, outcomes, trends, developments, phenomena, institutions and policies.

Subject Knowledge and Understanding:...demonstrate an understanding of key concepts, principles, theories and models in Economics.

Subject Specific/Professional Skills:...demonstrate the capacity for abstract reasoning and to simplify economic problems through the application of theoretical models.

Subject Specific/Professional Skills:...demonstrate the capacity to interpret economic data and to use data to inform the selection and application of appropriate economic tools of analysis.

Syllabus

Typically, topics covered will include those such as:

Micro (term 1)

• The Capitalist Revolution

• Technology, Population and Growth

• Scarcity, Work and Choice

• Social Interactions

• Property and Power

• The Firm: Owners, managers and employees

• The Firm and its Customers

• Supply and Demand

• Markets, Efficiency and Public Policy

Macro (Term 2)

• Consumption, saving and investment.

• Aggregate demand, the multiplier and the IS curve

• The labour discipline model of equilibrium unemployment

• Wage setting, inflation and the Phillips Curve

• Social Preferences over inflation and unemployment, the central bank

• Monetary policy stabilisation: central bank responses to economic shocks

• Fiscal policy stabilisation

• Economic growth in historical and global perspective

• The Solow model of economic growth

Context

Core Module: LM1D (LLD2) - Year 1, V7ML - Year 1, V7MP - Year 1, V7MR - Year 1, L1L8 - Year 1, R9L1 - Year 1, R2L5 - Year 1, R3L4 - Year 1, R4L1 - Year 1, R1L4 - Year 1, R2L4 - Year 1, R4LA - Year 1, R1L5 - Year 1, L1CA - Year 1, L1N2 - Year 1
Pre or Co-requisites: This module is available as an optional module for all students outside the Economics Department (except for WBS students) who have achieved a Grade B or better in Mathematics at A-level, or the equivalent. It is a pre-requisite for EC204: Economics 2 and EC238/EC239.

Assessment

Assessment Method: Coursework (30%) + in-person Examination (70%)
Coursework Details: Assessment 1: Problem set (group work) Micro (10%) , Assessment 2: Quizzes (5%) , Assessment 3: Problem set (group work) Macro (10%) , Assessment 4: Quizzes (5%) , in-person Examination (70%)
Exam Timing: Summer