Titular Professors
Professors
Students should come away with an understanding of the fundamental forces driving decision- making on the part of firms and consumers; of how to assess the costs and benefits of these decisions, for both private agents and society as a whole; of how a "perfectly competitive" market should work and benefit society; of how most markets are in fact "imperfect" and how governments can alter market outcomes, for better or for worse.
On the completion of this course students should be able to:
Understand the determination of supply and demand.
Understand market forces and the determination of prices
Understand the concepts of efficiency and economic welfare
Understand the government's role in regulating markets and firm behavior
Understand the different types of market structures -perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic competition
Gain insight into the characteristics and functioning of how product and service markets work in the real world, and how applicable and relevant theory is for understanding these markets.
Methodology Lectures will follow closely the structure and content set out in the main textbook ECONOMICS by Mankiw, N. Gregory and Taylor, Mark P.
Students are expected to come to class prepared, having completed a first approximation to each topic.
Lecture slides will be available to download, and online videos will also be referenced for class preparation and review. Good preparation will generate more time for interactive class sessions and project work.
Students will form project groups at the beginning of the course. Each group will choose a market sector (for any product or service) which will be the focus of weekly project work and a final presentation.
The project will progressively construct a comprehensive profile of the chosen market, incorporating what we have learned about each topic into the analysis. The grade for this project will be based on both weekly work and the final presentation.
Weekly homework quizzes will also be assigned to test students' knowledge of the material covered in the lectures and should help students to develop a regular study routine and sit the exams with confidence.
The final grade will be based on the following:
Class Participation 10%
Market Project 25%
Homework completion 10%
Mid-term exam 25%
Final examination 30%
Mankiw, G., Taylor, M., ECONOMICS, Cengage Learning EMEA, 4th edition 2018