Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this module, students will be able to:
1. understand how economics views the concepts of scarcity and choice and how consumers make decisions regarding consumption, work and lesiure
2. understand the role of markets in co-ordinating decisions of buyers and sellers
3. understand the different factors affecting markets and the usefulness of concepts such as elasticity
4. understand the concept of efficiency and how economic surplus is divided between agents
5. gain a knowledge of concepts vital to firm decision making such as production, costs, revenues and profits.
6. describe profit maximization and price/ouput decisions under conditions of perfect and imperfect competition
7. understand interactions in the form of altruism and trust between agents such as consumers and firms
8. understand the extent of inequality in modern economies and how to measure and address it
9. understand how and when markets can fail and how government intervention may correct such failures, using climate change as an example.
Indicative Module Content:
The module assumes no prior knowledge of economics and so initially some introductory material is provided. The module then discusses how economics models the decisions made by consumers in areas such as work/leisure and consumption. Concepts such as supply, demand, markets and elasticity are introduced at this stage. The module then models decisions made by firms in areas such as technology, costs , output and pricing. The module then discusses market structure covering the spectrum from perfect competition, to monopolistic competition to oligopoly and monopoly. The final third parts of the course examines (a) strategic interactions between consumers and firms not always covered in traditional models of economics (b) the extent of income inequality in modern societies and how to address it and (c) how markets can fail and how interventions, sometimes but not always by governments, can attempt to correct for these failures. In part (c) special attention will be given to climate change and policies to regulate emissions.