Module Description This module introduces students to the tools and concepts of economics, and their application to emerging economies and economic development. While core concepts of economic analysis apply at any level of development, the economies of low- and middleincome countries differ in important ways from those of rich developed countries. They tend to be more volatile, and have large informal and traditional sectors, numerous market frictions, limited financial markets, and high levels of inequality. In term 1, students will be introduced to microeconomics. They will learn the analysis of goods and labour markets, including the roles of competition and monopoly, and other market imperfections. Term 2 completes the module with an introduction to macroeconomics. This includes continuing with the analysis of market imperfections and introducing the finance sector and the relationships between unemployment, inflation, fiscal policy and interest rates in open economies. Educational Aims • Introduce students to the core concepts and models of economics. • Develop the ability to use diagrams to express economic arguments. • Introduce the use of mathematics for expressing economic arguments. • Explore the key features that differentiate emerging economies from more developed economies, including greater levels inequality and poverty, less complete markets, and more market failures. Course Outline and Reading List The textbook used for this module is: CORE: The Economy, a free and collaboratively written e-book. Free online at www.core-econ.org Term 1: Microeconomics Week 1 - The capitalist revolution This week's discussion introduces the students to the course objectives and discusses each week of the course, what is covered and key readings. We also discuss the evolution of capitalism and the way in which it revolutionised how we live, and how economics tries to understand capitalist societies. Reading: CORE Unit 1 Week 2 - Technology, population and growth This week's discussion focuses on how improvements in technology happen and how they sustain growth in living standards, including the broader implications of changes in technology on economic variables. Reading: CORE Unit 2 Week 3 - Scarcity, work and choice This week's lecture focuses on how individuals do the best they can in decision making, and how they resolve the trade-off between earnings and free time. Reading: CORE Unit 3 Week 4 - Social interactions This week's lecture discusses the combination of self-interest, amidst regard for well-being of others, and the appropriate institutions that yield desirable social outcomes when people interact. Reading: CORE Unit 4 Week 5 - Property and power: Mutual gains and conflict This week's discussion focuses on how institutions influence the balance of power in economic interactions and affect the fairness and efficiency of allocations that result. Reading: CORE Unit 5 Week 6 - The firm: Owners, managers and employees This week's lecture looks at how the interactions among the firm's owners, managers and employees influence wages, work and profits, and how this affects the entire economy. Reading: CORE Unit 6 Week 7 - The firm and its customers This week we look at how a profit-maximizing firm producing a differentiated product interacts with its customers. Reading: CORE Unit 7 Week 8 - Supply and demand: Price-taking and competitive markets This week's lecture looks at how the market operates when all buyers and sellers are pricetakers. Reading: CORE Unit 8 Week 9 - Externalities, public goods and other market failures This week we focus on the effects of market-determined prices and their limitations in capturing significant outcomes, including the remedies needed to correct these limitations. Reading: CORE Unit 12 Week 10 - Revision Lecture The week's lecture summarises key theories and concepts covered in this semester, drawing upon their connections to better understand the principles of microeconomics. Term 2: Macroeconomics Reading List: The textbook used for this module continues to be CORE: The Economy, a free and collaboratively written e-book. Free online at www.core-econ.org Week 1: The labour market Reading: CORE Unit 9 Week 2: Banks, money, and the credit market Reading: CORE Unit 10 Week 3: Rent-seeking, price-setting, and market dynamics Reading: CORE Unit 11 Week 4: Economic fluctuations and unemployment Reading: CORE Unit 13 Week 5: Unemployment and fiscal policy Reading: CORE Unit 14 Week 6: Reading week No teaching Week 7: Inflation, unemployment, and monetary policy Reading: CORE Unit 15 Week 8: Technological progress, employment, and living standards in the long run Reading: CORE Unit 16 Week 9: The Great Depression, the golden age and the Global Financial Crisis Reading: CORE Unit 17 Week 10: Macroeconomics of the Covid19 Pandemic Reading: Stiglitz, J et al (2020) “Patents vs. the Pandemic” Project Syndicate Bowles and Carlin (2020) “The Coming Battle for the Covid19 narrative” Vox blog Week 11: Revision
