湖南城市学院课程教学大纲
课程名称
西方经济学
英文名称
Economics
适用专业
非工管专业
课程性质
专业基础课
学分
课程编号
总 学 时
48
先修课程
高等数学
参考教材
Essentials of Economics
3
理论学时
48
BR.Schiller
实践学时
上机学时
Posts & Telecom Press
一、课程性质、目的与任务
The course aims to engage the student with the fundamentals of economics. Its
purpose is to equip students handling economic problems with the standard economist’s
tool kit of (economic) intuition, graphical analysis and basic calculus techniques, thereby
enhancing students’ analytical power. Standard topics covered include: demand and
supply, price and output determination under different market structures, consumer and
producer theory, equilibrium, exchange and gains from trade.
二、课程的基本内容和教学要求
1. Introduction
·Explain the concepts of scarcity and opportunity cost
·Identify the basic choices facing any economy
·Explain and use the supply and demand model.
·Identify and explain the role of prices in the market system
2．Supply and Demand
·Differentiate between demand and quantity demanded and supply and quantity
supplied.
·Graph demand and supply curves when given demand and supply schedules.
·State the Law of Demand and the Law of Supply.
·List the major determinants of demand and supply.
·Explain the concept of equilibrium price and quantity.
·Explain the effects of changes in demand and supply on equilibrium price and
quantity.
3．Consumer Demand
·Explain why a consumer will buy more (less) of a commodity when its price
falls (rises) by using the income and substitution effects.
·Define marginal utility and state the law of diminishing marginal utility.
·List four assumptions made in the theory of consumer behavior.
·State the utility-maximizing rule.
·Use the utility-maximizing rule to determine a consumer’s spending when
given income, utility, and price data.
4．Supply Decisions
·Distinguish between explicit and implicit costs, and between normal and
economic profits.
·Differentiate between the short run and the long run.
·Compute marginal and average product when given total product data.
·Explain the relationship between total, marginal, and average product.
·Distinguish between fixed, variable and total costs.
·Explain the difference between average and marginal costs.
·Compute and graph AFC, AVC, ATC, and marginal cost when given total cost
data.
·Explain how AVC, ATC, and marginal cost relate to one another.
·Explain what can cause cost curves to rise or fall.
5．Competition
·List the four basic market models and characteristics of each.
·Describe characteristics of a purely competitive firm and industry.
·Compute average, total, and marginal revenue when given a demand schedule
for a purely competitive firm.
·Use both TR-TC and MR-MC approaches to determine short-run price and
output that maximizes profits (or minimizes losses) for a competitive firm.
·Find the short-run supply curve when given short-run cost schedules for a
competitive firm.
6．Monopoly
·why some markets have only one seller.
·how a monopoly determines the quantity to produce and the price to charge.
·how the monopoly’s decisions affect economic well-being.
·the various public policies aimed at solving the problem of monopoly.
·why monopolies try to charge different prices to different customers.
7．The Labor Market
·the labor demand of competitive, profit-maximizing firms.
·the household decisions that lie behind labor supply.
·why equilibrium wages equal the value of the marginal product of labor.
8．The Business Cycle
·why an economy’s total income equals its total expenditure.
·how gross domestic product (GDP) is defined and calculated.
·the breakdown of GDP into its four major components.
·the distinction between real GDP and nominal GDP.
9．Aggregate Supply and Demand
·three key facts about short-run economic fluctuations.
·how the economy in the short run differs from the economy in the long run.
·how to use the model of aggregate demand and aggregate supply to explain
economic fluctuations.
· how shifts in either aggregate demand or aggregate supply can cause booms
and recessions.
10．Fiscal Policy and Money Policy
·the theory of liquidity preference as a short-run theory of the interest rate.
·how monetary policy affects interest rates and aggregate demand.
·how fiscal policy affects interest rates and aggregate demand.
·the debate over whether policymakers should try to stabilize the economy.
三、学时分配
序号
主
要 内 容
学时
分配 理论
1
Introduction
4
4
2
Supply and Demand
4
4
3
Consumer Demand
4
4
4
Supply Decisions
6
6
5
Competition
6
6
6
Monopoly
6
6
7
The Labor Market
4
4
8
The Business Cycle
4
4
9
Aggregate Supply and Demand
4
4
10
Fiscal Policy and Money Policy
6
6
48
48
合计
其
实践
中
上机 实习
设计
四、课程习题的要求
The exercises aims to consolidate the theory knowledge in the classroom and basic
concept, Grape the basic analysis method and the analysis tool of the economics, exercise
independent thinking and analysis question ability.
五、考试内容和要求
The theory knowledge and the basic concept, the basic analysis method and the
analysis tool of the economics, the thinking and analysis question ability.
六、课程主要参考书
1．Mansfield, Edwin (1997), Microeconomics: Theory and Applications, 9th edition,
New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
2．Grinols, Earl L. (1994), Microeconomics, Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton
Mifflin Company.
3．Binger, Brian R., and Elizabeth Hoffman (1998), Microeconomics with Calculus,
2nd edition, Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc.
4．Hall & M Liberman: Economics, South-Western College. 1998 (Hall)
5．Xiaoping Wang: Microeconomics and Macroeconomics, 2nd ed. Jiangxi People's
Press.1997. (Wang)
制定人：孙倩
审定人：
批准人：
2009 年 8 月