Department of Economics, Unit Catalogue 2011/12 |
|
 Credits:
| 6 |
| Level:
| Certificate (FHEQ level 4) |
| Period: |
Semester 1 |
| Assessment:
| CW 40%, EX 60% |
| Supplementary Assessment: | ES10001 - Resit Exam (where allowed by programme regulations) |
| Requisites:
| |
| Description:
| Aims: This course unit is designed to provide an introduction to the methods of microeconomic analysis, including the use of simple economic models and their application. The aims of the course are to enable students to derive conclusions from simple economic models and evaluate their realism and usefulness. Together with ES20011 Intermediate Microeconomics (to be taken in the second year), we aim to provide students with a thorough grounding in the basic principles of microeconomics and exposure to a range of applications. Learning Outcomes: The learning objectives are that, on completion of the module, students should be able to understand and apply basic microeconomic principles to the economic decisions of households and firms under a variety of market conditions. Students should be able to use these principles both to describe and to appraise these decisions, and should be competent in the verbal, diagrammatic and basic mathematical concepts and techniques used in introductory microeconomics. The second year unit, ES20011 further develops the theoretical toolkit, so that students will have a firmer and more formal grasp of both theoretical material and applications. Skills: Basic grounding in introductory microeconomics. Students will acquire skills in problem solving through work completed in class and assessment. They will undertake a piece of applied research work with respect to a current topic in microeconomics. Content: Introduction to Markets; Household Behaviour; Production and Costs; Perfect Competition and Monopoly; Imperfect Competition; Factor Markets - Labour; Risk and Uncertainty; Welfare Economics: Key Texts: * Begg, D., R. Dornbusch and S. Fischer (BDF). Economics. Eighth Edition, McGraw Hill, 2005. * Parkin, M., M. Powell and K. Mathews (PPM). Economics. Sixth Edition, Addsion Wesley, 2005. * Lipsey, R. G. and K. A. Chrystal (LC). Principles of Economics. Eleventh Edition, Oxford University Press, 2007. |
| Programme availability: |
ES10001 is Compulsory on the following programmes:Department of Economics
ES10001 is Optional on the following programmes:Department of Social & Policy Sciences
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