Course description

Title of the Teaching Unit

Economics and methodology of research

Code of the Teaching Unit

21PEC10

Academic year

2022 - 2023

Cycle

Number of credits

Number of hours

Quarter

Weighting

Site

Anjou

Teaching language

French

Teacher in charge

THIRY Géraldine

Objectives and contribution to the program

This course aims to give you the basics, both in macroeconomics and microeconomics, which will be essential for the student to understand the economic environment of a company or of an economic sector. This course aims to provide the concepts necessary to attend the courses “microeconomics” and “macroeconomics” as well as the courses “Economics of Strategy” and “International Economics and Business Cycles”. The course will present the key concepts of the economy starting from concrete issues and problems such as inequalities (intra- and international), the history of capitalism, environmental problems or economic crises and financial instability.

Prerequisites and corequisites

No prerequisite is required since it is an introductory course.

Content

Unit 1 – The Capitalist Revolution
(+ Measuring Living standard, Unit 13)
Unit 2 – Technology Population and Growth
Unit 3 – Scarcity, Labor and Choice
Unit 7 – The firm and its customers
Unit 8 – Supply and demand: Price-taking and competitive markets
Unit 9 – The labour market: Wages, profits, and unemployment
Unit 10 – Banks, money, and the credit market
Unit 14 – Unemployment and fiscal policy
Unit 15 – Inflation, unemployment, and monetary policy

Teaching methods

This course is given in English, at the rate of 3 hours per week in the first quadrimester.
The course is designed to be integrated directly and therefore requires attendance at the course. At the beginning of each class, classroom exercises related to the previous session will be offered. Students are strongly advised to do these exercises! In addition, you will be given the opportunity to do practical exercises outside the course, using empirical data.

Assessment method

The evaluation consists of a written exam, including theoretical questions and exercises similar to those discussed during the year.

References

The textbook will be the free online manual "The Economy", produced and developed by the CORE-ECON project, by the CORE team, which brings together researchers and professors of economics from around the world (see https://www.core-econ.org ).

The manual is available free of charge (as an e-book) at this address: https://core-econ.org/the-economy/?lang=en. Alongside this textbook, you will find several educational resources (documents, databases, ...). To access these resources, you are asked to register here as a student: https://www.core-econ.org/about/?lang=fr