Introduction to it

FundamentalCourse Information

Course Title

Introduction to Economics

Course ID

TSF1016

(Course Type)

Fundamental Sequence

(Credit/ hours per week)

3/3

Version (date)

1.0 (2022.08)

Instructor

Professor Jose L. Tongzon; Email: [e-mail]

Course Learning Objective

Students will learn on : 1. What is economics? 2. How consumers behave? 3. How producers make decisions? 4. What is the role of government in economy? 5. Why there are business cycles? 6. What is fiscal policy? 7. What is monetary policy? 8. How is exchange rate determined?

Course Description

This is an introductory course to understand economic theories on demand, supply, price, profit maximization, utility maximization, national account, inflation, unemployment, business cycles, government policies on tax, and money. It will cover basic theories of microeconomics and macroeconomics.

Course Outcomes

NO Details Understand economic behavior of consumers and producers. Understand how the market system works. Understand GDP, GNP, business cycles, determinants of GDP, national account and other macroeconomic concepts. Understand fiscal and monetary policies and how they can affect the market economy. Understand the concepts of unemployment and inflation. Understand the factors and determinants of economic growth

(Prerequisites)

[Mandatory]

(Recommended Courses after This Course)

Microeconomics, Macroeconomics

Course Software or Tool

Textbook

Title

Authors

Publisher

Place

Year

ISBN

Essentials of Economics

Paul Krugman et al.

Worth Publisher

2014

0230019285

Lecture type

Lecture, Q&A

(Notes)

There will be discussion questions for students to answer based on previous lectures. There will be one discussion question per week starting in Week 2. These discussion questions can be found in this course outline below.

(Evaluation Criteria)

(Attendance)

10%

(Participation)

10%

(Midterm Exam)

40%

(Final Exam)

40%

(Total)

100 %

(Methods of Evaluation)

Attendance (10%) Participation (10%) Midterm and Final Exams (80%)

Introduction to Economics - continued

Weekly Topical Outline of Course
(1st Week)	Topic	Introduction
	Contents	Course syllabus and introduction
(2nd Week)	Topic	What is economics? (Read Chapters 1 & 2 of your text)
	Contents	Economic Problems and tradeoffs
	Discussion Question	What is basic problem that economics is trying to solve? Describe the pros and cons of the market system as a way of solving this basic problem. Why do you think having some basic knowledge of economics is important?
(3rd Week)	Topic	Supply and Demand (Read Chapters 3 & 4 of your text)
	Contents	Excess demand, Excess Supply, Market equilibrium,
	Discussion Question	What are the factors affecting demand and supply of a product or service?
(4th Week)	Topic	Elasticity (Read Chapter 5 of your text)
	Contents	Elasticity of demand and supply
	Discussion Question	Why is it important for a firm to know the elasticity of demand for its product or service?
(5th Week)	Topic	The Producer (Read Chapter 6 of your text)
	Contents	Cost, Profit Maximization
	Discussion Question	What are the two types of costs producers incur? Explain using examples.
(6th Week)	Topic	The Market Structure (Read Chapters 7 & 8 of your text)
	Contents	From Perfect Competition to Monopoly
	Discussion Question	Describe the different types of market structure and the implications of each market structure for consumers.
(7th Week)	Topic	The Role of Government (Read Chapters 9 & 10 of your text)
	Contents	Public Goods, Externality
	Discussion Question	What make a good a public good? What is a negative externality? And Why is the government necessary to produce the public good and to deal with externalities?
(8th Week)	Topic	Midterm Exam
	Contents
	Homework

Introduction to Economics - continued

(9th Week)	Topic	What is Macroeconomics? (Read Chapter 10 of your text)
	Contents	Aggregate Demand, Aggregate Supply
	Discussion Question	What types of economic issues macroeconomics deals with? Why do we need to have a macroeconomic view of an economic issue? Under what conditions can government intervention in the market justified?
(10th Week)	Topic	National Income (Read Chapters 11 & 12 of your text)
	Contents	GNP, GDP
	Discussion Question	In the presence of externalities and public goods, why is the government justified to intervene in the market? What is the difference between GNP and GDP? Why is it important to know the difference?
(11th Week)	Topic	Determination of National Income (Read Chapters 11 & 12 of your text)
	Contents	Y = C + I + G + (X – M)
	Discussion Question	Describe the different ways of measuring national income.
(12th Week)	Topic	Determination of National Income and Economic Growth (read Chapter 13 of your text)
	Contents	Simple Keynesian Model
	Discussion Question	Based on the Keynesian model, what are the determinants of national income or GDP?
(13th Week)	Topic	Fiscal Policy (Read Chapters 14 & 15 of your text)
	Contents	Budget Deficit, Tax Cut
	Discussion Question	What do you mean by “fiscal policy”? What are the basic instruments of fiscal policy? What are its limitations?
(14th Week)	Topic	Monetary Policy (Read Chapter 17 of your text)
	Contents	Demand for Money, Supply for Money
	Discussion Question	What do you mean by “monetary policy”? What are the basic instruments of monetary policy? What are its limitations?
(15th Week)
	Contents	Final Exam

Notes


Attendance

Class attendance is checked before starting the class. If the student is not present during the attendance check he or she is considered absent. The professor should be notified by the late coming student right after the class so that he or she is not considered absent. Otherwise, he or she is still considered absent even if he or she came late. The rule for the number of absences allowed before a student will get a grade of F remains the same – 5 or more absences will be given an F.

If students are unable to attend the class due to sickness or other justifiable reasons, they should provide genuine medical certificates and other proofs to be submitted to the Academic Affairs as early as possible. As a general rule, any appeals based on medical grounds or other justifiable reasons during the grading period (Weeks 16 & 17) will not be considered.

Participation

Class participation is assessed based on students’ participation during the discussion sessions. Discussion sessions are used to provide interactive discussions with students based on the lectures presented and other questions that students may have regarding previous lectures. Discussion sessions are divided therefore into two parts: the first part consists of discussions based on predetermined discussion questions; the second part consists of discussions based on questions that students may have regarding the previous lectures and the course in general.

The importance of participating in these discussion sessions cannot be overemphasized since this is the only time we can have interactive discussions to enhance the learning process.


Midterm and Final Examination

These examinations will cover all materials covered in the course. Midterm exams will cover all lectures and discussions for the first half of the semester while the final exams will cover all lectures and discussions in the second half of the semester. Guidelines for the exams will be provided as we get closer to the exams. NO MAKE-UP, LATE, OR EARLY EXAMS WILL BE GIVEN as a general policy except in emergencies. Business-related absences (e.g.: job interview or business trip) are not excused. In addition, academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. It can result in an F in an exam or in the course. See University policy on academic dishonesty for more details.

Textbook

To access the main textbook for this course, you can click the following link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mjre5hwx0E6ahjx3t_fxDcp_AAfA-TM6/view?usp=sharing

End