LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course of Economics offers the essential tools required to understand the incentives behind the choices of rational economic agents operating in a certain market.

PREREQUISITES

In order to attend in the most profitable way the course of Economics a basic knowledge about relations between algebraic variables is strictly necessary. The concepts studied by economists can be often conveyed in numerical form and economic variables can be illustrated by means of graphs (or Cartesian diagrams) which are the main tools for analyzing their patterns. Graphs and diagrams serve mainly two purposes. First, in the formulation of economic theories they offer a synthetic and a visual representation of the theoretical frameworks taken into consideration, which is usually more easily understood than the corresponding analytical expressions that instead relies on systems of equations. Moreover, in the analysis of economic data, graphs allow students to highlight how economic variables are correlated with each other and establishing their temporal trend.

TEACHING METHODS

The course is taught with frontal lectures, for a total of 54 hours (corresponding to 9 CFU), during the lessons the main microeconomic and macroeconomic models will be presented and discussed.
Any changes due to the COVID emergency will be announced on Aulaweb.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Microeconomics Basic concepts. Competition and efficiency. Market failures.
Macroeconomics Basic concepts. The market for goods. Financial markets. The IS-LM model and short-run equiibrium.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

N. Gregory Mankiw, L’essenziale di economia, ultima edizione, Zanichelli, Bologna.

Le parti del testo di riferimento sono i seguenti capitoli: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 25 e 26. Altro materiale sarà carito sulla piattaforma di aula web.