Bridging Business Economics

MSc Bridging Course, Nova School of Business and Economics, 2019

Course Instructor

August 13 - 17, 2019

Course Aims

The course introduces students to the fundamental concepts of economics. It is meant to endow students with the foundations and basic underpinnings of the economic analysis of firms and markets, and as such is targeted towards students with little to no background in economics or management.

Course Content

1 Markets and WelfareThe demand and supply curves
Movements along the curve vs. shifting the curve
Interaction between supply and demand, and market equilibrium
Demand elasticity and its determinants
Supply elasticity and its determinants
Applications of elasticities
2 Inside the firmThe production process
Average and marginal productivity
From production to costs
Fixed and variable costs
Marginal costs
Average costs and scale economies
Short-run and Long-run costs
3 The firm in the competitive marketThe supply curve
The short run decision to exit and sunk costs
The long run decision to exit (or enter) the market
Perfect competition in the long run

Learning Objectives

1) Knowledge and Understanding

  • Understand the basic principles of economic reasoning;
  • Understand how supply and demand forces interact in the marketplace to form prices and determine quantities traded;
  • Understand how basic government intervention changes the market equilibrium;
  • Understand the determination of firms’ production costs and their importance in shaping firm behavior

2) Subject-Specific Skills

  • The concepts of supply, demand, and the associated movements of these curves;
  • Understand and apply the concepts of elasticities;
  • The cost structure of firms and differences between short and long run dynamics;
  • Bringing all concepts together to understand models of how firms behave in a competitive or monopoly market structure.

3) General Skills

  • Application of the foundations of economics to build critical thinking skills;
  • Learning to apply the concepts learned to everyday scenarios, policy discussions, national or municipal issues, and specific case studies

Bibliography

  • N. Gregory Mankiw, Principles of Microeconomics, 6th edition