Course: Introduction to Economic Analysis
Code: ECO101
Instructors: Th. Maniatis - K. Passas
N. Theocarakis
This course is taught in conjunction with the course Introduction to Political Economy. Through the dialogue of these two courses, students are introduced to economic theory and to the important disagreements on important issues between the main schools of economic thought. This course’s emphasis is on understanding the basic concepts of the mainstream economic theory, while Introduction to Political Economyadopts a critical attitude to them. In the Introduction to Economic Analysisstudents will learn the basic concepts, methods, techniques, tools and the approach of mainstream economic theory, both at a micro and macro level so that they will have the basic background for a deeper understanding of economic theory taught in more specialized courses, especially microeconomic and macroeconomic theory . The course is a first introduction to how an economist approaches economic phenomena andit is essentially the basic prerequisite for most courses in the Department.
Course outline
1.The science of economics, theories and models
2. Economic data and concepts
3. Production possibility frontier, efficiency, opportunity cost
4. Demand and Supply
5. Elasticity of demand
6. Consumer choice and demand
7. Cost and firmbehaviour
8.Market forms [perfect competition, pure monopoly, monopolistic competition, and oligopoly]
9. Welfare economics
10.Macroeconomic data [measuring national income and cost of living]
11.Economic growth
12. Saving, investment and the financial system
12. Basic tools of finance
13. Unemployment
14. The monetary system
15. Money growth and inflation
16. Basic concepts of the open economy
Suggested textbooks
N. Gregory Mankiw & Mark P. Taylor, Economics, Thomson Learning, London, 2006. [Greek edition]
David Begg, Stanley Fischer &RudigerDornbusch, Economics, 9th edn, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Maidenhead, 2008 [Greek edition].
E-class: lecture notes, guides and links
