This module aims to equip students of business management and accounting with a questioning-based approach to understanding the relevance and applicability of economics tools of analysis to problems relating to the wider economic environment which should be of use to them in their further study of business and accounting.

This module aims to introduce students, many of whom will never have studied economics before, to the fundamentals of the subject. It will give a basic grounding firstly in economic interaction at the level of individual consumers, employees and firms, and then in aggregate at the level of the national and global economy, and show students how an understanding of how economic ideas and concepts can be of considerable relevance to the challenges and decisions faced by businesses and their leaders.

A    Knowledge and Understanding:

• grasp the importance of economics as the the study of human interaction in a market-based capitalist economy.
• gain an understanding key microeconomic concepts of opportunity cost, scarcity, demand and supply as they relate to contemporary economic challenges.
• apply the concepts of economic supply and demand and how they affect the behaviour of the firm and impact on employees
• understand and be able to apply the concept of elasticity of demand to marketing and strategy problems.
• show an awareness of the issues surrounding private sector firms’ motivation.
• gain an understanding of game-theoretic thinking in economics as applied to issues of individual and firm interaction and strategic behaviour
• understand the importance and role of institutions as constraints and facilitators of economic interaction
• understand the importance of money and financial institutions for the wider economy.
• understand the roles of monetary and fiscal policy in influencing aggregate economic activity, and resolving economic fluctuations
• show an awareness of the driving factors behing long-run economic development and growth
• understand the essentials of macroeconomic policy debates, in the light of the global financial crisis

B    Intellectual Skills:

• demonstrate the ability to apply economic  theoretical concepts and hypotheses to understanding contemporary economic issues as part of the lecture programme and through tutorial work.
• develop a question-motivated approach to learning the usefulness of economic tools for understanding the wider business environment..

C    Discipline Specific Skills:

• develop questioning, problem solving and explanatory skills through tutorial work, coursework and examination questions.
• be able to apply the economic notion of opportunity cost to practical business decisions.
• appreciate how economic analysis might usefully contribute to solving problems of inefficiency and failure within firms and markets.
• demonstrate an understanding of why and how governments might intervene in the economy, and how institutions may work to improve economic performance.

D    Transferable Skills:

• learn to work independently on module material as part of the normal learning process.
• acquire the intellectual technique and work ethic necessary to master new ideas and alternative intellectual approaches.
• develop the ability and confidence to communicate with staff and students through the work in tutorials.
• demonstrate clear, precise writing skills within module assessments.

The formal core timetable consists of 40 lectures and 8 hours of tutorials per year. This module is taught to a very large number of students, a number of which have no prior knowledge of economics, whilst others have studied to secondary school level. Taking account of this disparity, the module offers both an initial schooling on basic economic concepts and theories, and new material, insights and developments that will interest those who have studied economics previously. The assessment and tutorial programme is the same for all students.

Students will be provided with detailed readings from a selection of introductory texts. This material, together with the lecture notes will provide the context for the tutorials, which concentrate on exploring the importance of the studied concepts and theories in the ‘real world’, and upon readying the students for their eventual tests and examinations by problem solving and in depth discussions of the course materials.

Assessment consists of two components:

1. The Autumn examination will consist of both essay questions and short-response questions covering the microeconomics section of the module.
2. The Spring examination will consist of both essay questions and short-response questions covering the macroeconomics section of the module.

Parkin, M. 2016. Economics. 12^th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education. 
Available at Aberconway library and online at: http://bit.ly/2af191f 

ALTERNATIVES

Gillespie, A. 2016. Foundations of economics. 4^th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available at Aberconway library.

Sloman, J. and Jones, E. 2011. Economics and the business environment. 3^rd ed. Harlow: FT Prentice Hall. Available at Aberconway library.

Lipsey, R.G. and Chrystal, K. 2015. Economics. 13^th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available at Aberconway library.

NOTE: Most introductory texts will be adequate in combination with the module materials supplied