Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza

Basic knowledge of diagrams and graphs

All economic subjects

The course aims at providing students with the basic notions and tools of economic theory, in order to understand the decisions of consumers and firms, their interaction in the market, the role of public intervention and the functioning of the economic system as a whole.

 

At the end of the course, students are supposed to know the basic concepts and tools of micro and macroeconomic theory and being able to apply them to understand economic phenomena, use appropriately the essential terminology and reasoning of economics

 

The course consists of lectures and exercises and will be offered in an online modality (live-streaming lectures on Webex with recording). All teaching material such as recording of the lectures, slides, exercises, and their solutions, plus any additional material, will be uploaded on the Moodle site of the course at the end of each teaching week.

In order to have access to the course, you will have to connect at the time of the lecture to my Webex Room at the address

https://unito.webex.com/meet/gianna.lotito

Please go to the Moodle page of the course by clicking at the bottom of the page and register as a participant.

 

The evaluation will consist of a written test with multiple-choice questions and exercises. The exam would be the same for students who attended the class and students who did not.

Details about the final exam structure will be given during the course.

 

 1. Introduction. What is economics; thinking like an economist; 2. Supply and Demand - How markets work. The market forces of supply and demand; elasticity and its applications; background to demand: consumer choices; background to supply: firms in competitive markets; 3. Markets, efficiency and welfare. Consumers, producers and the efficiency of markets; Supply, demand and government policies. 4. The economics of the public sector. The cost of taxes; 5. Inefficient market allocations. Public goods, common resources; externalities; 6. Firm behaviour and market structures. Firms' production decisions; monopoly; monopolistic competition and oligopoly; 7. Factor markets. The economics of labour markets; 8. Trade. Interdependence and the gains from trade; 9. The data of macroeconomics. Measuring a nation's well-being;  Measuring the cost of living; 10. The real economy in the long run. Production and growth;  unemployment; 11. Money and prices in the long run. Saving and investment; the monetary system; money growth and inflation; 12. Short-run economic fluctuations. Aggregate demand and aggregate supply; the influence of monetary and fiscal policy on aggregate demand; The short-run trade-off between inflation and unemployment; 13. Open-economy macroeconomics - basic concepts