The course aims at introducing students to main fundamentals of microeconomics, analysing the aspects related to demand, supply, market structure and government intervention, and how this methodological approach differs from macroeconomics. Specifically, the course aims at learning the concepts and mechanisms useful for the description and analysis of the economy, as well as developing the ability to economically interpret consumption and production, prices dynamics, the functioning of markets, the behaviours of economic agents and the interactions between the main macroeconomic variables.

The Political Economy course aims to provide the elements for understanding the principal concepts of microeconomics and macroeconomics. The first part of the course will be devoted to the introduction of microeconomic analysis, topics, such as consumer theory, the study of how consumer demand is influenced by income and prices, the theory of the firm with reference to production technology, costs and the main forms of the market will be addressed, behavioural economics and the application of microeconomics to environmental problems. The second part of the course will focus on the fundamentals of macroeconomics. It will deal with the analysis of the economic system as a whole and the study of economic aggregates such as the gross domestic product, total consumption and investment expenditure, the level of employment, the general price level

- Introduction: the basics of economics, demand, supply, equilibrium
- Consumer theory: consumer constraints and choices, individual and market demand
- Theory of the firm: technology, production and costs
- Analysis of market forms: perfect and imperfect competition
- Markets and government intervention

- Behavioural economics
- Introduction to macroeconomics and national accounting
- Unemployment, inflation, consumption and investment
- Financial system and money

Knowledge and understanding: The student, at the end of the course, should be able to demonstrate a good knowledge of the basic topics: from the behaviour of individual economic agents (consumers and enterprises), to the functioning of markets and the relationships between different macroeconomic variables. The student should be able to link the concepts of microeconomics with the macroeconomics ones, communicating them clearly and with an adequate vocabulary as well as developing the learning skills necessary to acquire new competences through subsequent courses of study.

Applying knowledge and understanding: The student should demonstrate the ability to learn the fundamental concepts of the discipline and to be able to use the main tools to understand economic dynamics and policies.

Autonomy of judgement (making judgements): The student will be able to develop a sufficient ability to critically evaluate problems related to political economy issues, and then to propose possible solutions to these problems.

Communication skills: At the end of the course, the student will have the ability to clearly express the learnt knowledge during the course, using appropriate terms. The student will have the ability to read, interpret and argue issues and problems related to political economy also with the help of graphs and analytical tools.

Learning skills: At the end of the course, the student should have the autonomy in studying and the ability to learn how economic models work and to use them to solve economic problems. The student will therefore be able to combine theoretical and applicative aspects inherent to the topics addressed.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

The reference manual will be embedded by slides and supplementary material.

Teaching

Lectures

Attendance

Attendance is not compulsory but strongly recommended

Course books

P.A. Samuelson, W.D. Nordhaus, C.A. Bollino, ECONOMIA, McGraw-Hill, 21^Edition, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11.2, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24

David A. Besanko, Ronald R. Braeutigam, MICROECONOMIA,  McGraw-Hill, 4^ Edition, Chapter 18

Supplementary material available on the course's Moodle blended.uniurb.it platform

Assessment

Knowledge, comprehension and communication skills will be assessed by means of a written test with open-ended questions, which will require the use of graphs in the explanation of the topics, and closed-ended questions.
The written test consists of 2 open-ended questions, each one allows a maximun of 5 points,  (the student should answer in an articulate and in-depth manner) and 10 closed-ended questions (2 points are awarded for each correct answer). The exam will last 75 minutes.

The exam mode will allow the lecturer to assess whether the student has acquired full knowledge and understanding of the topics in the syllabus. The open-ended questions will show the student's ability to analyse and describe rigorously, and in a limited time, the essential topics covered during the course.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

Same methods of attending students. It is recommended to contact the lecturer during office hours for any clarification of the topics.

Attendance

The same applies as for attending students.

Course books

Same programme of attending students

Assessment

Same as for attending students.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.