Introduction to economics

Fundamental terms and problems of modern economics

The main aim of the course is to acquaint students with fundamental terms and problems of modern economics and to convey knowledge about concepts pertaining to microeconomics and macroeconomics, as well as key elements of current debates regarding innovativeness, competitiveness, globalization, and role of the government in the economy.

Macroeconomics looks from big-picture perspective, which is concerned with how the overall economy works. It studies employment, gross domestic product, and inflation. It is often the stuff of TV news and public debates. Little-picture microeconomics is concerned with how supply and demand interact in individual markets for goods and services. Microeconomics is based on models of consumers or firms, which economists call agents that make decisions about what to buy, sell, or produce, what constitutes the certain market model.

In macroeconomics, the subject is typically a nation – how all markets interact to generate big phenomena on aggregated level. The object of macroeconomics analysis is a single market, for example, whether price rises in the automobile or oil industries. The government is a major object of analysis in macroeconomics. For example, studying the role it plays in contributing to overall growth or how they are fighting inflation. Macroeconomics often extends to the international sphere and the markets links to each other through trade, investment, and capital flows.

Microeconomics can have an international component as well. Single markets often are not confined to single countries as the global market for petroleum is an obvious international. Microeconomics, in its examination of the behavior of individual consumers and firms, is divided into consumer demand theory, production theory, and related topics such as the nature of market competition. Microeconomics also studies the role of imperfect information in economic outcomes. Microeconomics investigates such issues as the effects of minimum wages, taxes, price support, or monopoly on individual markets. It has applications in trade, industrial organization and market structure, labor economics, public finance, and welfare economics. Microeconomic analysis offers insights into such disparate efforts as making business decisions or formulating public policies.

Course program

1 Microeconomics as a science.
2 Tools of economic analysis.
3 Participants of economic life – households, enterprises (firms), the state.
4 Demand, supply, market.
5 Modeling markets.
6 Reaction of demand to changes in prices and income – elasticity, classification of goods.
7 Operation and organization of the enterprise – revenues, costs, and profits.
8 Fundamentals of production theory – production and cost functions in the short and long run, optima – part 1.
9 Fundamentals of production theory – part 2.
10 Perfect competition – part 1.
11 Perfect competition – part 2.
12 Monopoly.
13 Monopsony.
14 Markets of factors of production – work.
15 Factor markets, capital.

The aim of the course is to get knowledge in the field of the fundamentals of modern microeconomics. It includes mastery of the language and microeconomic analytical tools. Students are developing critical thinking in economic terms by relating theoretical knowledge to economic phenomena occurring at the enterprise and branch level. The course of microeconomics covers fundamentals of microeconomics illustrated with examples of their practical applications. In particular, the emphasis is placed on analysis the problems of economic choice, market development, demand characteristics, supply chains, elasticity of demand and supply, economic life participants, enterprise organization, production functions, costs allocations, revenues and profits configuration, models of extreme market and its structures, perfect competition, and monopoly as well as factor markets.

Professor

dr Anna Matras-Bolibok

Dr Anna Matras-Bolibok is the Assistant professor at the Department of Microeconomics and Applied Economics. She is also graduated in the Master of Science in Science and Technology Commercialization Postgraduate Studies at the University of Lodz, licensed by the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr Anna Matras-Bolibok completed research internship at Universitá degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” (Rome, Italy). She focuses on the issues of innovation and their role in economic development, at the regional level, therefore currently she is contractor in the scientific project of the role of innovation in technological convergence processes in the regional space.

She is co-author of scientific expertise in the field of innovation and determinants of regional development, commissioned by the Marshal’s Office in Lublin, including one as part of the BRIDGES project: “Bridging competence infrastructure gaps and speeding up growth and jobs delivery in regions” (Interreg Europe 2014-2020 Programme) , member of the panel of experts developing the criteria for monitoring and evaluation of the Regional Innovation Strategy of the Lubelskie Voivodeship, member of the team preparing the report “Economic specializations of Lublin – in the new European system of economic interdependence (in the perspective of 2030)” for the development of the Lublin 2030 Strategy, commissioned by the City of Lublin .