The course introduces the student to both microeconomic and macroeconomic issues. The purpose of this course is to provide the student with the theoretical framework and the basic tools needed to understand and to give a critical assessment of the behavior of economic agents (consumers, producers, institutions) in a market economy, both in a microeconomic and in a macroeconomic perspective. This allows to better understand the economic context and to make appropriate economic decisions.
This introduction to Economics provides a useful basis for a number of other courses, also in different subjects, in which economic choices by firms, consumers, policy-makers are discussed.
The first part of the course deals with Microeconomics, that is the study of individual economic behavior of consumers and firms, and how they determine the market equilibrium under different forms of competition. This part is based on online open access course given at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) by prof. Jonathan Gruber and adapted by the course faculty.
The second part of the course covers the basics of Macroeconomics, that is the study of the determinants of a country’s Gross Domestic Product, employment and income as whole, and of the fluctuations experienced by economic systems. This part of the course deals also with the economic policies, both fiscal and monetary policies, that can be put in place to influence the overall economic equilibrium of a country.
