Economics
Code
10579
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia
Department
Departamento de Engenharia Electrotécnica
Credits
3.0
Teacher in charge
Duarte Miguel Machado Carneiro de Brito
Weekly hours
3
Total hours
42
Teaching language
Português
Objectives
To have a basic understanding of the problems addressed by Economic Theory, both at the microeconomics (consumer and firm behavior, market mechanisms) and the macroeconomics level (macroeconomics variables and economic policy). In general terms, it is expected that students learn basic microeconomic and macroeconomic concepts and learn how to analyze problems that are new to them in a formal way, based on (economic) models, developing their logic reasoning skills
Prerequisites
None
Subject matter
1. Fundamental concepts in economics: scarcity and choice. Production possibilities frontier and opportunity cost.
2. & 3. Supply function and demand function.
4. Market equilibrium. Consumer and producer surplus.
5. Demand and supply elasticity.
6. Public intervention: Taxes and subsidies, price ceilings and price floors.
7. Production function and cost functions: total cost, average cost and marginal cost.
8. The perfect competition case. Short and long and run equilibria.
9. Market equilibrium and efficiency. Market failures, public goods and externalities.
10. Monopoly theory: uniform price and price discrimination. Welfare effects.
11. Introduction to macroeconomics. National Accounts.
12. The multiplier model.
13. Inflation.
Bibliography
Samuelson, Paul e W. Nordhaus, 2005, Microeconomics, 18th Edition, McGraw-Hill.
Samuelson, Paul e W. Nordhaus, 2005, Macroeconomics, 18th Edition, McGraw-Hill.
Frank, Robert, 2003, Microeconomics and Behavior, 5th Edition, McGraw-Hill
Dornbusch, R., S. Fisher e R. Startz, 2004, Macroeconomics, 9th Edition, McGraw Hill.
Teaching method
The content of the course is taught in theoretical classes, during which interaction with students is stimulated. Problem sets with practical exercises to support understanding of the material covered in the theoretical classes are solved to illustrate the theory.
Evaluation method
The evaluation is made up of three mid-term tests, each with the same weight on the final grade.