SUBJECT

Basic economics

lecture

master

Faculty of Social Sciences

Health Policy, Planning and Financing (Specialization in Health Economics) MSc (part time)

4

Semester 1

Autumn semester

The course presents micro- and macroeconomics theory and applications at an intermediate level.

Students will learn core issues of microeconomics (scarcity, choice and interaction of choices, consumer and firm behaviour, modelled operation of market forces and nature of market failures, etc.) understand the contexts of economic processes and methods of economic analysis. Getting familiar with neoclassical microeconomics and its applications, boundaries and extensions, studens will be able to apply their knowledge to policy debates and evaluation on issues including health care and health insurance markets.

During the course we also examine the basic macroeconomic issues: economic growth, inflation, unemployment, technological progress, budget deficits, and monetary and fiscal policies as factors affecting macroeconomic performance.

Throughout the course students will be introduced to basic statistical methods to analyze economic growth and structural change such as concentration analysis, standardisation, index numbers and univariate time series analysis.

Accomplishing the course students should be able to perform an evaluation of the economic effect of a certain policy, including the role of incentives and trade-offs in the mechanism. They should be able to discuss the role of the market and the regulator and describe how changes in a certain market fit into the whole system of the economy.

1. Mankiw N. G. (2001): Principles of Microeconomics. 2^nd edition. Harcourt College Publishers (selected chapters) [Mankiw A]
2. Mankiw, N.G. (2013) Macroeconomics. 8^th edition. Palgrave Macmillan (selected chapters) [Mankiw B]