Economics

Teacher(s)

Wauthy Xavier;

Language

French

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

Based on a renewed methodological approach, the course aims to equip students with a series of basic skills in the field of economics: - Ability to construct an economic analysis of observed facts. - Dialogue with economists, i.e. understand their "language" and know how to "speak" it. - To critically consider economic policy recommendations. - Place a legal approach in the economic and social context and, conversely, identify the scope of the legal framework in determining economic behaviour. - To place economic reflection in an interdisciplinary context Specific aims: - explain observed economic facts; - establish the links that may exist between individual incentives and market behaviour; - use theoretical analyses studied in class in simple applications, or to comment on articles or observed facts; - define a set of economic concepts essential for analysis; - represent economic situations with the help of graphs and, inversely, explain the signification of the graphs.

Content

The course will cover a set of economic themes central to the functioning of market economies, both from a microeconomic and a macroeconomic perspective. The approach adopted will consist in starting from economic and societal facts or problems for which economic tools will be progressively constructed and mobilised in order to bring out an understanding of the phenomena and their solutions. The following is a non-exhaustive list of themes:
- The capitalist revolution
- Scarcity, work and individual choices
- The role of social interactions
- Property and power: mutual gains and conflict
- The firm and its customers
- Markets and competition
- The labour market: wages, profits and unemployment
- Banks, money and the credit market
- Markets, efficiency and public policy
- Economic fluctuations and unemployment
- Unemployment and fiscal policy
- Inflation, unemployment and monetary policy
- ...

Teaching methods

The course is a lecture based on the book of Gregory Mankiw and Mark Taylor "Principes de l'économie", published by De Boeck Université. In addition, the students have at their disposal an exercise book selected from Mankiw's book, with (partial) resolution of exercises. A selection of articles to be reviewed and commented and a set of exercises are also available from the University Saint-Louis website. During the exercise sessions, the students are encouraged to work with the course assistants on the basis of these documents.

Evaluation methods

In the case of a face-to-face examination, the examination is written, in session, in closed books. In the case of a distance learning examination, the examination is written in session, with open books.

Other information

The course slides will be made available to students via the reprographics and on the course Moodle site.

Bibliography

Le cours s’appuie sur un ouvrage de référence :
« L’économie : l’économie pour un monde différent », Yann Algan et l’équipe CORE France, 2017, Editions Eyrolles
Cet ouvrage est également disponible en ligne, gratuitement, à l’adresse suivante : https://www.core-econ.org/project/leconomie-par-lequipe-de-core/

Faculty or entity

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