Economics

Teacher(s)

Wauthy Xavier;

Language

French

Learning outcomes

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

General aims: - ability to develop an economic analysis of observed facts; - ability to dialogue with economists, i.e. understand their “language” and be able to “speak it”; - develop a discerning mind in regards to the recommendations of economic policy; - Place a legal approach in the economic and social context and, reciprocally, identify the importance of the legal context on the determination of economic behaviours. 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 « L’économie : l’économie pour un monde différent », Yann Algan et l’équipe CORE France, 2017, Editions Eyrolles. In addition, the students have at their disposal an exercise book selected from the textbookbook, with (partial) resolution of exercises. During the exercise sessions, the students are encouraged to work with the course assistants on the basis of these documents.
A complementary learning activity is also proposed. Students will have to read one chapter or a group of chapter selected from the book « Economie utile pour des temps difficiles » de Esther Duflo et Abhijit Banerjee. They will be asked to write a short paper putting the chapter(s) content in critical perspective with a selection of relevant themes covered on the course.

Evaluation methods

Formative assessment: exercise sessions, exercises in the reference handbook, reference to the news.

Summative assessment: the written final exam counts for 75% of the final grade; the complementary written report counts for 25% of the final grade.
- closed book written examination in case of an exam organized in presential mode; opened books in case of distancial mode; organized during the exam sessions. The exam mixes theoretical questions (3/5 of the exam mark) and exercices (2/5 of the exam mark).
- The written report commenting on Banerjee and Duflo’s book must be uploaded on Moodle the day of the final exam at 23h59 at the latest.

Online resources

The slides of the course, along with the sets of exercices is available on the Moodle page of the course.
An online version of the textbook is available at https://www.core-econ.org/project/leconomie-par-lequipe-de-core/

Bibliography

« L’économie : l’économie pour un monde différent », Yann Algan et l’équipe CORE France, 2017, Editions Eyrolles
A . Banerjee, E. Duflo « Economie utile pour des temps difficiles », Seuil, 2020

Teaching materials

• « L’économie : l’économie pour un monde différent », Yann Algan et l’équipe CORE France, 2017, Editions Eyrolles
• « Economie utile pour des temps difficiles » Esther Duflo et Abhijit Banerjee.

Faculty or entity

> ESPB