Handbook

This subject introduces students to essential macroeconomic and microeconomic ideas, models and reasoning. This economic knowledge is used to explore important questions such as, is economics a value free science?, do individuals behave rationally?, how and why do market structures vary across different industries and why is this knowledge important?, do markets ever fail, and if so, why?, what are some causes and implications of inflation and unemployment?, how do monetary and financial systems operate?, and how do governments typically respond to domestic macroeconomic volatility? While these questions will not be fully answered in this introductory subject, policy challenges and case studies will be used to demonstrate the importance of basic economic reasoning if sensible answers to economic and social challenges are to be found, and to stimulate greater awareness of economic approaches to the analysis of contemporary social issues.