No prerrequisite has been established.
This subject is included in the module Economic Analysis, belonging to the part of Microeconomics. It will be covered during the two terms corresponding to the first course of “Business Direction and Administration”.
It contains an introduction to the main topics and methods related to economic analysis, and it permits the students to acquire some basic concepts and tools needed in other areas, as applied economics, economic policy or Spanish economy. The contents of Introduction to Economics will be deepened in the following courses, when the student takes the subjects of Intermediate Microeconomics and Intermediate Macroeconomics.
This subject helps the student to understand the working of a market economy. During the first part of the course, the main topics will be the role played by relative prices as signals that guide resources allocation and the determination of equilibrium prices in two market structures, competition and monopoly. In the second part, the focus will be on macroeconomic concepts as aggregate income and employment, inflation and the financial system. Moreover, this subject will introduce the students in the way “economists think”: how individuals and organizations take decisions before alternative options, using the tools that the economic analysis provide to them. Finally, they will learn and use basic concepts as equilibrium and interdependence, market, supply and demand (at a micro and macroeconomic level), costs, elasticity, business cycle, national accounts, macroeconomic aggregates, exchange rate, interest rate, etc.
The students will use the understanding of the economic agents’ behaviour and of the aggregate operation of real economies they acquire in this subject not only in the rest of the subjects covered in the degree, but in their own professional career.
Concepts and tools covered in this subject will be useful to write the final degree dissertation that all students must present at the end of the fourth course.
Course competences | |
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Code | Description |
E11 | Know the workings and consequences of the different economic systems |
E13 | Ability to make logical representative models of the business reality |
G01 | Possession of the skills needed for continuous, self-led, independent learning, which will allow students to develop the learning abilities needed to undertake further study with a high degree of independence. |
G03 | Develop oral and written communication skills in order to prepare reports, research projects and business projects and defend them before any commission or group of professionals (specialised or non-specialised) in more than one language, by collecting relevant evidence and interpreting it appropriately so as to reach conclusions. |
G04 | Ability to use and develop information and communication technologies and to apply them to the corresponding business department by using specific programmes for these business areas. |
G05 | Capacity for teamwork, to lead, direct, plan and supervise multidisciplinary and multicultural teams in both national and international environments so as to create synergies which benefit organisations. |
Course learning outcomes | |
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Description | |
Listen, negotiate, convince and defend arguments both in oral and writing ways. | |
Work autonomously and with personal initiative. | |
Search for information in order to analyze it, interpret is meaning, synthesize it and communicate it to others. | |
Know the main theories and approaches of economic analysis to be able to explain the behavior of economic agents at the micro and macroeconomic levels, as well as the imperfections that may arise in different sectors as a consequence of the economic process. | |
Work out problems in creative and innovative ways. | |
Additional outcomes | |
Description | |
1. To define what is Economics and an economic theory; identifying the main subjects covered by microeconomics and macroeconomics. 2. To relate technology, different production functions, and costs. 3. To identify factors that determine demand and to represent demand functions. 4. To define and calculate elasticities (price elasticity, income elasticity and cross elasticity between two goods). 5. To obtain market equilibrium from supply and demand curves, interpreting the consequences on this equilibrium coming from a shifting in any of these curves. 6. To calculate the competitive equilibrium. 7. Calculate the monopoly equilibrium. 8. To know the charasteristics of an oligopoly. 9. To understand flows and identities in the economic circuite. 10. To obtain the macroeconomic equilibrium in the income-expenditure model in a closed economy without public sector. 11. To obtain the macroeconomic equilibrium in the income-expenditure model in an open economy with public sector. 12. To explain the relation between economic growth and employment, defining different types of unemployment. 13. To define inflation and explain its causes. 14. To identify those factors that determine the Price general level, the interest rate and the exchange rate. 15. To use ICT to collect and transmit information and knowledge related to the subject. 16. To improve oral and write communication skills. 17. To be able to work in small groups. |
Training Activity | Methodology | Related Competences (only degrees before RD 822/2021) | ECTS | Hours | As | Com | Description | |
Class Attendance (theory) [ON-SITE] | Lectures | E11 E13 G01 G05 | 2 | 50 | N | N | ||
Class Attendance (practical) [ON-SITE] | Combination of methods | E11 E13 G01 G05 | 1 | 25 | Y | N | ||
Writing of reports or projects [OFF-SITE] | Combination of methods | E11 E13 G01 G03 G04 | 0.6 | 15 | Y | N | ||
Study and Exam Preparation [OFF-SITE] | Self-study | E11 E13 G01 | 2.32 | 58 | N | N | ||
Individual tutoring sessions [ON-SITE] | Combination of methods | E11 E13 G01 | 0.08 | 2 | Y | N | ||
Writing of reports or projects [OFF-SITE] | Group Work | E11 E13 G01 G03 G04 G05 | 1.5 | 37.5 | Y | N | ||
Study and Exam Preparation [OFF-SITE] | Self-study | E11 E13 G01 | 1.38 | 34.5 | N | N | ||
Final test [ON-SITE] | Assessment tests | E11 E13 G03 | 0.12 | 3 | Y | Y | ||
Total: | 9 | 225 | ||||||
Total credits of in-class work: 3.2 | Total class time hours: 80 | |||||||
Total credits of out of class work: 5.8 | Total hours of out of class work: 145 |
As: Assessable training activity Com: Training activity of compulsory overcoming (It will be essential to overcome both continuous and non-continuous assessment).
Evaluation System | Continuous assessment | Non-continuous evaluation * | Description |
Final test | 80.00% | 100.00% | Final exam with a practical and a theoretical part. It can contain short and long questions and exercises. |
Assessment of active participation | 10.00% | 0.00% | Participation in activities developed during classes. |
Portfolio assessment | 10.00% | 0.00% | Individual and group practices, written essays, etc. |
Total: | 100.00% | 100.00% |
Not related to the syllabus/contents | |
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Hours | hours |
Class Attendance (theory) [PRESENCIAL][Lectures] | 50 |
Class Attendance (practical) [PRESENCIAL][Combination of methods] | 25 |
Writing of reports or projects [AUTÓNOMA][Combination of methods] | 15 |
Study and Exam Preparation [AUTÓNOMA][Self-study] | 58 |
Individual tutoring sessions [PRESENCIAL][Combination of methods] | 2 |
Writing of reports or projects [AUTÓNOMA][Group Work] | 37.5 |
Study and Exam Preparation [AUTÓNOMA][Self-study] | 34.5 |
Final test [PRESENCIAL][Assessment tests] | 3 |
Global activity | |
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Activities | hours |