Course description
Economics provides an understanding of how society works. You learn everything from how the repo rate affects your finances to what effect a sugar tax can have on an individual’s choices.
Economics 1 is a course package where the in-depth courses introduce basic knowledge of economics and will provide you with a good foundation for further studies in economics. The subject is internationally uniform, and the course content corresponds to the effect a sugar tax can have on individuals' choices.
The course package in Economics 1 consists of four courses. In the courses, you will learn both about the basics of market economics and how markets and trade work from the perspective of economic theory, as well as how markets work in a larger context. Focus will also be on individual markets under different competitive conditions and what consequences this might have for our welfare. You will also gain basic knowledge of market economics in relation to political decisions and regulations. The courses are primarily aimed at those who want to design their own education and take a unique degree, but civil engineers and university engineers with relevant prior knowledge are also welcome to apply.
Modules in Economics 1
770G39 Fundamentals of Market Economics, 7.5 credits
The course provides an introduction to economics. You get to know basic national economic problems and models and learn to think like an economist about managing limited resources. The starting point will be the market model, which shows how price and quantity are determined under specific conditions. During the course, you will gain knowledge about how individuals and companies make decisions based on their budget, perceived benefit, and production size. You gain an understanding of concepts such as opportunity cost, marginal product, sunk cost, price sensitivity, GDP, and inflation. You will gain an increased understanding of how the goods market and the labor market work, as well as what the economy of a country looks like.
730G71 Macroeconomics, 7.5 credits
In this course, you will learn more about how a country's economy works and how the state of a country can affect the economy. What happens when the central bank lowers the repo rate? How are GDP, inflation, unemployment, and foreign trade linked? The state of a country can influence the country's economy with the help of stabilization policies. You will learn how it can work as well as what economic growth means. After this course, your understanding of the economic news will increase.
770G37 Microeconomics, 7.5 credits
In this course, you will learn how different market forms, from perfect competition to oligopoly, work and understand how they can affect firms' pricing and production decisions. During the course, you will also gain insights into how companies strategically adapt their behavior based on the market in which they operate. Furthermore, you are introduced to the concept of "welfare", its connection to market structures, and how it can be affected by so-called market failures. Finally, we discuss the arguments for and against government intervention in markets in light of their impact on growth, redistribution, and welfare. Get ready for an exciting journey through the fascinating landscape of microeconomics!
As the fourth course in the course package, students have a choice between 770G35 and 770G36 below.
770G35 Microeconomic analysis: rationality, equality, and sustainability, 7.5 credits
The course focuses on modern microeconomic theory and how it can be used to analyse current economic problems such as discrimination (equality), environmental economics, and environmental policy (sustainability). In the course, we will introduce complications that enrich the analysis by taking into account that people as decision-makers can be uninformed, ignorant, stupid (limited rationality), strategic, deceitful, and guided by their identity (culture and values).
770G36 Globalisation and economic growth, 7.5 credits
About a third of the world's production is exported across national borders. The course studies models that explain economic growth, capital and labor mobility between countries, international trade in goods and services, economic integration, industrial localisation, and national and international environmental problems. The course also studies the efficiency and distributional effects of quotas, sanctions, tariffs, and subsidies. As a part of this, models are studied that explain politics, for example, political economy.
Teaching methods
The teaching of the courses usually takes place in the form of lectures, lessons, and seminars where literature and various theories are introduced, discussed, and applied. The education is based on work both in groups and individually, which requires preparation and activity. Studying at LiU requires a lot of personal responsibility, but there is help and support available.
What can you read after Economics 1?
After completing Economics 1, you fulfill the eligibility requirements to apply for advanced courses in economics at Linköping University