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Course Syllabus

Bachelor 2018/2019

Economics

Type: Elective course (Sociology and Social Informatics)
Area of studies: Sociology
Delivered by: Department of Economics
Where: Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences
When: 1 year, 2, 3 module
Mode of studies: offline
Instructors: Dmitry Evstafiev, Iakov T. Kuga, Sergey V. Rasskazov
Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Contact hours: 60

Course Syllabus

Full Syllabus

Abstract

The course is brought to bachelor students of the Bachelor Program “Sociology and Social Informatics». It is an important mandatory part of the program, and it is conveyed in 2-3 modules of the first year. The course length is 152 academic hours in total. All Economics courses require a large amount of work. This course is no exception. The tutorials involve problems solving and discussions on actual economic topics of interest, relevant to the course content.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • Studying social sciences to cover the basics of economic interactions
  • Essentials of the market forces and the role of the state in economic life
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • The student will be able to understand and describe the functioning of economic agents (households, firms, governments), links among them and the concept of general economic equilibrium on micro and macro levels
  • Use basic concepts and ideas of economics in discussion of current economic events on national and global level
  • Understand basic principles, tools and implementation of economic policies
  • Understand and discuss basic questions and current problems of economic growth and cycle, economic development
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Household economy
    Class 1. Household economy. Economics as a science and economics as an applicable discipline. The origin of economic knowledge. Basic economic categories explained on everyday life examples. Primary accounting. Recording of incomes and expenses.
  • Economic governance and economic reforms
    Class 16. Economic governance and economic reforms. The tasks of economic governance. Monetary and fiscal instruments of economic governance. Market regulation and limitations. Global competition and the task of reforming the business environment. Costs of economic reforms.
  • Economic institutions
    Class 15. Economic institutions. Rules of the game in society. Economic sense of institutions. Values and rules. Evolutional changes in institutions.
  • Taxation
    Class 13. Taxation. Taxation system. Different taxes and taxation rates. Tax administration. Tax breaks and special taxation regimes. Special economic zones.
  • Evolutionary development of industries
    Class 14. Evolutionary development of industries. Historical nature of industries. Typical characteristics of particular industries. New and perspective industries.
  • Banks and financial system
    Class 12. Banks and financial system. Active and passive banking operations. Role of banks in economy. Financial system. Public finances and the state budget.
  • Risks and investments. Financial capital. Economic crises
    Class 11. Risks and investments. Financial capital. Economic crises. The nature of investment risks. Return on investments. Investment instruments. Financial capital. Instability on financial markets and the role of regulators. Financial and economic crises. Anti-crisis management.
  • Entrepreneurship
    Class 10. Entrepreneurship. Businessmen and entrepreneurs. Role of entrepreneurs in the diffusion of innovations. Entrepreneurial risks. Support for entrepreneurship.
  • Innovations
    Class 9. Innovations. Novelty and innovations. Popular types of innovations. Diffusion of innovations in the economy. Management of innovations.
  • Production, physical capital and financing of business
    Class 8. Production, physical capital and financing of business. Means of production. The concept of capital. Sources of financing the business. Venture capital as the source of financing the business.
  • Firm
    Class 7. Firm. Historical boundaries of the concept of firm. Legal entity concept. Legal forms of business. Management as a science and as an applicable discipline.
  • Costs
    Class 6. Costs. What causes costs and the ultimate nature of costs. Internal and external costs. Variable and fixed costs. The concept of marginal costs. The concept of alternative costs and the rational choice.
  • Market
    Class 5. Market. Universal nature of market price mechanism. The limits of market price. Edgeworth Box. Price elasticity of demand. Market regulation. Limitation of competition. Advantages and limitations of capitalism.
  • Products, services and money
    Class 4. Products, services and money. Material and information products. Peculiarities of services. Popular product classifications. Product life cycle. Concentric model of product’s levels. Intellectual property protection. Functions of money.
  • Economic relations in the human society. Individual and collective activities
    Class 3. Economic relations in the human society. Individual and collective activities. Four basic categories of economic knowledge and the concept of efficiency. Individualistic nature of consumption and collectivistic nature of production. The limits of efficiency in consumption and production.
  • Labor
    Class 2. Labor. Labor as a basement for every economic activity. Personal nature of labor. Labor cooperation. Civilizational meaning of collective labor and labor ethic. Labor as a factor of production. Production function of Cobb and Douglas.
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Test
  • non-blocking In-class participation
  • non-blocking Exam
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (3 module)
    0.3 * Exam + 0.3 * In-class participation + 0.4 * Test
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Martin Kolmar. (2017). Principles of Microeconomics. Springer. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.b.spr.sptbec.978.3.319.57589.6
  • Volker Böhm. (2017). Macroeconomic Theory. Springer. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.b.spr.sptbec.978.3.319.60149.6

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Farrokh K. Langdana. (2016). Macroeconomic Policy. Springer. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.b.spr.sptbec.978.3.319.32854.6
  • Schwardt, H. (2017). The Path to a Modern Economics : Dealing with the Complexity of Economic Systems. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1562077