BMAN10001 Economic Principles : Microeconomics

The theory of the market, elasticity; production and cost theory, models of perfect completion, monopoly and imperfect competition; introductory game theory and business strategy; introduction to macroeconomic concepts, national Income and its measurement, business cycles, the monetary system and inflation.

This course introduces modern economic theories to help students understand the firm, market and economy. It equips students with tools to analyse consumer and firm behaviour and alternative market structures and their effect on firm performance. The course reviews recent trends in macroeconomic data to explain the influence of aggregate variables (e.g., GDP growth and inflation) and government policy on business activities.

By the end of the course, students should be able to:
a) Discuss the operation of supply and demand and how prices are determined,
b) Evaluate consumer decisions based on indifference curve analysis and other economic theories,
c) Analyse a firm’s production and cost decisions,
d) Evaluate theories of the firm and draw managerial lessons,
e) Discuss models of Perfect competition, Monopoly and Imperfect competition
f) Introduce the concept of strategic behaviour, with reference to real business cases
g) Understand and apply relevant macroeconomic models
h) Understand how national income is measured and what determines it
i) Understand how the monetary system works and
j) Understand business cycles and inflation.

Methods of delivery: Lecture/seminars /computer aided learning

Lecture hours: 20 (2 hours per week over 10 weeks)

10 supporting videos for students studying economics for the first time.

Seminar hours: 5 (1 hour per fortnight)

Private study: 75
Total study hours: 100 hours split between lectures, classes, self-study and preparation for classes, coursework and examinations.

Exam: Multiple choice test (85%)
Class participation (15%)

- Informal advice and discussion during a lecture, seminar, workshop or lab.
- Online exercises and quizzes delivered through the Blackboard course space.
- Responses to student emails and questions from a member of staff including feedback provided to a group via an online discussion forum.
- Specific course related feedback sessions.
- Generic feedback posted on Blackboard regarding overall examination performance.

The required textbook for the subject is:

Parkin, M., PowelI, M.l and K. Matthews, Economics (2018), 11th, Addison Wesley, or 
Weekly case studies (posted on Blackboard - students are asked to read the cases before the lectures).

We will also cover sections from the following textbooks (though no need to purchase them):

Begg, D., Fischer, S. and R. Dornbusch, Economics (2011), 11th ed., McGraw-Hill Varian, H. (2014) Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach, 9th ed., W. W. Norton.

McDowell, M., Thom, R., Pastine, I., Frank, R. and B. Bernanke (2012), Principles of Economics, McGraw Hill, 3rd edition.

Pre-requisites: None
Co-requisites: None
Dependent course units: Dependent course units: BMAN24431 Economic Analysis I: Firm, Market and the Economy, BMAN31881 Economic Analysis II: Corporate Development, Growth & Strategy, and BMAN31952 Digital Economy: Platforms, AI & the Business.
Programme Restrictions: Only available to students on: Mgt/Mgt (Specialism); IMABS; IM.