COURSE INFORMATION Course Title: INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMICS

Code	Course Type	Regular Semester	Theory	Practice	Lab	Credits	ECTS
BAF 101	A	1	3	0	0	3	5

Academic staff member responsible for the design of the course syllabus (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature)	Dr. Arjona Çela acela@epoka.edu.al
Main Course Lecturer (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours:	Dr. Arjona Çela acela@epoka.edu.al , Friday 08:45-10:45
Second Course Lecturer(s) (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours:	NA
Language:	English
Compulsory/Elective:	Compulsory
Study program: (the study for which this course is offered)	Bachelor in Political Science and International Relations (3 years)
Classroom and Meeting Time:	Monday 10:40-13:30
Teaching Assistant(s) and Office Hours:	NA
Code of Ethics:	Code of Ethics of EPOKA University Regulation of EPOKA University "On Student Discipline"
Attendance Requirement:	75%
Course Description:	This is an introductory microeconomics course. The aim of the course is to develop an understanding of elementary microeconomics analysis and its applications. By the end of the term, the student will have acquired a basic understanding of the main microeconomics topics, including analysis of the consumer, the firm, the economics of public sector and product markets. The material covered as part of this course will help students to organize their ideas about economics.
Course Objectives:	NA

BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE COURSE

1	Definition of Economics, microeconomics and macroeconomics
2	The economic way of thinking: a choice is a tradeoff
3	The problem of scarcity, scarce and free recourses, efficiency and PPF curve
4	Key problems of economic org: what, how and for whom; factors of production; land, labor and capital
5	The demand curve and the law of demand and Supply; market equilibrium; the price elasticities of demand and supply
6	Consumer choice: consumption possibilities, marginal utility theory, paradox of value
7	Production and cost: economic cost and profit vs accounting cost and profit
8	Gross Domestic Product (GDP): a measure of total production and income; reals GDP vs nominal GDP
9	Unemployment: frictional, structural, cyclical and “natural” unemployment
10	Consumer Price Index (CPI) and cost of living

COURSE OUTLINE

Week	Topics
1	Introduction & Syllabus Review: An introduction of each topic which will be lectured during the semester weeks, also the material needed and the requirements to succeed in the course. Furthermore, what are economics, scarcity, and the difference between microeconomics vs macroeconomics to be discussed; as well as we will discuss the kinds of questions that economists try to answer: what, how and for whom?
2	Chapter 1 : Ten principles of economics. There is no mystery to what an economy is. Whether we are talking about the economy of Los Angeles, the United States, or the whole world, an economy is just a group of people dealing with one another as they go about their lives. Because the behavior of an economy reflects the behavior of the individuals who make up the economy, we begin our study of economics with four principles about individual decision making. Pg(32-48)
3	Chapter 2: The market forces of supply and demand. Supply and demand are the two words economists use most often—and for good reason. Supply and demand are the forces that make market economies work.Pg(94-118)
4	Chapter 5: Elasticity and its application. Elasticity is a measure of how much buyers and sellers respond to changes in market conditions. When studying how some event or policy affects a market, we can discuss not only the direction of the effects but also their magnitude. Elasticity is useful in many applications, as we see toward the end of this chapter. Pg(119-139)
5	Chapter7: Consumers, producers and the efficiency of the markets. In this chapter, we take up the topic of welfare economics, the study of how the allocation of resources affects economic well-being. We begin by examining the benefits that buyers and sellers receive from engaging in market transactions. We then examine how society can make these benefits as large as possible. (Pg163-182)
6	Chapter 13: The cost of production. In this chapter and the ones that follow, we examine firm behavior in more detail. This topic will give you a better understanding of the decisions behind the supply curve. Pg(277-295)
7	Chapter 15,16,17: Market structures. These chapters introduce market structures such as perfect competition, monoploy, monopolisitc competition, and oligopoly.
8	Chapter 23: Measuring a Nation's income. In this and the next chapter, we discuss some of the data that economists and policymakers use to monitor the performance of the overall economy. These data reflect the economic changes that macroeconomists try to explain. This chapter considers gross domestic product, which measures the total income of a nation. GDP is the most closely watched economic statistic because it is thought to be the single best measure of a society’s economic well-being. Pg(503-523)
9	Midterm Exam
10	Chapter 24: Measuring the cost of living.This chapter provides the background for that analysis by showing how economists measure the inflation rate using the CPI and how this statistic can be used to compare dollar figures from different times. Pg(524-541)
11	Chapter 25: Production and growth. n this chapter we focus on the long-run determinants of the level and growth of real GDP. Later, we study the short-run fluctuations of real GDP around its long-run trend.Pg(544-569)
12	Chapter 28: Unemployment. his chapter begins our study of unemployment. The problem of unemployment can be divided into two categories: the long-run problem and the shortrun problem. The economy’s natural rate of unemployment refers to the amount of unemployment that the economy normally experiences.Pg(606-628)
13	Chapter 33: Aggregate demand and aggregate supply. Our goal now is to explain their short-run deviations from long-run trends. In other words, instead of focusing on the forces that explain economic growth from generation to generation, we are now interested in the forces that explain economic fluctuations from year to year.Pg(730-765)
14	Review and excercises before the final exam

Prerequisite(s):
Textbook(s):	Mankiw, N. Gregory (2021). Principles of Economics, Ninth Edition, Cengage Learning, Inc.
Additional Literature:
Laboratory Work:	Na
Computer Usage:	Na
Others:	No

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

1	At the end of the course, students should be able to use fundamental economic concepts and economic principles.
2	Apply the concepts of scarcity, choice and opportunity costs for making smart choices.
3	Apply microeconomic/macroeconomics tools and concepts that are learned in class to address range of real world economic issues, get a good foundation in economics, and be prepared for further study in this field.
4	Understand how the economy function as a whole and interpret key economic indicators.
5	Apply basic economic concepts to current events in the media.
6	Evaluate and compare the economies of developing and developed countries with respect to certain key macroeconomic variables.

COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO... PROGRAM COMPETENCIES (Blank : no contribution, 1: least contribution ... 5: highest contribution)

No	Program Competencies	Cont.
Bachelor in Political Science and International Relations (3 years) Program

COURSE EVALUATION METHOD

Method	Quantity	Percentage
Midterm Exam(s)	1	40
Final Exam	1	45
Other	1	15
	Total Percent:	100%

ECTS (ALLOCATED BASED ON STUDENT WORKLOAD)

Activities	Quantity	Duration(Hours)	Total Workload(Hours)
Course Duration (Including the exam week: 16x Total course hours)	16	3	48
Hours for off-the-classroom study (Pre-study, practice)	19	3	57
Mid-terms	1	10	10
Assignments			0
Final examination	1	10	10
Other			0
Total Work Load:			125
Total Work Load/25(h):			5
ECTS Credit of the Course:			5

CONCLUDING REMARKS BY THE COURSE LECTURER

Economics is all around us. In this course, students will learn concepts that they can apply to everyday life.