3. One answer:
“Economics is a study of mankind
in the ordinary business of life.”
- Alfred Marshall, Principals of Economics
Monday, 21 January, 13
4. Another answer...
✤ The study of how people deal with scarcity
✤ Nothing is available in unlimited quantities
✤ This requires making choices, making trade-offs
Monday, 21 January, 13
5. Economic choices
✤ Which product/service to choose?
✤ What other products/services to forego?
✤ Which choice will make us happiest?
✤ Classical economists assume people make these choices rationally
✤ People will act to maximize their well-being
✤ But aren’t always rational (according to behavioral economists)
Monday, 21 January, 13
7. Incentives
✤ People’s choices are affected by incentives
✤ “Half-price!”, “Three for the price of two!”
✤ Smoking indoors – or cursing – could result in a fine
✤ Incentives don’t have to be monetary
✤ Wearing a helmet when riding a motorcycle
✤ Reduces the bodily “cost” of an accident
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9. Traffic accident deaths
Helmet law
% of total enacted
accidents 8
6
4
2
0
1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999
Source: Maryland Dept. of Transportation
Monday, 21 January, 13
10. Course topics
✤ How economies function ✤ How banks function
✤ How to measure economies ✤ How companies operate
✤ How governments manage ✤ Some of the major trends in
economies economic thought
✤ Why trade exists, and why it
matters
✤ How markets operate
Monday, 21 January, 13
11. And, most importantly...
✤ How to write about these things as journalists
Monday, 21 January, 13
12. Intended learning outcomes
✤ Understand and explain basic ✤ Understand and explain how the global
macroeconomic concepts to a general trade system works
audience
✤ Understand and explain how financial
✤ Interpret economic data and explain the markets operate
significance to a general readership
✤ Understand and explain how the
✤ Understand and explain the banking system functions
methodology behind a variety of
common economic indicators ✤ Explain how companies function and
ways they compete with each other
✤ Understand and explain the use of
monetary and fiscal policy tools ✤ Understand and explain theories of a
variety of important economic thinkers
Monday, 21 January, 13
15. Recommended texts
✤ Ip, Greg. (2010). The Little Book of Economics: How the Economy Works in
the Real World.
✤ Moss, D. A. (2007). A Concise Guide to Macroeconomics : What Managers,
Executives, and Students Need to Know. Boston, Mass.: Harvard
Business School Press.
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16. Assessment Tasks
10%
Final Exam
30%
15%
Writing Assignments
Group Project
Midterm Exam 15%
Class Participation
30%
percentage of final grade
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18. Plagiarism
My assignment
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quis nostrud consectetur
exercitation “Yes, we can,” said
adipisicing elit,
ullamco laboris Barack Obama.
sed do
nisi ut aliquip eiusmod
ex ea commodo tempor
consequat. incididunt ut
labore et dolore
Monday, 21 January, 13
19. ...and its consequences
DECEMBER 3, 2009, 6:14 P.M. ET
Notice to Readers
A Nov. 10 "New Global Indian" online column by New York City freelance writer Mona
Sarika has been found to contain information that was plagiarized from several
publications, including the Washington Post, Little India, India Today and San
Francisco magazine. In the column, "Homeward Bound," about H-1B visa holders
returning to India, Ms. Sarika also re-used direct quotes from other publications,
without attribution, and changed the original speakers' names to individuals who
appear to be fabricated. The column is the only work by Ms. Sarika to be published by
the Journal, and it has been removed from the Journal's Web sites.
Monday, 21 January, 13
20. Assignment for Jan. 28
✤ Read course syllabus (on course blog)
✤ Set up RSS reader with feeds from course blog and news sites
✤ Begin daily reading
✤ Write an “economic diary” and upload to course blog by 3:30pm Jan.
28
✤ Details on course blog
Monday, 21 January, 13
