Trimester 1 and Trimester 3
Professor Paul Kerin

Some background information on me is available here.
My office is: Room 3.27, Level 3, Nexus 10 Building, 10 Pulteney Street.
Consultation times: 4pm-5pm (after class) each Friday and Saturday on classes are held or or by
appointment. Please feel free to arrange appointments with me at times that suit you.

Email: paul.kerin@adelaide.edu.au 
Mobile phone: 0417 240860.

Trimester 2
Dr Raul Barreto

Some background information on me is available here.
My office is: Room 426, Level 4, Nexus 10 Building, 10 Pulteney Street.
Consultation times: 2pm-3pm every Tuesday or by appointment.

Email: raul.barreto@adelaide.edu.au
Telephone: 83133240.

Economics is often divided into two streams: microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics focuses on the behaviours and
interactions of economic agents, such as firms, households and individuals. Macroeconomics looks at the economy as a whole, especially the behaviours of aggregate measures (such as gross domestic product, economic growth the unemployment rate, the inflation rate, exchange rates and interest rates) and how they vary with the business cycle and respond to government policies.

Our course provides an overview of both microeconomics and macroeconomics. Throughout the course, we will consider contemporary economic issues – and their relevance to business operational and/or strategic decision-making, as well as economic and/or social policy – through the lens of economics.

By the time you successfully complete this course, you will have developed:

1	An understand of key economic concepts, principles and analytical tools, as well as the “language” and ways of thinking that economists employ;
2	An ability to apply key microeconomic and macroeconomic principles and analytical tools to make better managerial decisions – and communicate your solutions convincingly to both economists and non-economists;
3	An understanding of economic policy issues and their relevance to management;
4	An ability to communicate your views on economic conditions and policy issues and why they are relevant to management;
5	An understanding of the roles that governments and markets can play in improving the welfare of our society; and
6	Leadership, communication interpersonal skills and an ability to work collaboratively with your peers through group work.

Hubbard, R., Garnett, A., Lewis, P., and O’Brien, A. (2016), “Essentials of Economics 3”, Third adaptation edition (3e), Pearson Australia.

Paperback edition ISBN: 9781486022847. Both paperback and eBook editions are available (e.g., from the publisher at http://www.pearson.com.au).

As I tailor readings to each topic, no other textbook is recommended. Tailored readings will be available on MyUni well before the relevant class sessions.

Optional: I will also provide purely optional reading suggestions on MyUni well before each class. In addition, to understand the wide range of interesting issues that microeconomics can beapplied to, you may want to read “Freakonomics” and/or “SuperFreakonomics” (both by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner) and/or visit the Freakonomics blog at: www.freakonomics.com. To understand current macroeconomic conditions, you may wish to visit the Reserve Bank’s website at www.rba.gov.au. To keep up-to-date with management-relevant microeconomic and macroeconomic issues, you may wish to read the Australian Financial Review and/or The Economist.

I will post course materials, assessment tasks and important announcements in MyUni. Please check both our MyUni course website and your university email account regularly. 

https://myuni.adelaide.edu.au/webapps/login/

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/its/webmail/

Lectures will be automatically recorded (whenever possible) and made available in the Echo 360 folder on MyUni. Please note that there may be occasions when the recording fails for technical reasons.

Our course will be conducted in intensive mode over Friday and Saturday sessions. Each session will begin at 9.00am and end at 4.00pm, with a 30-minute lunch break and two 15-minute breaks in-between. The course is divided into 12 topics and we will generally cover two topics in each session. As it is difficult to predict exactly how long it will take to cover each topic and I don’t want to limit our in-class discussions, we may not finish our coverage of a topic in the designated session; if so, we will finish it in our next session.

Given the breadth of topics covered and the intensive nature of our course, much of our in-class time will necessarily be spent in “interactive lecture” mode, with the emphasis on interactive. I like to make our in-class time as interactive as possible, so please feel free to ask questions and/or offer your perspectives and relevant examples from your own experience at any time. We will also break up our sessions with short problem-solving exercises, reviews of tutorial assignment questions/answers and discussion of current economic issues to help us understand and apply what we learn. I’ll bring at least one current issue to each session for us to discuss. Please also feel free to suggest current issues that you would like us to discuss.

While you don’t necessarily have to read the lecture notes prior to the relevant session, it would be useful to complete at least the required reading beforehand.

To help ensure that our classes are as effective as possible, please feel free to provide me with feedback at any time. Your feedback will be particularly valuable in the early stages of our course, as this will enable me to change my teaching style before it is too late. In
addition, I would be grateful if you could complete a SELT form and provide written comments (in addition to numeric scores) at the end of our course, as that will help me improve the course and my teaching for future students.

Important note: This course assumes no previous training in economics. Please be aware that when people first study economics,
they will almost-certainly feel frustrated for some time. I certainly did! We do need to learn a number of economic concepts/tools before we are able to tackle the more interesting stuff. It will almost-certainly take some time before you feel that what we are learning starts to “clicks together”. Therefore, if you feel somewhat frustrated in our first few sessions, that is completely normal. You will also feel somewhat frustrated even at the end of our course because, given the time available and the territory we have to
cover, we will not be able to go into as much depth as you would like on various issues. It is more important that you gain some knowledge of a range of economic concepts/tools rather than an in-depth knowledge of only a few. However, to partially ease your frustration, I will provide optional (non-assessable) readings and/or optional attachments to our lecture notes so that you can explore particular topics in more depth if you wish to.

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

The University of Adelaide expects full-time students (i.e., those taking four 3-unit course at a time) to devote a total of 48 hours per week to their studies. This translates to an average of 12 hours per week (48 hours per 4 weeks) for our 3-unit course. Therefore, in addition to our 12 class hours (two 6-hour sessions, excluding breaks) every 4 weeks, you should expect to devote an average of 36 hours per 4-week period to your studies in this course.

Schedule

Session	Topic	Textbook reading	Class date
1	1.  Introduction to Microeconomics; Demand & Supply Part 1	Hubbard Ch. 1, 2 & 3 (but not the appendices)	September 22
1	2.  Demand & Supply Part 2	Hubbard Ch. 4	September 22
2	3.  Firms, Revenues, Costs & Supply	Hubbard Ch. 6	September 23
2	4.  Market Structures Part 1: Perfect Competition & Monopoly	Hubbard Ch. 7 & 8	September 23
3	5.  Market Structures Part 2: Monopolistic Competition and Oligopoly	Hubbard Ch. 9	October 27
3	6.  Economic Efficiency, Market Failure & the Role of Government	Hubbard, Ch. 5 & 11	October 27
4	Mid-trimester test (in-class)	Nil	October 28
4	7.  Introduction to Macroeconomics: GDP, Unemployment & Inflation	Hubbard Ch.12 & 13	October 28
4	8.  Aggregate Demand & Aggregate Supply	Hubbard Ch. 14 (but not the appendix)	October 28
5	9.  Monetary Policy	Hubbard Ch. 15 & 16	November 24
5	10.  Fiscal Policy	Hubbard Ch. 17	November 24
6	11. International Economics - Part 1	Hubbard Ch. 18	November 25
6	11.  International Macroeconomics - Part 2	Hubbard Ch. 19	November 25
	Final Exam	Nil	December 2

Type	Weight
Assignments	25%
Mid-trimester test	25%
Final exam	50%

Assignments: 25%

There will be two assignments. Your best assignment will be worth 15% of your total grade, while the other assignment will be worth 10% of your total grade. The first assignment will cover Topics 1-4 ane is due by midnight on Saturday October 7 (so that you receive some feedback prior to our mid-trimester test on October 28). The second assignment will cover Topics 5-8 and is due by midnight on Saturday November 11(so that you receive feedback prior to our final exam on December 2). To be eligible to receive a grade, you must submit your written answers to the assignment questions prior to the deadline. Late submissions will not be accepted. Instructions on how to submit your tutorial assignment answers are provided on MyUni.

I will grade all tutorial assignments submitted and post your grades on MyUni as soon as possible. I will also post suggested answers as soon as I have completed grading all assignments submitted. We may discuss some assignment questions and answers in class in the session following an assignment's due date.

As some tutorial assignment questions may focus on issues that emerge in the news during our course, I will post tutorial assignments on MyUni as the course progresses. However, I will ensure that each tutorial assignment is available on MyUni at least 2 weeks prior to the due date.

Mid-trimester test: 25%

A mid-trimester test will be held on October 28. It will comprise 15 minutes reading time and 60 minutes writing time. The test questions will be similar in style to our assignment questions and to previous mid-trimester test questions that I have set in this course (copies if which I will post on MyUni). The test will be open-book and you will have significant choice in the questions that you answer. Wireless internet access will not be permitted during the test.

I will grade the mid-semester test and post the grades on MyUni as soon as possible. I will provide further information on the mid-term test closer to the time.

Final exam: 50%

The final exam will comprise 30 minutes reading time and 2 hours writing time. This exam may assess all topics covered in the course. However, as the mid-term test will cover Topics 1-6 and the assignments will cover Topics 1-8, the final exam will focus relatively more on Topics 7-12 (particularly 9-12). The exam questions will be of similar style to previous final exam questions that I set in this course (examples of which I will post on our MyUni site). The exam will be open-book and you will have significant choice in the questions that you answer. Wireless internet access will not be permitted during the test.

I will provide further information on the final exam closer to the time.

Please refer to MyUni for further instructions regarding how to submit tutorial assignments. Late submissions will not be accepted. Please retain a copy of all assignments submitted.

Additional Assessment
If a student receives 45-49 for their final mark for the course they will automatically be granted an additional assessment. This will most likely be in the form of a new exam (Additional Assessment) and will have the same weight as the original exam unless an alternative requirement (for example a hurdle requirement) is stated in this semester’s Course Outline. If, after replacing the original exam mark with the new exam mark, it is calculated that the student has passed the course, they will receive 50 Pass as their final result for the course (no higher) but if the calculation totals less than 50, their grade will be Fail and the higher of the original mark or the mark following the Additional Assessment will be recorded as the final result.