Description du cours

Intitulé de l'Unité d'Enseignement

Micro and Macro Economics : Theories and Applications

Code de l'Unité d'Enseignement

12UEC22

Année académique

2024 - 2025

Cycle

BAC

Nombre de crédits

Nombre heures

105

Quadrimestre

Pondération

Site

Anjou

Langue d'enseignement

Anglais

Enseignant responsable

ROMAN Philippe

Objectifs et contribution de l'Unité d'Enseignement au programme

The main objective of the course is to extend and deepen knowledge and understanding of economic theories and facts, in a pluralistic and critical way, and to acquire tools in economic analysis.

The course contributes to developing critical thinking abilities and enhancing analytical/conceptual rigour when looking at contemporary socio-economic issues.

The seminar is intended to put knowledge into practice through case studies and collective thinking.

Microeconomics:
Exploring the motives, patterns and constraints of individual economic actions.

Understanding how standard (neoclassical) economics represents and models individual economic actions and their interactions (especially through markets), and the scope and limits of such an approach.

Getting a sense of alternative ways of representing and modelling individual economic actions and their interactions (based on state-of-the-art research).

Macroeconomics:
Understanding and mastering the main macroeconomic indicators (GDP, investment, consumption etc.).

Analysing short-term and long-term macroeconomic fluctuations (business cycles and economic growth).

Exploring some of the main macro issues in contemporary industrialised countries and the policies that can be implemented to address them.

The objective of the seminar is to develop students' ability to critically analyse organisations's interactions with their economic context.

Prérequis et corequis

The course is accessible to students with a good (passive) level in English. Having taken an introductory course in economics and mastering basic math skills is a plus.

Description du contenu

The microeconomics course addresses the motives, patterns and constraints of economic actions at the micro scale and the interaction of economic actors. Actors and actions are mostly described in their provisioning activities of consumption, production and exchange. We will then explore :

- Consumption
- Production
- Market institutions
- Decision under uncertainty
- Market failures (in particular information asymmetries, externalities and the provisions of public goods)

The macroeconomics course aims at understanding the evolution of macroeconomic aggregates and economic activity along the business cycles. The main concepts and indicators of macroeconomics are introduced, which helps depicting business cycles. Competing interpretations of the latter are presented. The question of inequalities is introduced in its multiple facets. Then the main questions of macroeconomics and macroeconomic policies are treated : unemployment, money and monetary policies, and fiscal policies. Ways of modelling of the macroeconomy are introduced with due reference to underlying assumptions.

The "MicMac" seminar aims to apply economic knowledge to the analysis of a company's economic environment.

Méthodes pédagogiques

In-class lectures (and potentially online lectures if conditions require so) will be provided, with the aim of maximising classroom interactions (Q&A, quizzes, exercises, complementary explanations etc.).

The course is meant to be interactive and open to the active participation of students, notably through frequent quizzes (Wooclap) and moments dedicated to critical thinking and reflexivity.

The seminar is a team work on a case study. Concepts, analytical tools and data sources are presented to help students find relevant information and organise it in meaningful ways. Feedback is given on intermediary outputs to help students imprive and sharpen their final report.

Mode d'évaluation

MACRO: The exam is a written exam, it will take place at ICHEC. No access to external resources (books, copies of the course’s slides, pdf of the course’s slides etc.) is permitted. There is no need to bring a calculator, and the use of calculators is not allowed. No calculations requiring a calculator will be needed.

The exam will be composed of multiple-choice questions and open questions. No negative points will be attributed to incorrect answers in multiple-choice questions.

MICRO: The exam is a written exam. No access to external resources (books, copies of course slides, pdf of course slides, etc.) is allowed. The use of a simple non-programmable calculator is allowed.

The exam will include a variety of question types, including multiple choice questions, short open-ended questions, and True or False questions.

Seminar: written group work on a case study. Note that using AI tools is allowed, but only to assist in collecting information, organising or revising one's production, but not to substitute groups' thinking, writing and original content production ; so, using AI tools to produce and write content will not be considered as legitimate use. High standards of transparency about referencing, including one's use of IA, will be in order.

The UE (worth 10 ECTS) is composed of three AA:
Micro economics is worth 4 ECTS
Macro economics is worth 4 ECTS
Seminar is worth 2 ECTS

If all the marks obtained for the different AA are equal to or higher than 10/20, the overall mark will be the weighted arithmetic average (according to the relative importance of each AA in the UE) of these marks.
If at least one of the marks obtained for an AA is less than 10/20, the overall mark will be the weighted geometric mean of the AA marks.

Références bibliographiques

Core-Econ (free online textbook)
Exploring Economics
For other references, see the course's Moodle webpage.