Course Description

Course is an introduction to economic thought. It introduces basic principles of human action (action, scarcity, costs, possibility frontier, law of diminishing marginal utility, demand, supply, consumption, production) and its consequences. It shows how economy works and introduces basic economics models: pure command economy (purpose-oriented rules, bureaucratic control, problem of economic calculation, principal-agent problem), pure market economy (property rights, exchange, comparative advantage, competition, entrepreneur discovery, firm, money, public goods) and mixed (democratic) economy. It stresses the role of institutions in a society.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

• Interpret both everyday situations and issues of economic policy through basic economic concepts;
• Detect unintended consequences of human action (including the ones of economic policy);
• Critically assess the media image of social reality;
• Identify the essential attributes of modern society;
• Distinguish the main streams of the current debate over capitalism.

*Course content subject to change