Preface

About the team

Petar Stankov is a teaching-focused lecturer in the Economics Department at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has published on the political economy of populism, economic growth and liberalization and the variety of reform outcomes across countries. He earned a Ph.D. in Economics from CERGE-EI in Prague, the Czech Republic. He has taught undergraduate courses on the Economics of the European Union, Institutional Economics, Monetary Economics and Economic Growth, and postgraduate courses in Research Methodology and Evaluation Economics, among others.

What is this course about?

EC1101 is a first-year undergraduate course in how the economy works. The course is suitable for students with or without A-Level economics or equivalent. We will cover the basic theories of macroeconomics (that of the economy as a whole) and microeconomics (the behavior of individuals, firms and governments and the interactions between them).

The course adopts the CORE approach to teaching Principles of Economics. The approach has three pillars which we rely on throughout the course:

Formulate a problem that our society is facing now or has faced in the past;
Build a theory to explain and solve the problem;
Evaluate the usefulness of the theory by using data observations and more novel theories.

The main textbook for the course is The Economy produced by the CORE-ECON team. All lectures, problem sets, seminar exercises and exams will be based on material covered in The Economy. Make sure you register as a student on the core website to gain full access to the class readings. Go back to the website on a weekly basis to catch up.

A device-friendly reading version can be found through the CORE app.

The video below is an introduction to EC1101 Principles of Economics:

Introduction

1 Unit 1: The Capitalist Revolution

This week’s content corresponds to Unit 1 in The Economy, your Principles of Economics textbook. Watch the videos and read Unit 1 before you move on with the Seminar activities.

1.1 The Basics

This week’s videos:

1.1.6 After the videos:

1.1.6.1 MCQ Questions

1.1.6.2 Problem set

1.2 The Seminar

1.2.1 Summary of Instruction

1.2.2 Solutions: Problem Set

1.2.4 Discussion (on Mentimeter):

1.2.4.1 Political Consequences of climate change

1.2.4.2 Demographic consequences of climate change

1.3 The Workshop

1.3.1 Forum topics:

1.3.1.1 Read a FT.com article on an issue discussed in class, and comment on it in a forum

1.3.1.2 How does society become better-off without a change in GDP? What data do I need to check if I am right?

1.3.1.3 Examples of when capitalism might not work as expected and fails to deliver on its growth promise

1.3.1.4 Political Implications of economics growth and income inequality

1.3.1.5 Growth and the environment

2 Unit 2: Technology, Population and Growth

This week’s lecture content corresponds to Unit 2 in The Economy, your Principles of Economics textbook.

2.1 The Basics

2.2 The Seminar

2.3 The Workshop

3 Unit 3: Scarcity, Work and Choice

This week’s lecture content corresponds to Unit 3 in The Economy, your Principles of Economics textbook.

3.1 The Basics

3.2 The Seminar

3.3 The Workshop

4 Unit 4: Social Interactions

This week’s lecture content corresponds to Unit 4 in The Economy, your Principles of Economics textbook.

4.1 The Basics

4.2 The Seminar

4.3 The Workshop

5 Unit 5: Property and Power

This week’s lecture content corresponds to Unit 5 in The Economy, your Principles of Economics textbook.

5.1 The Basics

5.2 The Seminar

5.3 The Workshop

6 Unit 6: The Firm as a Stage: Owners, Managers and Employees

This week’s lecture content corresponds to Unit 6 in The Economy, your Principles of Economics textbook.

6.1 The Basics

6.2 The Seminar

6.3 The Workshop

7 Unit 7: The Firm as an Agent: Firms and Their Customers

This week’s lecture content corresponds to Unit 7 in The Economy, your Principles of Economics textbook.

7.1 The Basics

7.2 The Seminar

7.3 The Workshop

8 Unit 8: Supply and Demand: Price-Taking and Competitive Markets

This week’s lecture content corresponds to Unit 8 in The Economy, your Principles of Economics textbook.

Principles of Economics

EC1101, Autumn 2020