Economics

Course description

This first portion of this course explores aggregate economic activity in the Canadian economy and its interrelationship with the rest of the world. It provides students with a basic understanding of macroeconomic principles and their relevance to macroeconomic issues impacting Canadian society. It examines the structure and performance of the Canadian economy utilizing such economic indicators as gross domestic product, employment, unemployment, income and productivity growth, inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, balance of international payments and the impact of government fiscal and monetary policies in an international setting. It will analyze current global issues affecting the Canadian economy.The second portion of this course introduces students to basic microeconomic terminology, concepts, methodology and theories, and provides an understanding of firm behaviour under various market structures in an international setting, and their application to current global microeconomic issues. Topics of study include supply and demand, elasticity concepts and their application; consumer theory; production, costs, and the determination of equilibrium price and output under different market models- perfect competition, monopolistic competition, monopoly, and oligopoly; government export taxes/subsidies and regulation of the market, and international trade.

Course details