Syllabus
Weekly topics:
1. Introduction to the course: Information about the couse in the SIS. Economic courses at the IES FSV. System of National Accounts. Syllabus of the course in weeks - explanation. Basic Classification of Goods and Services. Model of a market and the 1st welfare theorem. Netlogo - Model Library - Social Science.
2. Broader context: Postmodern epch. History of economic thought. What is Economics? Short history of capitalism.
3. Economy in the Long Time Horizon: Factors of Production. GDP and Production Function. Inflation, Nominal and Real GDP, Unemployment. Institutions and Economic Development. Human Capital, Innovations and Economic Growth. Convergence of countries - TED - Hans Rosling talk Asia´s rise - how and when. Do not we stress too much GDP and its growth? TED - Michael Green talk Social Progress Index
4. Economic Systems: Capitalist economic system. Socialist Economic System. Reforms of the Socialist Economic System. Transformation of the Socialist System to the Capitalist System. Global preferences survey - state of informal institutions in the CR.
5. Macroeconomics, governmental sector and fiscal policy: Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply. Economic Cycles and Stabilization Policy. State budget, deficit and Maastricht criteria. Public Goods and Externalities. Taxes and Deadweight Loss.
6. Financial Sector: Structure and Purpose of the Financial Sector, Financial Instruments. Role of Transaction Costs and Information Assymetry it the Explanation of Phenomena in the Financial Sector. Money Multiplier. Financial crises.
7. Money, inflation and monetary policy: Money. Money creation in the financial system. Models of money market. Exogenous money and explanation of inflation. Endogenous money and explanation of inflation. Monetary policy.
8. Open Economy: International Trade - Comparative Advantage, Political Economy of International Trade. International Finance - Balance of Payments, Exchange Rate.
9. European Economic Integration: Proces of EU Deepening. EU Enlargement. Economic Geography and Regional Policy of the EU.
10. Households: Introduction - Mainstream economics and Postkeynesian Economics. Theory of Consumer Choice in Mainstream Microeconomics and in Postkeynesian Microeconomics. Labor Market in Mainstream Microeconomics and in Postkeynesian Microeconomics. Consumption Theory in Macroeconomics. Miscellaneous.
10. Firms: Introduction - Decisions based od expected costs and expected revenues. Production. Costs. Market structure. Miscellaneous. TED - James B.Glattfelder talk Who Controls the World. Netlogo.
12. Positive and normative economics: Inequality. Ethical approaches to inequality. John Rawls and justice. James Buchanan and Constitutional Economics. Democracy and economics.
Annotation
This course is a mandatory introduction into one of the social sciences developed at the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSV). It presents economic theory without the use of mathematics and shows links with other social sciences.
It illustrates contrasting approaches of different economic schools to economic problems of a small open economy, Czech economy in the European Union being surely one of them.