SYLLABUS OF GEC-1
Unit 1: Introduction (8 hours)
Problem of scarcity and choice: scarcity, choice and opportunity cost; production possibility frontier; economic systems. Demand and supply: law of demand, determinants of demand, shifts of demand versus movements along a demand curve, market demand, law of supply, determinants of supply, shifts of supply versus movements along a supply curve, market supply, market equilibrium. Applications of demand and supply: price rationing, price floors, consumer surplus, producer surplus. Elasticity: price elasticity of demand, calculating elasticity, determinants of price elasticity, other elasticities.
Unit 2: Consumer Theory (12 hours)
Budget constraint, concept of utility, diminishing marginal utility, Diamond-water paradox, income and substitution effects; consumer choice: indifference curves, derivation of demand curve from indifference curve and budget constraint.
Unit 3: Production and Costs (12 hours)
Production: behaviour of profit maximising firms, production process, production functions, law of variable proportions, choice of technology, isoquant and isocost lines, cost minimizing equilibrium condition. Costs: costs in the short run, costs in the long run, revenue and profit maximizations, minimizing losses, short run industry supply curve, economies and diseconomies of scale, long run adjustments.
Unit 4: Introduction to Macroeconomics (8 hours) What is macroeconomics? Macroeconomic issues in an economy.
Unit 5: National Income Accounting (8 hours)
Concepts of GDP Aggregates and National Income; measurement of national income and related aggregates; nominal and real income; GDP and welfare and the limitations of the GDP concept.
Unit 6: Determination of GDP (8 hours)
Actual and potential GDP; aggregate expenditure; consumption function; investment function; equilibrium GDP; concepts of MPS, APS, MPC, APC; autonomous expenditure; Concept of multiplier.
Unit 7: Money and Credit (4 hours)
Money in a Modern Economy: Concept of money in a modern economy; monetary aggregates; demand for money; quantity theory of money; liquidity preference and rate of interest; money supply and credit creation; monetary policy
Essential/recommended readings
1. Case, K.E., Fair, R. C., and Oster, S. E. (2017). Principles of Economics (12th Ed.). Pearson.
2. Dornbusch, R., Fischer, S. and Startz. R. Macroeconomics (11th Edition). McGraw-Hill.
3. Mankiw, N.G. (2021). Principles of Economics, (9th Edition). Cengage Learning.
- Teacher: Dr. Sultan Singh