University of Wollongong - ECON100: Economic Essentials for Business

This subject, Economic Essentials for Business (ECON100) - introduces students to essential macroeconomic and microeconomic ideas, models and reasoning. This economic knowledge is used to explore important questions such as, is economics a value free science?, do individuals behave rationally?, how and why do market structures vary across different industries and why is this knowledge important?, do markets ever fail, and if so, why?, what are some causes and implications of inflation and unemployment?, how do monetary and financial systems operate?, and how do governments typically respond to domestic macroeconomic volatility? While these questions will not be fully answered in this introductory subject, policy challenges and case studies will be used to demonstrate the importance of basic economic reasoning if sensible answers to economic and social challenges are to be found, and to stimulate greater awareness of economic approaches to the analysis of contemporary social issues.

✔ On successful completion of this subject, you will be able to: 

• use data and simple economic models to better understand economic and social phenomena;
• present brief but coherent oral and written explanations of basic economic and social phenomena;
• explain the importance of key assumptions and value judgments to the formation of economic knowledge and policy;
• analyse and present a comprehensive written report on the likely consequences of a given economic policy change or shock;
• begin to develop an understanding of the challenges facing private and public sector leaders in meeting stakeholder expectations, social and environmental responsibilities; and, 
• use simple models and relevant data to make informed judgments and predictions about the likely impacts of specific government economic and social policies.