2017/18 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

LUBS1290 Economic Controversies

10 creditsClass Size: 298

Module manager: Dr Stefan Kesting
Email: s.kesting@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2017/18

This module is approved as a discovery module

Module summary

This module will address some of the most pressing economic issues discussed in the public realm. The lectures will draw on current economic research to tackle concrete economic problems and policies. Delivered by experts in the field, the lectures will provide you with the intellectual tools to confront and understand economic controversies and will offer a basis for applying economic reasoning to a wide range of cases.

Objectives

This module aims to provide students with an introduction to the state of the art research of economics lecturers and professors. Making economics relevant for students and their ability to apply ethics and economics theory to an economic policy or management decision problems. The module aims to explain supply and demand shocks, income and wealth distribution, the working of markets and patterns of growth. It also introduces how economics informs and prescribes policies.

Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this module students will be able to:
- Recognise the practical relevance of economics in explaining real world phenomena
- Identify how economic theory and empirical research informs and prescribes economic policy
- Engage with state of the art inquiries and current theoretical and empirical problems in economics

Skills outcomes
Upon completion of this module students will be able to:
Transferable
- Apply critical thinking to reviewing evidence, interpreting results and problem solving
- Apply basic concepts of ethical awareness

Syllabus

Indicative content
Topics covered change each academic year, possibly from semester to semester. Key concepts might include unemployment, project appraisal, wage inequality, financialisation and speculative bubbles and behavioural economic patterns will be covered. A potential list of lectures could be:
1. Introduction to the module
2. Gender Wage Differentials - Theory and Empirical Evidence
3. HS2 - A Critical Project Appraisal
4. Behavioural Economics - Nudging and Ethical Implications
5. Unemployment policies - NAIRU versus Hysteresis
6. The Housing Market and its Finance in the US and the UK

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Seminars	5	1.00	5.00
Lecture	12	1.00	12.00
Private study hours			83.00
Total Contact hours			17.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			100.00

Private study

Exercises and class debates will allow students to try out a particular point of view and theoretically underpinned arguments in preparation for answering exam questions assessing their understanding of the lecture material.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

The class debates and exercises allows groups of 6 students to try out a particular point of view and theoretically underpinned arguments while and before they develop them further and apply them in their written assessments.

Methods of assessment

Exams

Exam type	Exam duration	% of formal assessment
Standard exam (closed essays, MCQs etc)	2 hr	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Exams)		100.00

Resit will be 100% by exam.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 06/12/2017

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