Aims

This course is an introduction to the economical science. It sets out the basic principles and mechanisms of economic life. It starts from a micro-economical point of view to end at a macro-economical point of view. It should enable the students to acquire a reasoning method and it offers tools of analysis useful to a futur autonomous thinking.

Main themes

The course is about general economics. It should include, aside a theoretical part of micro-economics, a presentation of the macro-economical analysis as well as international exchanges.
Among the more specific aspects that have to be included, one can find the analysis of the choices of the producers and the consumers, the functioning of the markets and the making of prices, the situations of perfect and imperfect concurrence, the role of the State, the currency, the making of the national product and its evolution…

Content and teaching methods

The course starts with a short presentation of the economics as a science and its place as an element of organisation in life and society (ch.1) It is then subdevided into five parts, analysing the economic life in an increasing order of complexity.
The first part analyses the individual behaviors (the choices of the producers and the consumers; ch.2 and 3) The next step is allocated to the markets. One may observe how these ensure the consistancy of countless individual decisions through the making of prices and how they determine at the same time the formation of the incomes (through the payment of the factors Work, Capital…; ch.4 to 6) The third part concerns the quality of the general situation of the economy which results from the above (general equilibrium, efficiency, equity) and the intervention of the State (ch.7 and 8) In the fourth part, the notion of currency is introduced and the analysis is broadened to the macro-economical problems (ch.9 to 11) The last part of the course notes the limits of the national frame and approaches the problems of the international exchanges (ch.12)
All along the course, the economical reasoning leans primarily on graphic and schematic representations. It is also illustrated by exemples and observation from real life.

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