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    AN ECONOMICS PRIMER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
    AN ECONOMICS PRIMER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
    AN ECONOMICS PRIMER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
    Ebook71 pages49 minutes

    AN ECONOMICS PRIMER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

    By Douglas McCulloch PhD.

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    The aim is to introduce the essentials of economics, beginning, in Reading 1, with the ideas of resources, scarcity, and choice, both individual and social. The operation of markets is discussed in Reading 2, including the description of the perfect market, leading to a definition of economic efficiency, which informs many policy and investment decisions across the world. Reading 3 explains the operation of Demand and Supply analysis, and the sources of market failure are presented in Reading 4. The need for objectivity is emphasized; economics is the art of making judgements using evidence and logic. The origins and the resolution of the climate change crisis are examined in Reading 5, where re-orientating academic research is considered as the essential problem we have to solve. The Appendix provides answers to the questions provided in the Readings, and provides a Bibliography in support of Reading 5.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse UK
    Release dateJul 17, 2024
    ISBN9798823088640
    AN ECONOMICS PRIMER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
    Author

    Douglas McCulloch PhD.

    Douglas was born in Scotland, educated at Edinburgh University, and lectured on the Jordanstown campus of the University of Ulster (UU) from 1975 to 2012. After his retirement, he became an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool, working on the development of teaching materials for international students. He has published in the fields of computerassisted learning and health economics; his text, “Valuing Health in Practice” (Routledge (2002)) is based on his PhD, and on his experience developing the Irish Centre for Pharmacoeoconomics in Dublin. He is also an Honorary Member of ASET, the UK universities professional placement association. His interest in teaching international students was stimulated by his involvement (2010 – 2012) with the UU Business School programmes at UU’s Birmingham and London Campuses, and by his Senior Teaching Fellowship at Heriot-Watt University (2013-2014), when he taught MBA students in Dubai, Edinburgh, and Kuala Lumpur. In September 2014 he worked with students from the South China Agricultural University to support their entry to the final year of the UU BSc Business Economics degree.

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      Book preview

      AN ECONOMICS PRIMER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS - Douglas McCulloch PhD.

      © 2024 Douglas McCulloch, PhD. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      Published by AuthorHouse  07/17/2024

      ISBN: 979-8-8230-8863-3 (sc)

      ISBN: 979-8-8230-8876-3 (hc)

      ISBN: 979-8-8230-8864-0 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2024914507

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      CONTENTS

      Introduction

      Chapter 1Fundamentals: Scarcity, Choice, and Opportunity Cost

      Chapter 2Markets - Demand, Supply, and Economic Efficiency.

      Chapter 3A Graphical Explanation of Economic Efficiency

      Chapter 4Market Failure

      Chapter 5Market Forces and Climate Change

      APPENDIX: Answers

      Bibliography

      INTRODUCTION

      Applying logic to choices is unfamiliar, and sometimes unsettling, to many. In Reading 1, we develop the meanings of choice, widening the scope to choices of different kinds, and identifying features of the cultural context which seem to be important. Then we explain, in Reading 2, the role markets play in the making of societies’ choices, as the basis for a full explanation of economic efficiency. This is the heart of market economics, and is the justification for competition, particularly for the government policies that rely on market forces. It is also an important part of the definition of the European Union. Reading 3 uses Demand and Supply diagrams to explain how markets (in theory) respond to different changes, carefully referring to the assumptions required to make the outcomes happen. In Reading 4, we discuss the objective reasons why free markets can fail to be efficient, and demonstrate the need for care about the valuation of market forces in society as a whole.

      However unlikely and inappropriate market economics may seem, its analysis has become the only acceptable systematic basis for making policy choices. It is endorsed by the World Bank, the EU, and most universities, and it is frequently the basis for investment decisions by governments and financial institutions.

      In policy discussions, democrats need to be aware of value judgements made by professionals; they can be difficult to challenge, or even to recognise. These include the ideas that competition between firms always benefits consumers, that market forces should always be the first choice for achieving policy results, or that business is some kind of level playing field, in which legal remedies are adequate for the protection of consumers and workers against businesses’ malpractices. In policy discussions, the interests of all the participants, including the academics writing about the topic, are inevitably relevant to their conclusions.

      All of these aspects are important, but we have to identify several aspects of market failure which in principle can and do prevent the achievement of economic efficiency by the anonymous interplay of market forces. The principles of market failure alert us to policy gaps which no-one but our government will eliminate.

      Finally, these remarks apply with even more force to the discussion of climate change; the imminent threats to our survival will be resolved, if at all, by political initiatives and (probably) popular choices, involving economics at every stage. In Reading 5, we will try to identify points of relevance between the essential economic ideas we have studied here, and the controversies over climate change.

      READING 1

      FUNDAMENTALS: SCARCITY, CHOICE, AND OPPORTUNITY COST

      The act of choosing is familiar; our personal lives present competing alternatives of every kind, whatever our circumstances. Sometimes the choices we have to make are desperate, and sometimes they are (relatively) trivial. This reflects society as a whole, and if you think of different working lives, from farming to car manufacturing, you can identify all sorts of ways in which choices present themselves. Less obviously, if you have not studied economics before, society as a whole faces choices, because the resources of every nation are limited. The question "Are

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