Key facts

Type	Online and Distance Learning
Location	Online
Dates	Wed 12 Sep to Fri 23 Nov 2012
Subject area(s)	Economics
CATS points	10
Fees	From £210.00
Application status	Applications being accepted
Course code	O12P439SOV
Course contact	If you have any questions about this course, please email onlinecourses@conted.ox.ac.uk.

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Overview

Students on this course will develop their understanding of the technical aspects of Microeconomics such as opportunity cost, supply and demand, consumer and firm optimisation, market power and market failure.

Description

Microeconomics: an introduction will equip students with the technical skills with which they will be able to understand how consumers and firms make everyday consumption and production decisions. In this case the course will ensure that students are able to relate fundamental microeconomic theory with daily economic activity. The course will also allow students to develop critical thinking skills by considering the case of market failure which occurs in sharp contrast to traditional microeconomic theory. In this case students will learn that despite the notion that supply and demand are determined by the market, there are cases of missing markets where government intervention is required to substitute for the price mechanism. Students will also be able to use the knowledge gained on this course to everyday circumstances. Furthermore, this course will give students a solid foundation which they can use to progress to higher level studies in Microeconomics as well as being able to apply knowledge gained on the course to other online courses such as Globalisation, the New Economic Powers and Introduction to Macroeconomics.

Programme details

The areas you will cover in this course are:

• Market Institutions
• Supply & Demand
• Working with Supply & Demand
• Production Costs
• Production decisions
• Perfect Competition
• Market and Market Power
• Markets for Labour
• Market Failure and the Role of the Government
• Monopolies and Mergers Policy, Competition Policy and Regulation

We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral, and very rewarding, part of the course and the online learning experience.

Staff

Certification

This course is accredited and you are expected to take the course for credit. To be awarded credit you must complete written contributions satisfactorily. Successful students will receive credit, awarded by the Board of Studies of Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. The award will take the form of 10 units of transferable credit at FHEQ level 4 of the Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS). A transcript detailing the credit will be issued to successful students.

Assessment methods

In this course assessment is through one short essay of about 400 words and a longer written piece of about 1000 words.

Level and demands

FHEQ level 4, 10 weeks, approx 10 hours per week, therefore a total of about 100 study hours.

Recommended reading

To participate in this course you will need to have regular access to the Internet and you will need to buy the following book:



Goodwin, N., Nelson, J.A., and Harris, J. (2009), Microeconomics in Context M.E. Sharpe.

Fee options

Programme Fee

Home/EU Fee: £210.00

Non-EU Fee: £285.00

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