Unit Outline

BEA111

Introduction to Markets and the Economy

Semester 1, 2024

Bao Nguyen

Tasmanian School of Business & Economics (TSBE)

College of Business and Economics

CRICOS Provider Code: 00586B

Contact Details

Unit Coordinator

Bao Nguyen

Email: B.Nguyen@utas.edu.au

Other Learning and Teaching staff

Lecturer

Name Mr Sam Chung
Campus: Hong Kong
Email: sam.chung@utas.edu.au
Phone: NA
Room location and number: NA
Consultation hours: By appointment

Contents

What is the Unit About?. 3

Unit Description.. 3

Intended Learning Outcomes. 3

Requisites. 3

How will I be Assessed?. 4

For more detailed assessment information please see MyLO. 4

Assessment schedule. 4

Assessment details. 4

How your final result is determined. 7

Submission of assignments. 7

Requests for extensions. 7

Late penalties. 7

Review of results and appeals. 7

Required Resources. 8

Required reading materials. 8

What is the Unit About?

Unit Description

BEA111 introduces the key concepts in economics. It demonstrates how these concepts can be used to describe and explain the decisions of businesses and individuals and their reactions to world events, social and economic change and government policy.

The unit explains why and when markets work and fail. Many of the problems that nations face such as pollution, unemployment, climate change, deflation, inflation, poverty, education and health are market failures. The unit devotes considerable time towards explaining how to develop basic microeconomic policies for market failures and how to evaluate their welfare consequences for different members of society.

Intended Learning Outcomes

As per the Assessment and Results Policy 1.3, your results will reflect your achievement against specified learning outcomes.

On completion of this unit, you will be able to:

1.	Define and interpret key microeconomic concepts.
2.	Apply basic microeconomic concepts to describe the impact of global events, social change, and government policy on markets and the macroeconomy.
3.	Describe how and why markets work and how and why they fail.
4.	Develop and critically evaluate basic microeconomic policy solutions to market failures and identify their welfare implications.

Requisites

REQUISITE TYPE	REQUISITES
Anti-requisite (mutual excl)	BEA110, XPD102, BAA110

How will I be Assessed?

For more detailed assessment information please see MyLO.

Assessment schedule

ASSESSMENT TASK #	ASSESSMENT TASK NAME	DATE DUE	WEIGHT	LINKS TO INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Assessment Task 1:	Assignment 1	Week 8	40 %	LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Assessment Task 2:	Assignment 2 -	Week 12	40 %	LO1, LO2, LO4
Assessment Task 3:	Online Quizzes	Refer to Assessment Description	20 %	LO1, LO2, LO3

Assessment details

Assessment Task 1: Assignment 1

Task Description:

This individual assignment is designed to develop your ability to apply microeconomic concepts analysis to a range of current policy issues. It will also develop your ability to present microeconomic arguments and analysis clearly. More details of this assignment are provided in the assessment section of MyLO. You must submit your assignment as a single PDF file through the Assignment submission link in MyLO.

Task Length:

Approximately 12 pages plus diagrams and calculations

Due Date:

Week 8 (Friday 5pm Hong Kong time)

Weight:

40 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)

1	Apply basic microeconomic concepts, data and analysis to describe and explain markets, trade and the interaction of market participants.	LO1
2	Apply basic microeconomic concepts and analysis to describe the impact of global events, social change, government policy and changing economic conditions on markets.	LO2
3	Identify and describe different types of market failures and explain why they cause markets to fail.	LO3
4	Develop and evaluate basic microeconomic policy solutions to market failures.	LO4
5	Quantify the welfare implications of market failures and their solutions for consumers, firms and governments.	LO4

Assessment Task 2: Assignment 2

Task Description:

This individual assignment is designed to further develop your ability to apply microeconomic concepts and analysis to the current state of the economy and the issues it faces. It will also develop your ability to present economic arguments and analysis clearly. More details of this assignment are provided in the assessment section of MyLO. You must submit your assignment as a single PDF file through the Assignment submission link in MyLO.

Task Length:

Approximately 12 pages plus diagrams and calculations.

Due Date:

Week 12 (Friday 5pm Hong Kong time)

Weight:

40 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)

Assessment Task 3: Online Quizzes

Task Description:

There are four (4) multiple choice quizzes to be completed online via MyLO. Each quiz will be available from Monday of week 3, 6, 9 and 12 until Sunday 11pm (Hong Kong time) of those weeks. It is advisable to wait until you have participated in your workshop and check the solutions before undertaking each quiz.

You have two attempts for each quiz and the best out of the two attempts will be selected. You will have 30 minutes to complete each quiz on MyLO. The scores from the four quizzes in which you score the highest, will determine your total score for this assessment. . Your total score for this assessment task contributes 20% to your final mark in the unit.

Task Length:

30 minutes.

Due Date:

Refer to Assessment Description

Weight:

20 %

CRITERION #

CRITERION

MEASURES INTENDED

LEARNING OUTCOME(S)

1	Use microeconomic concepts to describe markets and the economy.	LO1
2	Use microeconomic data with appropriate economic concepts to describe markets and the economy.	LO1
3	Apply basic microeconomic concepts to describe markets, trade and the interaction of market participants.	LO2
4	Apply basic economics models and tools to analyse reactions of markets and the economy to social and economic change.	LO2
5	Identify different types of market failures and why they cause markets to fail.	LO3

How your final result is determined

To pass this unit, you need to demonstrate your attainment of each of the Intended Learning Outcomes, achieve a final unit grade of 50% or greater, and pass any hurdle tasks.

Submission of assignments

Where practicable, assignments should be submitted to an assignment submission folder in MYLO. You must submit assignments by the due date or receive a penalty (unless an extension of time has been approved by the Unit Coordinator). Students submitting any assignment in hard copy, or because of a practicum finalisation, must attach a student cover sheet and signed declaration for the submission to be accepted for marking.

Requests for extensions

If you are unable to submit an assessment task by the due date, you should apply for an extension.

A request for an extension should first be discussed with your Unit Coordinator or teaching support team where possible. A request for an extension must be submitted by the assessment due date, except where you can provide evidence it was not possible to do so. Typically, an application for an extension will be supported by documentary evidence: however, where it is not possible for you to provide evidence please contact your Unit Coordinator.

The Unit Coordinator must notify you of the outcome of an extension request within 3 working days of receiving the request.

Late penalties

Assignments submitted after the deadline will receive a late penalty of 5% of the original available mark for each calendar day (or part day) that the assignment is late. Late submissions will not be accepted more than 10 calendar days after the due date, or after assignments have been returned to other students on a scheduled date, whichever occurs first. Further information on Late Penalties can be found on the Assessments and Results Procedure.

Review of results and appeals

You are entitled to ask for a review of the marking and grading of your assessment task if there is an irregularity in the marking standards or an error in the process for determining the outcome of an assessment. Details on how to request a review of a mark for an assignment are outlined in the Review and Appeal of Academic Decisions Procedure.

Required Resources

Required reading materials

You will need a hard copy or e-text of either:

Robert H. Frank, Ben Bernanke, Kate Antonovics, Ori Heffetz, 2021, Principles of Microeconomics, 8th edition, McGraw Hill, North Ryde, NSW. SBN: 1264364768 · ISBN: 9781264364763 (previous edition or eBook accepted).

Other required resources

• Australian Bureau of Statistics: www.abs.gov.au
• Reserve Bank of Australia: www.rba.gov.au
• Gapminder: www.gapminder.org
• Core Econ: www.core-econ.org
• OECD Statistics: www.stats.oecd.org
• The World Bank: www.worldbank.org
• The IMF: www.imf.org

Unit schedule

Week	Date beginning	Topic/ Module/ Focus Area	Activities	Resources/ Readings/ Further Information
1	26 February	Introduction/Overview Thinking as an economist
2	4 March	Comparative advantage
3	11 March	Supply and demand	Quiz 1 due
4	18 March	Elasticity
5a	25 March	Demand
Mid-semester break: 28 March to 3 April
5b	4 April	Demand
6	8 April	Perfectly competitive supply	Quiz 2 due
7	15 April	Efficiency, exchange, and the invisible hand in action
8	22 April	Monopoly, oligopoly, and monopolistic competition	Assignment 1 due
9	29 April	Games and strategic behaviour	Quiz 3 due
10	6 May	Externalities, property rights, and the environment
11	13 May	Public goods and tax policy
12	20 May	International trade and trade policy	Quiz 4 due Assignment 2 due
13	27 May	Review
Study Period: 3-7 June 2024
Exam Period: 8-25 June 2024

AACSB Accreditation

The Tasmanian School of Business and Economics (TSBE) gained initial Business Accreditation from the AACSB International (AACSB) in July 2021 – the lead program for accrediting business schools globally. AACSB seeks to connect educators, students, and business to achieve a common goal – to create the next generation of business leaders.

AACSB is the most reputable standard in business education and TSBE is now one of an elite group of the world’s business schools. By being an AACSB accredited School, TSBE has joined a global alliance committed to improve the quality of business education around the world, and to share the latest innovations in business education.

Gaining Business Accreditation with AACSB means that we have satisfied a multi-year process involving TSBE demonstrating our performance against the 15 accreditation standards.

TSBE has joined a select community of accredited business schools, with only five percent of all business schools globally accredited with AACSB. This will further enhance the reputation of TSBE, as well as the global recognition of your qualifications. To find out more about AACSB click here.

Sustainability

The College of Business and Economics is now a PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education) signatory. We are committed to the six PRME values of Purpose, Values, Method, Research, Partnership and Dialogue and you will see in various units how we embed sustainability values in our teaching and research and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Across all sustainable development goals, our university is ranked at 25 overall globally, and for Sustainable Development Goal 13 – Climate Action – UTAS is the number one university. For more information about PRME, click here.